Army of Peace
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:13-14)
When an emissary of an emperor journeyed to another land with an army, it was not a sign of peace. As we noted previously, Rome’s emperor, Augustus Caesar, brought peace to the world, but it was a forced peace, a peace kept by military might and the iron fist of a dictator.
Imagine a foreign army on the borders of your land promising peace. Likely, you and the rest of your country’s citizens would have a hard time believing peace was at hand.
But that is exactly the picture Luke paints as he describes the sudden appearance of the heavenly host or armies, along with the angel who first appeared to the shepherds in the fields outside of Bethlehem.
Shouts and cheers of “Glory to God . . . peace on earth” filled the skies as God’s Army announces the birth of the anointed one, the King of Kings.
And make no mistake about it - this was a real army. “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53) These words, spoken by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, remind us that he is the Lord of the angel armies.
This image of armies announcing peace paints a picture of God’s kingdom like no other. The kingdom of our Lord is not one established through violence or conquest. Just the opposite, in fact. On Calvary’s cross, the Prince of Peace absorbed all the violence of this broken, sin-stained world so that now, in the words of Ephesians 2:14, “He himself is our peace.”
In Christ,
Dan
‘Tis the season to join God’s army of peace.
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