#3. “Peace, and at such a time.”
In the world---tribulation; in Me---peace.


In the Book of Ezra there are several letters by various people, and it is in these letters that we meet the somewhat curious expression that we have used in the title of the present article—“at such a time”.

“And at such a time” (Ezra iv. 10, 11).
“Peace and at such a time” (Ezra iv. 17).
“Unto Ezra . . . . . perfect peace, and at such a time” (Ezra vii. 12).

The Chaldee participle which is translated “at such a time” is possibly used much in the same way as a business letter refers to the date when it is written. It is almost impossible to say what was the origin of the expression. The translators of the LXX version ignore it, while the R.V. renders it in each case: “and so forth.” We are, however, very remotely concerned with the expression itself, and have simply adopted it because of its suggestiveness in English. “Peace, and at such a time”!

We may be pardoned, we trust, for taking this phrase out of its context in order to provide the believer with words that express so fully the wonder of the gift of peace. We have peace now—“at such a time”—with enmity, strife and perplexity all around, and a presage of possible disaster in the hearts of the stoutest. We shall have peace then—“at such a time”—when the day of judgment opens, and sinners shall be judged by Him Who sits on the throne. We shall have peace then—“at such a time”—when He shall make all things new. Peace in the glory, peace in view of judgment, peace in the midst of strife—“Peace, and at such a time”. Let us look at these blessed facts a little more closely.

PEACE. AND AT SUCH A TIME—NOW, IN THIS WORLD.

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John xiv. 27).
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John xvi. 33).

The whole context of these words of cheer is one of fear and trouble on the one hand, and comfort and peace on the other. Nothing can make up for a full reading of the chapters concerned, but the following abbreviated structure of John xiv. may be suggestive:

John xiv. 1 - 31.
A | 1. LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED.—Ye believe.
   B | 2-7. | I would have told you.
                I go. I come again.
      C | 8-14. The manifestation of the Father.
         D | 15-20. | The other Comforter. Truth.
                          The world cannot receive.
      C | 21-24. The manifestation of the Lord.
         D | 25-27. | The other Comforter. Peace.
                          Not as the world giveth.
A | 27-28. LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED.—Ye heard.
   B | 28-31. | I go. I come again.
                    Now I have told you.

It is evident that the Lord is here ministering comfort to His own, who are to be left behind in the world. He tells them that if He goes away He will come again, and that during His absence the Holy Spirit will act as another Comforter. It is with this promise that His gift and legacy of peace is closely associated.

The source of the disciples’ anxiety is most evidently the opposition of the world, which looms largely in these chapters. After referring to the world in a negative way in John xiv. 17, 19, 22 and 27, the record continues in verse 30: “The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me.” After a blessed interlude, referring once more to the believer’s intimate nearness to the Lord, chapter xv. takes up the subject of the “world” again, and this time speaks of its hatred:

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you . . . . . I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you . . . . . he that hateth Me, hateth My Father also . . . . . They hated Me without a cause” (John xv. 18, 19, 23, 25).

Summing up the opposition of the world on the one hand, and the comfort and strength ready for the believer’s every time of need, on the other, the Saviour says, in verse 33:

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John xvi. 33).

“In the world” and “in Me”—these two phrases represent the two spheres of the present life.

The victory is already ours, and the peace that follows victory is also ours. The prince of this world has been judged, and we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Truly we, and all of like precious faith, can say, “Peace—and at such a time!”

Let us now go back again to xiv. 27 and observe the threefold description of this peace that comforts and conquers.

(1) Peace I leave with you:
(2) My peace I give unto you:
(3) Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

It was customary in New Testament times at meeting or at parting, to wish one’s friends “peace”, and we find that the Apostles often included it in the salutations and concluding words of their epistles. There are only three epistles, out of the twenty-one in the New Testament, where this form of salutation does not occur at the beginning. Our Lord also uses the same greeting, but with deeper and fuller significance. He follows the greeting of “peace” which He “leaves” with them as His legacy, by giving it another and greater commendation—He calls it “My peace”. In this section of the gospel the Lord speaks of other things that were His. In John xiv. 11 and xvi. 13 we read of “My joy”; in xv. 9 “My love”; in xvii. 24 “My glory”; and in xiv. 15 “My commandments”. It was the special work of the Comforter to “receive of Mine, and to show it unto you” (John xvi. 14). Who can hope to fathom the depths of peace enjoyed by the Son of God, even while suffering and persecution were His daily lot? A glimpse, perhaps, is given in Matt. xi., when His rejection begins to become manifest, and He looks up to the Father and says: “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matt. xi. 26).

Just as the Lord was at perfect peace, though hated by the world around Him, so the believer, being in the will of God (“My commandments”), may know the steady assurance of the Divine approval (“My peace”), and exult in the consciousness of this living union (“My joy”), and all this in spite of external conditions, which, if unmatched by grace, would inspire fear and overwhelm with tribulation and hatred.

In our first article we looked at some of the contrastive words that are used with peace. One of these was the word “offend”:

“Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them” (Psa. cxix. 165).

This blessedness, the blessedness of an unoffended spirit, is found in the peace that the Lord gives, for in John xvi. we read:

“These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John xvi. 1, 2).

If the world hate and persecute, the believer who is taught of God “marvels not” (I John iii. 13), but it does tend to shake one’s confidence and disturb one’s peace, when fellow-believers follow the same methods, and apparently feel that they “do God service” thereby. It is a strength to realize that the Saviour Himself walked that path, and that when He said, “My peace I give unto you”, it was a peace which He Himself enjoyed when surrounded by a hostile world. While He was with the disciples He could shield them Himself; now that He is at the right hand of God, he helps them through the ministry of the “other Comforter”.

Then further, the Lord says: “Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” We live in a day when we hear on every hand the words “peace, peace” when there is no peace. However earnest the men of the world may be, however much the nations may reach agreement, true peace is beyond their grasp, and is not in their power to give. The world cannot make a settlement for its sin, and apart from that, peace is impossible. But what the world could not and cannot do, the Lord Himself has accomplished, and it is for this reason that He can give in a way that is “not as the world giveth”.

“Jesus stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side” (John xx. 19, 20).

It will perhaps be wise for us to pause here for the time being. These few articles do not by any means exhaust even the references to peace in the New Testament, quite apart from dealing with the many aspects that peace presents. We may perhaps return to the subject later, but rather than hold back what might be “a word in season” we pass on the message contained in these three articles to our readers, hoping that the comfort and strength which this peace can supply may be theirs abundantly.

----------------------------------

(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 31, page 104).

------------------------------------