Why there is no peace on this earth?

Why there is no peace on this earth?
There was peace in the world that God created. At the end of the creation, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” - Genesis 1:31. But, we see war and terror attacks all around. Selfishness is rampant and cruelty to the innocent becomes the game of the day. It is said that the World War III has began on the fateful day of 9 / 11. How this world has become a place of restlessness?

The first man Adam and his wife Eve lost their peace when they deliberately disobeyed the Creator God. Eve gave place to her feelings and reasoning and chose to follow the suggestion of the devil than the command of God – Gen. 3:6. They hid themselves from God and began to be afraid. They began to blame each other for their wrong doing – Gen. 3: 8-10, 12, 13. As a result of this disobedience, natural child birth became painful, family relationship got affected, nature was cursed and man was forced to hard labour – Gen. 3:16-19. Man lost the privilege of eating from the tree of life and was driven away from the Garden of Eden for which he was created – Gen. 3:22-24. Man lost his peace and it affected the whole world.

Lessons from the Fall of Man:
1. Listening to the luring of the devil and your feelings and reasoning than obeying God - How much importance we give to the teachings of God rather than listening to our own reasoning and feelings?
2. Disobedience to God’s laws deliberately - Do we justify our shortcomings as “Oh, it just happened like that”? Do we realize that “there is no moral accident”?
3. Taking your own ways of covering up your wrong doings – Covering by leaves, hiding themselves – How much effort we take to put a show before others? Is there distance between the Appearance and the Actual?
4. Instead of accepting the fault, blaming others or situations – Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent – How much we accuse others in the class / office / home / neighbourhood / in traffic?
5. Natural happenings like childbirth become painful. It is we who create our own sorrow most of the times.
6. Loving relationship changes to dominating one another – Who is the head? Who is the deciding authority at home? Whose purse is thick? What is love and what is blackmail?
7. Natural work becomes a burden – How much we enjoy our office work and assignments? Do we accept our position or want to jump out?
8. Hope of eternal living diminished – Even what we can legitimately enjoy becomes a far away dream.

All these affected the peace of the individual and the relationship with one another. This spread over to the whole world. It is the inner peace of the individual that can result in the peace of the societies. If we have peace within us, we can create a peaceful world. Without peace within man, all our efforts to have peace in the world will only result in chaos and confusion.

When man disobeyed and lost his privileges, God was working out his own way of redeeming the fallen man. God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent – Gen.3: 15. God kills an innocent animal and clothes Adam and Eve with its skin – Gen.3: 21. This is a symbol of the Lamb of God slain for the sin of the world. This is Jesus Christ coming in to the world and dying for us at the Cross of Calvary. By believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins, you get the divine peace within you. That will permeate to your family and to the society around.

When Jesus was born, the angels sang, “On earth peace to men” – Luke 2:14. He is the “Prince of Peace” – Isaiah 9:6. He promised peace to all his followers – John 16:33. When we leave all our burdens to Christ, “the peace of God, that transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” – Philippians 4:7.
pjebarajuesi@hotmail.com Centre for Discipleship Studies, Velacherry 16 09 06