God’s Word for You

Ezra 5:6-10 Peace

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, July 12, 2025

6 This is a copy of the letter which Tattenai the governor of the Trans-Euphrates and Shethar Bozenai and his associates, officials of the Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius. 7 They sent him a report, written as follows:

“To King Darius, all peace.

8 Be it known to the King that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with huge stones, and timber beams laid in the walls. This work goes on diligently and is progressing in their hands. 9 Then we questioned the grey-haired elders and said this to them: ‘Who gave you any order to build this house and to finish this structure?’ 10 We also demanded their names, in order to inform you so that we might write down the names of the men who were their leaders.”

We have been through most of the content of this letter, since it repeats what they did in fact demand and accuse from the grey-haired elders of the Jews. But there is one important item that demands our attention far more than the rest of this memo by Tattenai the tattle-tale. The greeting to King Darius has a phrase that is unique in Scripture; not only in this series of five letters in Ezra, but throughout the whole Bible, this is only place where we find the greeting or the phrase, “All Peace.”

By itself and entirely within the context of the passage, this greeting, “All Peace,” is one of the most secular and empty phrases in the entire Bible. It is an attempt at a blessing from an unbeliever, an outsider to the true Church. It holds nothing of value. It has no peace to offer; it gives no peace at all.

Peace, Hebrew shalom and Aramaic shalam, is at its root the absence or ending of hostility between two parties. Some people, particularly Muslims, identify peace as an attribute of God. The Holy Scriptures do not do this. Peace is a gift from God, a blessing from God, and a way of living the way God desires and requires of his people. In the New Testament, its status as an important blessing is shown by its inclusion among the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22).

The earliest church fathers, known as the Apostolic Fathers, were the disciples of Christ’s disciples, the “next generation.” They ministered and wrote from about 95 AD until about 165 AD. In their body of work, there are more than fifty references to peace. I have compared their use of the word alongside its use in the New Testament. These are the various uses of the word “peace.”

1, “Peace” is frequently spoken as a greeting or as a blessing: “Peace to you” (3 John 1:14). “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’” (John 20:19). 4x in the Gospels, 15x in Paul, 5x in the General Epistles and Revelation (Revelation 1:4), and 4x in the Fathers.

2, “Peace” is a blessing from God, as in the Aaronic blessing, because God is “the God of peace” (the source and giver of peace). Simeon said, “Lord, you now dismiss your servant in peace” (Luke 2:29). “May the Lord of peace himself give you peace” (2 Thessalonians 3:16). 6x in the Gospels, 11x in Paul, 4x in the General Epistles (including Hebrews 12:11 and 13:20); 5x in the Fathers. In addition, we make special mention of “peace” as one of the fruits (blessings) of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22; 2 Timothy 2:22).

3, “Peace” is earnestly desired by God’s people. This is particularly emphasized in the Fathers: “The peace and concord we have prayed for and desire” (1 Clement 65:2), and again: “How will you train the Lord’s elect if you yourselves have no training? So train each other and be at peace with each other” (Shepherd of Hermas vision 3,9,9). Perhaps 9x in the Fathers.

4, A Christian is sometimes described as “a man of peace” and of course Christ himself lived at peace among mankind during his life and ministry years. In negative terms, “Sinners do not know the way of peace” (Romans 3:17). “The Lord loved us in peace” (Barnabas 1:1). Once in Paul and 3x in the Fathers.

5, Related to this is “peace” as a practice, a way of life for all of God’s people and the way Jesus desires us to live. “Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Peter 3:14). Ignatius writes, “It has been reported to me that the church in Syrian Antioch is at peace” (Ignatius to the Philadelphians 10:1), and again, “the church that is in Syrian Antioch has peace” (Ignatius to Polycarp 7:1). 9x in the Gospels and Acts (Acts 15:33); 6x in Paul; 4x in the General Epistles; and 13x in the Fathers.

6, By far the most important gift of peace is as the supreme result of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross (his active obedience), winning for us peace through his blood (Colossians 1:20). Often this is expressed as the condition of living in faith in Christ and receiving all his benefits, merits and blessings through faith in him, as he says: “Your faith has healed you; go in peace.” It is sometimes even the equivalent of the Gospel itself. “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). This is truly “the peace of God that transcends our understanding” (Philippians 4:7), and in the finality of heaven it also stands for the end of all hostility between the world and God’s people, sometimes granted for a time to the church on earth (Acts 9:31, 16:36). It is found in the name “King of Salem” (Melchizedek’s title) as explained in Hebrews 7:2. 10x in the Gospels and Acts, 14x in Paul; the passage already cited in Hebrews 7, and 7x in the Fathers, including two instances of the peace that Satan wants to destroy: “Whenever bad temper (sent from Satan) sees a man leading a peaceful life, it entrenches itself in that man’s heart. For no reason at all that man or woman becomes bitter…” (Shepherd of Hermas Mandate, Hm 5,2,2).

7, “Peace, peacefully,” is the way that creation (nature) obeys God and submits to his will. “Moved at his direction, the heavens peacefully obey him” (1 Clement 20:1). Here the Fathers are often carried along by the language of the Psalms. 6x in the Fathers.

8, Along similar lines (but not identical), peace is shown to be a blessing between man and beast. Here the Fathers borrow language from Job. “The wild animals will be at peace with you” (1 Clement 56:12). “All the animals using these fruits produced by the soil, will be at peace and in harmony with each other, obedient to man in every way” (Fragments of Papias, Fragment 14, toward the end). Either these should be taken as imagery of the peace of heaven, or a special blessing here on earth in certain circumstances. The language of the Old Testament is used (quoting, for example, Job 5:23). Or do these thoughts support the idea that there will be animals in heaven?

9, Peace is dear to God, which is shown by the way he gives peace as a blessing and a gift. This is probably inherent in most of the uses of the word in the New Testament, but we also see it described for us in the Shepherd of Hermas, Vision Hv 9,32,2: “The Lord lives among men who love peace, for truly peace is dear to him.”

10, Peace is sometimes described in terms of the worldly peace between nations or secular governments. This is a blessing to God’s people, and something we do not usually appreciate except when it is gone from our lives. “The rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other” (Revelation 6:4). 3x in the Gospels and Acts, 1x in Paul, 1x in Revelation.

11, Peace is impossible for sinful man to find apart from Christ. Anything else is an unreal peace, an illusion, which the Shepherd of Hermas calls “the veneer of peace” (Hv 3,6,3). Jesus preaches that he did not come to bring peace (that is, a secular, worldly peace) but a sword (Matthew 10:34; Luke 12:51). 3x in the Gospels, 5x in the Fathers.

The peace of God, the peace promised by God and which comes only from God through his Son Jesus, is the condition of being at true peace with God. It is “of God” because he is the source. God creates and gives this peace.

The world never stops shouting and raging and objecting to this peace from God. “The rulers of the world gather together against the Lord and against his Christ” (Psalm 2:2). But we are not destroyed by them. The devil wants to kill us, and he will kill some of us, but he will not overcome us. So great is “the peace of God” as Paul says (Philippians 4:7), that is surpasses all understanding—ours or the world’s—and yet it guards us, our hearts and our minds, in Christ Jesus. “Thus by not turning away evils or enemies but by turning them loose, the Lord causes us to feel safe, to rejoice always, not to be overcome by any evil, even though the whole world may bare its fangs against us” (Luther, LW 20:25).

Peace is yours through Jesus. Be at peace. You are at peace. The peace of the manger points always ahead to the peace of the empty cross, the empty tomb, and the knowledge that our graves will one day be empty, too.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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