Neither Shall they learn War Anymore!
Isaiah 2:1-4
(1) The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
(2) Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.
(3) Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
(4) He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.
Remembering those who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice
On this Memorial Day weekend, we will be remembering those who have died to protect the freedoms that we enjoy in this country. We will remember people who made the ultimate sacrifice. They gave their lives. This will be a day of patriotism and a day of pride as well as a day of sorrow. Those who died never got a chance to live the kind of life that they died to preserve. Many did not have families. Many who did have families left them behind sorrowing While there is a sense of pride in remembering the faithful, in my mind this is one of the saddest days of the years. Why should people have to kill other people? Why should leaders have so little empathy for the lives of those that they send into war? Why can’t we live together in peace? The answer to that question is a three letter word that we really don’t like. That word is SIN.
Sin
Sin has infected us all. Wars are fought for many reasons but ultimately wars are fought out of a desire for control and power. Most wars have been fought on religious grounds—that is, religion has been used as the excuse for the war. I know that God used war to cleanse the promised land of infidels in the Old Testament, but we live in the New Testament times when infidels are supposed to be convicted and converted through the preaching of the Good News and not physically killed. I know that one of the great arguments against New Testament Christianity has to do with the wars of the Old Testament. But I have to leave that to God and to His justice. It didn’t make the Jews as a nation faithful to God and the infidels were not converted. In other words, the Old Testament wars didn’t provide a paradise then and they won’t provide one now. And yet the world is filled with people using war to wipe out cultures that do not believe as they believe. It is obvious that they aren’t as worried about their God as they are worried about their own ability to have power and control. Even the Jews that crucified the Lord after the notable miracle of the raising of Lazarus said, "What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation (John 11:47-48)." They didn’t deny the reality of the Lord’s miracles, but they weren’t concerned with the good He could do. They were concerned with their own “place.”
Peace will Come
The Lord did something that was not logical in His day and is not logical today. He said that to win we must die And while we should remember those who died to protect our freedoms today, will we also worship and remember the only innocent One who died to put away our sins? He is the One who died so that we might live eternally with Him in heaven. True peace comes with trusting Him for time and for eternity. The day will come when there will be peace on earth. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.” That day is future, it is not now. But right now, we can have the peace that passes all understanding. We can know the God of peace. We can be sure that while in the world we will have tribulation, the Lord has overcome the world.
Let us Remember
Yes, let us remember our fallen soldiers. Let us grieve however over their need to die. Better yet let us remember the Lord who also gave His life. Thankfully, the grave could not hold Him. He was raised from the dead. Someday, He will reign on this earth. I believe that by that time I will be enjoying the blessings of the Father’s house that has been prepared for believers. But my war is over. The Lord will one day give the earth the peace that this earth cannot achieve through local, state, national or world government. All of those governments are governments of sinners for sinners. But the Lord will provide a righteous government for a righteous people.
Be assured, one day we will not have to remember fallen soldiers because the earth will have world peace. And rest assured that what we believe is a heart matter and true converts of any religion cannot be made by force. There is an old saying that declares, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” But the Gospel does change hearts and it can change nations. Wars will never succeed in bringing about peace.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of May 30, 2016