The man of peace

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. Micah 5.2-5

The special passage of Micah ‘just happened’ to come up in my reading as we leave the Christmas season. It is an interesting passage, usually noted because of the prophecy of Bethlehem as Messiah’s birthplace. That’s an important evidence of the reliability of Scripture.

What really sticks out to me though is later in the passage where we read about Messiah and among things we read, ‘this man shall be the peace.’

This particular passage is messianic and it is also prophetic. The prophecy of world peace has not yet been fulfilled. That is a future event to be fulfilled at the coming of Christ.

But personal and inner peace is available for us today. Jesus said as much when He said ‘my peace I leave with you.’ He is that ‘man of peace’ not only for the world at large, but for you and me. It is that peace with God that comes at salvation and the peace of God that passes all understand that sustains us in our various troublesome days.

Emmanuel – God with us, and our Man of Peace.