Will War Ever End?

It was on this date in 1970 that four students at Kent State University were shot dead by soldiers brought in to quell student violence. Some reports were that the students provoked the men while others say that the provocation was deliberate. Whatever the cause, war will always be with us in this age.

Jesus certainly had no illusions of human-managed peace. As he said in Matthew 24:6 (BBE), "And news will come to you of wars and talk of wars: do not be troubled, for these things have to be; but it is still not the end."

War has been around for a long time. As we read in Revelation 12:7 and 8 (BBE), even angels and demons fought one another. "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels going out to the fight with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels made war, And they were overcome, and there was no more place for them in heaven."

And though war is murder on a vast scale, there were times when God used humanity's propensity toward violence for his own ends. Exodus 33:1 and 2 (BBE) show the purpose for Israel's conquest of Canaan. "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Go forward from this place, you and the people whom you have taken up out of the land of Egypt, to that land about which I made an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, "To your seed will I give it." And I will send an angel before you, driving out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite:'"

Other nations were also punished by warring with Israel as they likewise were by other nations. Joel 3:10 (BBE) reads, "Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong."

A time will come when Christ will reign and war will be gone forever. Isaiah 2:4 (BBE) promises, "And he will be the judge between the nations, and the peoples will be ruled by his decisions: and their swords will be turned into plough-blades, and their spears into vine-knives: no longer will the nations be turning their swords against one another, and the knowledge of war will be gone for ever."

On Thursday, provided Christ doesn't return before then, I hope to post about what true joy is.