For spiritual warfare, the gospel of peace fulfills the same purposes for the soldier of Christ. The announcement that God reigns and has reconciled Himself in Jesus to believers sustains us in the long march of the Christian life. It allows us to keep going even when things are so bad that we doubt whether the Lord really is looking out for us.

Ephesians 6:15, “As shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.”

If anything should stick with us after reading the Old Testament, it is the fact that our Creator is an exceedingly patient God. Israel rebelled time after time, and time after time our Lord forgave His people and stayed His wrath before it could wipe out the nation (Num. 21:4–9; 1 Kings 21:25–29). But God’s patience with Israel ended, and He finally sent the Israelites into exile on account of flagrant, unrepentant sin (2 Kings 17:7–23; 25:1–21).

We can hardly imagine the trauma of this event. Even the faithful remnant wondered whether the Lord’s plan to save the world through Abraham’s seed had gone off course.

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