Lighthouse Keeper

He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4).

We used to always joke about my friend Sarah’s Dad. 

“He was in the real army, then the reservists, then the Salvation Army. He always has to be part of some sort of army”. 

I think a lot of Christians are the same. The holy war that they are fighting, whether real or imagined, gives them purpose and makes people feel relevant in a world where it’s easy to feel insignificant. In the modern world, their energies translate into politics and Christian dog-whistling by political leaders ensures there’s a steady stream of outraged Christians that will go into battle for their nation or faith.

There’s a lot of war and fighting in the Bible. There’s a lot of war and fighting in the world. However, the prophecy of Messiah in Isaiah 2 tells us He (Christ) will be the judge between nations and peoples and we will not train for war anymore. 

Nation will not take up sword against nation. Wouldn’t that be nice?

On this side of the resurrection, we have a picture of Jesus who did his battle in the prayer room (or garden)  of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36).  He submitted to the divine will and redemptive plan of his Father God and didn’t take up arms against those who seized and beat him. It is the true dying of self. The bending of free will. Submission. (Matthew 16:24). 

Believing that Jesus will judge between nations and peoples -and we can get on with farming and cultivating our lives with our ploughshares and pruning hooks- sounds simple but is difficult to do in reality. The emotions fire up. We sense injustice and disrespect. It is in our human nature to post those comments on social media and snip at people and moan and complain that our coffee is colder than we would have liked. Nations are still training for war and taking up swords against one another because individuals refuse to give up their arms and go farming. Imagine if we actually believed the promise of Isaiah 2:4 and cast our cares on the Lord and moved on? (Psalms 55:22, 1 Peter 5:7). 

You can. I’m slowly learning how to (I don’t always get it right) and as a person of words it’s very challenging for me to not write that smarty pants reply or defend myself and my friends against schemes. But we must learn to. It’s the way of Jesus and we must breathe and submit to His perfect and pleasing will in our lives.  Join the non-combat forces. Back to the farm.

We have a judge who sees and cares and knows. Trust Him.