ODJ: the end of all wars

October 24, 2015 

READ: Isaiah 2:2-4 

The LORD will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks (v.4).

In 1893 the inventor of the machine gun was asked if his invention would make wars even more devastating. He replied that he believed they would make wars impossible. Many inventors and great scientists have said similar things over the years, only to discover that this was not the truth. Scientific progress has not slowed the beat of war, but has only made it far more deadly than it had ever been before.

Isaiah 2 gives us a foretaste of what will end war. The prophet paints a wonderful image of peace—people will beat their swords into ploughshares, weapons will be repurposed into tools that grow and give life and all nations will worship God (vv.2,4). Then all people of the world will be united in worship of Him, and will finally lay their weapons down (v.3).

No better picture of these future events can be found than what took place in the early church. People who had previously experienced a contentious and even violent relationship with one another could see themselves as family: Jews, Gentiles, Samaritans and Romans all unified, not because of science and progress but because they honoured and worshipped the same God (Acts 10:34-38). Peter said, “In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right” (v.35).

—Peter Chin

365-day-plan: Acts 10:24-48

MORE
Read Revelation 21:22-24 to see a similar portrait as found in Isaiah 2:2-4. 
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Do you feel that you are called to be a person of peace? What does that mean to you? Why do you think the worship of God is a step towards peace?