"O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still."
Jeremiah 47:6
This is an interesting one... it expresses the fear we have of disasters and destruction that we can't control. It's something we feel often, sometimes thinking "make it stop!" The next verse expresses the contrasting viewpoint: "How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge...?" We want the pain and confusion to stop, but on the other hand we also want peace and justice. In a world where we are allowed to choose good or evil and happiness or misery, there is always going to be this conflict, because of sin and the consequences of sin. The Lord has to prune his vineyard from time to time, removing the bad branches so that the good ones have room to grow. Interestingly, the verse preceding this says "how long wilt thou cut thyself?," illustrating that often, we suffer from our own destructive choices.
Which leads us to the answer to the query. The sword of the Lord will be still when we stop playing destructive games with it... likely the Millenium is the answer for the world in general, but hopefully some of us can find some measure of peace before that, choosing peace and stillness in our own lives, and turning to God rather than the drama around us--in essence, putting the sword away and accepting the Lord's peace.
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