• I’m hiding in a closet that is in the hallway between the living room and bedrooms in the house of my childhood. I’m about 12 years old, holding a toy gun.
• My two younger brothers are trying to find me. They also are armed with toy guns.
• I played similar games with my uncles except we made war with live firecrackers. Throwing them at each other.
• Ironically, this was something we did at Christmastime for years!
• Then, in my later teen years, I would have fights with bottle-rockets with my friends.
• Once, we were having a bottle-rocket fight and I was hiding on one side of a truck and a friend was hiding on the other side of the truck. Neither knew the other was there. We stood up at almost exactly the same time, and launched a bottle-rocket at each other. His landed in the middle of my chest (I was shirtless) and it just sort of melted the skin on my chest
• As I was recalling these memories this week, I realized that as I grew older, my “games” got more violent.
• Isn’t that the way it is in real war?
This week our key passage is:
• Isaiah 2:1-5 with the message titled “Swords into Plowshares”.
• Isaiah 2:1-5
• Quick overview of Isaiah
o One of the major prophets
o Messianic prophet
o Hosea and Micah were his contemporaries
o His audience were the Jewish people and 4 kings of the land:
? Ahaz(A-hass), Hezekiah(heh-zuh-ki-a), Uzzaih(oo-zai-uh) and Jothan(jo-than)
o Key verse: Isaiah 6:8 “Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “here am I, send me.”
Isaiah 2:1-5(read from my bible) stand with me.
• We’re going to break this passage down into 3 key points:
o Mountain tops
o Swords into plowshares
o Learn war no more
• But first, I’d like to read v.1 again:
o The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz(aa-muhz) saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
o Go back to 6:8 “Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “here am I, send me.””
o Ya know, I don’t think it’s hard to see war in our minds eye. It has permeated our being for thousands of years.
o In fact, the first mention of war is found in first book of OT, in Genesis 14, and found throughout the bible.
o Much more mention of war than of peace.
o We see a glimpse of peace in:
o 1 Kings 4: 24-25 (read from my bible)
o As I read this passage, the first thought that popped into my head was, “but undoubtably there was war going on in other regions”.
o I could not envision peace on the entire earth.
o Seeing peace in our minds eye is much more challenging.
o Isaiah saw this. God gave him this vision of peace.
• Mountain tops-
Learning His ways and walking in His paths
o Yesterday, I pondered why mankind has this obsession with climbing mountains.
o Then I thought “maybe we think we’ll find God there!”
o V2 “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.”
o NLT- “In the last days, the mountain of the LORD’s house will be the highest of all-the most important place on earth”. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship.
o Typically, when we think of the word streaming, we think of a downward flow.
o People will be streaming up the mountains.
o I began picturing Jesus giving His sermon on the Mount. As He sat on the mountain top, people began to stream upwards to hear Him speak.
• Swords into plowshares:
Turning instruments of war, into tools of peace
o It is very common in books of the prophets to see “word pictures”.
o Isaiah gives us this picture of people from all over the world streaming up the highest mountain in the world.
o He does the same thing in v.4
o He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people, they shall beat (hammer) their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation…
o What a powerful picture, but one hard to vision, nevertheless.
• Learning war
o I thought about the opening scene in the movie “The Princess Bride”
o Nintendo baseball
o Mom comes in “how you feeling”?
o Grandpa pops through the doorway
o Gives kid a book, and boy was less than thrilled.
o Grandpa tries to capture the boys’ imagination and begins describing the book:
? Fencing
? Fighting
? Sword fights
? Rescues
? Escapes
o All the things that would pique a boys’ interest.
o As I read this passage at end of v4, I thought about learning war.
? When I was in my early teens, every evening, the news would report on the Vietnam war, on TV and radio.
? The war was brought into our living rooms every night.
? Movies and books give explicit details about war.
o Neither shall they learn war anymore.
There will come a time when trying to envision war, is as foreign to us as trying to envision peace today.
CLOSING
There an interesting passage found in:
Joel 3:9-10.
o Joel was written about 200 years before Isaiah, and here is what Joel 3:9-10 tells us:
o v.9- Proclaim this among the nations:
prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
v.10-Beat your plowshares into swords, (did you catch that? This is the prophet Joel) and your pruning hooks into spears, let the weak say “I am strong”
NLT-Train even your weaklings to be warriors.
What’s the mountaintop you have to stream up?
• Is it pride?
• Laziness?
• Fear?
• Disobedience?
• Or something else?
How do you turn Swords into plowshares, in order to obtain peace in YOUR world?
• This week, I’ve thought about plowshares in three contexts:
• Literally, figuratively, and spiritually
Literal plowshares
• Plowshares are basically hoes. We use them to dig into the dirt to plant seeds.
• Whatever seed you sow into the ground, that is the plant you will harvest.
o Second Hand Lions
o Story of two brothers that had been warriors and fought battles all over the world.
o They decided to retire and become farmers.
o Went to local feed store and bought a variety of seeds to plant and harvest.
o Corn, corn, corn…nothing but corn!
We have to be aware of what we are sowing, in order to grow the intended crop.
Figurative plowshares
Isaiah 2:3 speaks of walking in Gods paths.
Struck me that the word paths is plural. We aren’t going to stream up the mountain single-file. We will be walking in different paths that God has made way for us.
“harvest fruit or prune deadwood”
I love what Jesus said in:
John 15:4-7 (read from my bible)
And then in:
Luke 9:62 “anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Jesus is talking about follow Him. The path!
• Are you planting seeds of:
o Reconciliation
o Hope
o A renewal
o Or some other seeds of good fruit?
• Spiritual plowshares
o A few years back I got this vision (I use vision because if I say “thought” then that implies it was from me, and I don’t believe it was from me.
o Nevertheless, here is what came to me:
? What if every person in the world, abided in the fruits of the spirit as described in Galatians 5:23
o Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
o I understand this won’t happen on our own.
o This vision of peace in Isaiah 2 is induced by God.
o Close your eyes and keep them closed as I repeat the fruits of the spirit, and read one other passage.
o Ephesians 4:13
“till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
Church, we turn swords into plowshares by
Learning Gods ways
Walking in His paths
Loving one another
Being faithful
And by doing these, we prepare ourselves for peace.
Psalm 122:6-7 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may they prosper who love you.
v.7 Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.”
We read Isaiah 9:6 a couple of weeks ago, but let’s review it in context of Isaiah 2:1-5
Isaiah 9:6-
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Closing
Goodbye online-be a blessing to someone this week.
? Peace within your walls
? Teach us to hammer swords into plowshares
? I pray the fruits of the spirit abide in us, so we realize the fullness of Christ in our lives and in our world
