Setting Aside the Weapons of War

SETTING ASIDE THE WEAPONS OF WAR

Why, we might ask the prophet Zechariah today, would God want to banish chariots and horses? The answer follows: because they are used to violate God’s reign of peace, along with the warrior’s bow. In the days of Zechariah, chariots and horses were high-priced items used only for war-making. They were the aircraft carriers and nuclear missiles of his day. And for his culture, which thought of any king as being a military leader first and foremost, a king riding on a lowly beast of burden to proclaim peace without horses, chariots, and bows would have set his listeners topsy-turvy.

This lowly, beast-riding king of peace, we believe, was fulfilled in Jesus, gentle and humble of heart. In a world torn by military strife often generated by differing religious views, and even in our own lives and homes where we are often at “war” over the tiniest things, we would do well to stop and consider to what degree we are willing to be like that “king” whose way of gentleness and humility is the way for us to find rest for our weary souls.

Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.