Matthew 5:9 (NIV): Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
The peacemakers are those who are known to be God’s son’s in the Jewish sense of the word – meaning those who are like Him; who are godly. That is because God is the maker of peace between Himself and sinful humanity.
It would be logical, rational, and reasonable for God to simply distance Himself from those who choose to rebel against Him, if not to simply reach out His hand and destroy them. That is, after all, the way that sin-twisted humanity deals with their enemies, physical, emotional, or political: isolate them, and then go about destroying them until they are either gone, or until they submit and agree to your conditions. But God, even though He could wipe out sinful, broken humanity with a thought (and had to once, because of their total intractability), takes a much different approach.
After mankind hardened their hearts and turned away from God, He was still able to find at least one person in each generation who still had a soft, moldable heart. So He worked in that person, let him know Him, and used him to pass on that knowledge to those around him. When He was left with only a single person who walked with Him, He used Noah to start the human race all over again. And, even though mankind turned against him again soon after the floodwaters had receded, Noah and his son Shem still knew Him, and kept the flame of the knowledge of God burning so that God could continue His plan of peacemaking between sinful humanity and Himself.
Then God chose Abram, and through him raised up a whole nation to walk with Him and to learn His laws. It was through the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He built the nation of Israel to be a light to all other nations – to draw them all into a powerful, life-changing relationship with Him. The road was never easy, but through victory and defeat, by blessing and punishment, even through the fiery furnace of exile, God prepared a people, among whom were a subset, a remnant, who were ready to receive Him when He visited them.
And He did visit, in the person of Jesus. And it was through Him, His life, His death, and His resurrection, that God was able to extend the branch of peace with Himself to all humankind. Through Jesus’ atonement, His payment of the penalty for the sins of all humankind, all people on earth could finally be totally cleansed from every sin that had placed a chasm between them and our holy God, and could experience real peace with God for the rest of their lives and on into eternity.
So God is the peacemaker – the One who gave Himself to make peace between Himself and people. And those who give their own lives to continue His work of peacemaking today, telling others about His love for them, about the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus, and bringing them into His kingdom through repentance, THEY are the peacemakers today. THEY are the ones who are so like God in this that the family resemblance will be unmistakable. They will be knows as sons of God.
Father, thank You for this reminder of all that You have done to make it possible for us to be Your people. Thank You that for all those thousands of years, You NEVER gave up on the big picture of salvation. Thank You that that plan reached all the way to me. Now help me, Lord, to continue Your peacemaking work even today. Help me to take the good news of how You have granted us peace with You, and spread it to everyone. Help me to bear the unmistakable likeness to You in making peace that ALL will be able to see that I am Your child. Amen.