Swords into Plowshares
Daily Advent musings on the prophet Isaiah: December 3: Isaiah 2
"They will beat their swords into plowshares...nation will not take up sword against nation..." Isaiah 2:4.
Seems far off these days, and national conflicts on the rise...but when these words were first spoken, the manger, an empty tomb, and tongues of fire were nowhere in sight...
Throughout his prophecy, Isaiah always brings an intriguing blend of "next year," "always true," and "not yet" pronouncements of judgment and hope.
“It shall come to pass in the latter days…many people say ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’” Isaiah 2:2,3.
Hundreds of years have passed, and with our "faithful King" in view, this tension between the then, the now and the not yet, should give us pause, and invites us to take a prayerful and meditative look at both the rant and rhyme of Isaiah.
Even the ever-practical Apostle Peter, in his missive to the early church, exhorted the faithful (and us) to:
“Pay close attention to what [the prophets] wrote, for their words are like a light shining in a dark place..." (2 Peter 1:19).
I'm with Peter—who, while clinging to a little prophetic momentum, also instructed the church to focus on “lives of holiness and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11) until "the mountain of the Lord...will be established as chief among the mountains, and all nations will stream to it..." Isaiah 2:2.
