Prince of Peace (Dec 10)

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6
The last name in Isaiah’s list of names that we are looking at is Prince of Peace. At Christmas we celebrate that Jesus came to establish a Kingdom of peace. For now, as we live in the now and not yet of the Kingdom, in that period between Jesus’ first coming and the second coming we still long for, we live in a world that is not at peace. Through the centuries wars have waged on and on. Nations have risen up against other nations over land, over oppression, in the quest for more raw materials. Terrorist have maimed and killed in the names of their false gods, wrongly believing they will impress the Prince of Peace with their acts of violence. Those who take a stand for faith face persecution in many countries around the world, real serious life-threatening persecution, not just the banning of their adverts in the cinema. We live in a world that is on edge, a world of air missile raids, a world where passenger planes can get shot down from the sky, a world of fear and hate.
But Isaiah saw a vision of a better world that is coming. A world once the kingdom has come fully. Once our Prince of Peace has returned. A world where wolf and lamb, those two old enemies dwell together in safety. A world where goat and leopards can securely lie down together. That is the promise of Christmas – that on earth there will be a day when there is peace among those with whom God is pleased, just as the angels sang that first Christmas night. Though things are dark now we have hope that our Prince of Peace is coming to establish an everlasting Kingdom where death will be no more and there shall be no crying or mourning or pain anymore, a Kingdom where the gates will never be shut for there will be no threats or attacks – the Kingdom of our Prince of Peace. That is what we long for this Christmas season. That is what gives us hope and sustains us through the struggles of life. This Christmas put your faith in the Prince of Peace, the One who will establish that better Kingdom.