The 100th anniversary of World War I offers us opportunity to consider the time when the lights will come on permanently for all nations.
Transcript
[Darris McNeely] This week marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the start of the Great War, also known as World War I. There's a quote that comes from the beginning of that war from the foreign minister of Great Britain, Sir Edward Grey, that goes like this – he said, as the flames of war were being ignited, he said, "The lights are going out all over Europe, and they will not be lit again in our lifetime." It was a gloomy and a pessimistic, but yet, a true statement – because indeed the lights did go out all over Europe, and over 17 million men and women died – both civilians and soldiers – in that great conflict. And the effect of that war has reshaped that world and continues to impact our time today.
There are many lessons to learn, this one hundred years on from the beginning of World War I, but as I was thinking about this quote from Sir Edward Grey – "the lights have gone out" – reminded me of a verse in Isaiah 9:1-2, that is a prophecy, really, that was applied to Jesus Christ. But it was talking about what He brought the world, and what would come to all nations, not only in His first coming, but as we look now for His second coming. And the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth in a far greater way does this verse hold some meaning for us as we think about this particular quote.
It says, in talking about the coming of Jesus Christ – it says, "By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the gentiles, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined." Christ came out of Galilee, and what He taught indeed was a light. And He even said to His followers, His disciples, that you are the light of the world. And that that light cannot be hid.
And so as we think about the one-hundredth anniversary of World War I, and learn some deep lessons, the bigger lessons are the spiritual lessons. And this particular quote, that the lights are going out all over Europe, I think holds great meaning for those of us who look for the coming of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God on this earth, understanding that that will then bring about an end to all conflict and all war, and the beginning of peace, and really, the beginning of a light that will come to all the world, that will never again be turned off. May that kingdom come.
