The Judge Who Brings Peace
He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore…
No one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken.
- Micah 4:3-4
As a parent, I struggle at times being the arbiter of truth with my kids. Just the other night, when the two older ones were struggling to fall asleep (they share a room), my oldest told me, “I can’t sleep, because Sierra keeps talking to me.”
To which Sierra replied indignantly, “No, Renae keeps talking to me!”
I probably don’t have to tell you, but Renae was aghast: “No! That’s not true!”
I often can’t discern the real truth, and settling the dispute is no easy chore. Many of the disputes our world faces might boil down to an inability to discern the truth. But there are certainly disputes in which someone is right and someone is wrong, and we need a good judge with the authority to set the record straight.
This passage from Micah anticipates such a judge. Micah anticipates a time when peace will reign, because the judge settles all disputes among people. It’s a nearly unbelievable image. Verse 4 goes on to say, “Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken.”
Micah foresaw a world in which disputes are settled and people are at peace with one another, content under their own tree, because no one will make them afraid. How much of the pain and conflict that we endure in our lives can be traced back to fear? Fear that we don’t have enough, so we fight and scrap for everything we can get. Fear that we will be shamed, so we lash out to direct attention at someone else’s faults. Fear that we might not get our way, so we fight for control.
We are well aware of the dangers of fear. We have all heard how fear is used as a tool to control people. We might even consider ourselves experts at seeing when someone else is living out of fear. But how competent are we at exposing our own fears? When am I living out of fear? Have we answered that question?
We may find that a difficult answer to discern on our own. But in Advent, we await a Judge who can discern the truth—who can even discern the hearts of all people. He is a judge who can expose our deep fears, but also put those fears to rest. How? By his word—“for the Lord Almighty has spoken.” It is God’s word that cuts to the heart while also mending the soul. He reveals all our deep fears and provides the answer in himself. Thanks be to God, that Word became flesh to settle the dispute between humanity and God. He came as the good, loving Judge who established perfect peace between God and his people.
~ Pastor Tim