Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
As the U.S. prepares to observe another Memorial Day, we pray that the Lord may "make wars cease to the end of the earth [and] break the bow and cut the spear in two, and burn the chariots in the fire" (see Psalm 46:9). Millions sacrificed their lives in World War I to fight "the war to end all wars," and World War II sent many more millions into undeserved death. Those whose lives spanned much of the 20th century lived through the most bloody years the earth has ever known in its 6000 years of history.
The very name of Jesus, the Son of God, is "the Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). The angels announced at His birth that Jesus would bring "on earth peace, [and] good will toward men" (see Luke 2:14). But the Prince of Peace was "despised and rejected of men," and expelled from the world He came to save.
According to the Bible, the only way that the Prince of Peace could bring peace to the earth without being "frustrated" and stymied would be for His people to cooperate with Him in His work. In other words, it's useless for us to pray, "Prince of Peace, please bring peace to this hate-filled, war-torn world," unless we serve as His agents in enabling Him to do so. "As [My] Father has sent Me, I also send you," He declares (John 20:21). He is the Vine, we are the branches that must be intimately bound with Him for His purposes to be worked out in the earth.
He spells out the formula in Revelation 7:1-4. There He promises that He will undertake to "hold the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow," provided His people on earth proclaim "the seal of the living God." He commands those terrible four winds that began to break loose in World Wars I and II, then in the Vietnam War, the Iraq and other wars, "Do not harm the earth ... till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads."
It's an illusion for God's people to assume that horrible wars contribute to the progress of God's work by bringing conviction to hearts and taking away our "idols." It's not His plan to forcibly remove our "idols"! War terrorizes people so they can't even contemplate the Gospel. No, war has no redeeming evangelistic value. Now let us learn what is His "sealing message" and commit ourselves to proclaim it. It's the long overdue message that is yet to "lighten the earth with glory" (Rev. 18:1-4). Lord, please awaken us!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 31, 2004.
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