In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from negotiations with Adolf Hitler and announced to the British people that he had secured “Peace in Our Time.” Chamberlain and others had agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia populated by many Germans. Everyone seemed to think if they gave Hitler that one little thing, the angry little man would go away quietly.
But Hitler did not go away and Chamberlain’s triumphant phrase became famous for its irony: there was no peace. Hitler immediately invaded Czechoslovakia, then coordinated the nationwide anti-Jewish pogrom now known as Kristallnacht (“Crystal Night,” i.e., the “Night of the Broken Glass”), in which Nazis destroyed 7,500 Jewish shops and 400 synagogues and arrested—for the first time—some 30,000 Jewish men. Then Germany invaded and occupied Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. Instead of peace, England suddenly found itself in the worst war the world has ever seen. Within months, Chamberlain was forced to resign, his efforts to appease the enemy gone up in flames. “Peace in Our Time,” became an ironic complaint among the British people as they endured nightly bombing raids and spent their days picking up the pieces: “Oh, well. At least we have ‘peace in our time.’ Ha ha ha.”
Conservative Americans tend to believe the secret to peace is a strong military. Liberal Americans tend to prefer diplomacy, believing the secret to peace is to stop the aggressive “saber rattling” and sit down at the negotiation table. Both are right. And both are wrong. We must use common sense and work hard to avoid war. But lasting peace comes from God.
“He makes wars cease throughout the earth. He shatters bows and cuts spears to pieces. He burns up chariots. ‘Stop your fighting and know that I AM GOD. I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted on the earth’” Psalm 46:9-10.
Pray for the peace of Israel. Pray for the Ukraine. Pray about the wars in Myanmar, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and the warring drug cartels in Mexico. But as you pray, remember who ends wars and brings peace: “HE MAKES WARS TO CEASE THROUGHOUT THE EARTH.”
God is the source for “PEACE IN OUR TIME.”
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