He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples. 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 any more.
Parallel Translations
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He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples. 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 any more.
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And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
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And He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to Isaiah 2:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hosea 2:18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.
- Micah 4:3 and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.
- Isaiah 11:6-9 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.
- Zechariah 9:10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow will be cut off; and he will speak peace to the nations: and his dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
- Isaiah 60:17-18 For bronze I will bring gold; for iron I will bring silver; for wood, bronze, and for stones, iron. I will also make peace your governor, and righteousness your ruler. Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor desolation or destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
- Psalms 46:9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire.
- Isaiah 32:18 My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
- Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.
- Joel 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’
- Psalms 72:3-7 The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people. The hills bring the fruit of righteousness. He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces. They shall fear you while the sun endures; and as long as the moon, throughout all generations. He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. In his days, the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.
- Psalms 82:8 Arise, God, judge the earth, for you inherit all of the nations.
- Isaiah 11:3-4 His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears; but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
- 1 Samuel 2:10 Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces. He will thunder against them in the sky. “Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
- Psalms 96:13 before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.
- Psalms 110:6 He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.
- Isaiah 9:5 For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
- John 16:8-11 When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment; about sin, because they don’t believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more; about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
- Acts 17:31 because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
- Revelation 19:11 I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He speaketh not against the use of weapons and…
He speaketh not against the use of weapons and lawful war, but showeth how the hearts of the godly shall be affected one toward another: Which peace and love doth begin and grow in this life, but shall be perfected when we are joined with our Head Christ Jesus.
The Lord, which is Christ, shall have all power given him.
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That they may acknowledge their sins, and turn to him.
He showeth the fruit of the peace, which the Gospel should bring: to wit, that men should do good one to another, whereas before they were enemies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations,…
Isa 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Ver. 4. And he shall judge among the nations, &c.] {See Trapp on "Mic 4:3"} where we shall find that that prophet hath the same words with this αυτολεξει. So hath Obadiah the same with Jeremiah, St Mark with St Matthew, St Jude with St Peter, the blessed Virgin in her Magnificat with holy Hannah in her Canticle, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He shall judge among the nations; Christ shall set…
He shall judge among the nations; Christ shall set up and use his authority among and over all nations, not only giving laws to them, as other rulers do, but doing that which no other powers can do, Convincing their minds and consciences, conquering and changing their hearts, and ordering their lives.
Shall rebuke; either verbally, by his word and Spirit reproving or convincing the world of sin; or really, by his judgments upon his implacable enemies, which obstruct the propagation of the gospel. Neither shall they learn war any more; he shall root out those great animosities and hostilities which were between the Jews and Gentiles, Eph 2:13, &c., and between several nations, subduing men’s pride, and passions, and lusts, which are the causes of all wars and contentions; and working humility, and meekness, and self-denial, and true and fervent love to all men, from whence peace necessarily follows. This was the design of the gospel in all, and the effect of it in those that rightly received it. And that war and dissension which was occasioned by the preaching of the gospel, as was foretold, Mat 10:21,22, it was wholly accidental, by reason of men’s corrupt interests and lusts, which the gospel opposed; and it was not amongst those who received the gospel in the love of it, but between them and those who were either open enemies or false friends to them and to the gospel. But if this place be understood of an external and general peace which was to be in the world in the days of the Messias, this also may in due time be verified, when all Israel shall be saved, and the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in, and both Jews and Gentiles shall be united together into one fold, under Christ their great Shepherd; all which is prophesied and promised, Joh 10:16; Ro 11, and elsewhere. For it is not necessary that all the prophecies concerning the kingdom of the Messias should be accomplished in an instant, or at the beginning of it; but it is sufficient if they be fulfilled before the end of it. And some of them do manifestly belong to the last days of that kingdom. And therefore there is no truth nor weight in that argument which the Jews bring from this place against our Messias, because of those wars that have hitherto been and still are amongst Christians; for this doth not prove that these wars shall never cease, or that there shall not be such a peace in the world as they understand before the end of Christ’s kingdom.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he shall judge among the nations,.... Or, "it…
And he shall judge among the nations,.... Or, "it shall judge"; either the mountain of the Lord's house, as Abarbinel thinks, that is, the church; for in the spiritual reign of Christ, in the latter day, the judgment shall be given to the saints of the most High, and they shall possess the kingdom; the power of civil government will be in their hands, and they shall judge the world; for kings will then be nursing fathers to them, and queens nursing mothers. Or the law and word of the Lord, the Gospel, which judges men now, and declares who are condemned, and who are not; and will judge them at the last day: or, "he shall judge", that is, the Messiah, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech interpret it; he shall be King over all the earth; the kingdoms of this world will become his, and his dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the end of the earth:
and shall rebuke many people; either the church shall rebuke by her ministers, whose work it is to reprove and rebuke for and to convince of both immorality and error; or, the word preached by them, which is the means of the conviction and conversion of sinners; or, Christ by his Spirit, whose office it is to reprove and convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is a prophecy of numerous conversions among the Gentiles, in the latter day:
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and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: instruments of war shall be no more used, but shall be turned into instruments of husbandry, much more advantageous and useful to mankind.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. This clearly proves that this prophecy belongs to future times; for this has never yet had its accomplishment in any sense; not in a literal sense; for though there was an universal peace all the world over, at the birth of Christ, in the times of Augustus Caesar, yet there afterwards were, as our Lord foretold there would be, wars, and rumours of wars, and nation should rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and so it has been, more or less, ever since; nor in a spiritual sense, for though Christ has made peace by the blood of his cross, and came and preached it by his ministers, and wherever the Gospel of peace takes place, it makes men of peaceable dispositions, and reconciles them, as to God and Christ, and the way of salvation by him, so to one another; and it is peace saints are called to, and, when grace is in exercise, it rules in their hearts; and yet there have been sad contentions and quarrels among the people of God, and which yet still continue; but in the latter day glory, or spiritual reign of Christ, this prophecy will be fulfilled in every sense; for after the hour of temptation is over, that shall try all the earth, after the slaying of the witnesses and their rising, after the battle at Armageddon, when the beast and false prophet will be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire, there will be no more wars in the world, nor any persecution of the saints; and then will the peaceable kingdom of Christ appear, and all his subjects, and the members of his church, will live in the utmost unity and harmony together; they shall no more envy and vex one another; and of this peace there will be no end, Psa 72:7 these words are applied to the times of the Messiah, both by ancient (q) and modern (r) Jews.
(q) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 63. 1. (r) R. Nachman. Disputat. cum fratre Paulo, p. 41. R. Isaac. Chizzuk Emuna, par. 1. cap. 1. p. 43, 44. Kimchi in Isa. lxv. 19.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain He - Christ shall set up his authority among…
He - Christ shall set up his authority among all nations, not only giving laws to them, but doing what no other can do, convincing their consciences, changing their hearts, and ordering their lives. Rebuke - By his word and Spirit, convincing the world of sin; and by his judgments upon his implacable enemies, which obstruct the propagation of the gospel.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. Neither shall they learn war any more.]…
Verse 4. Neither shall they learn war any more.] If wars are necessary, how deep must that fall be that renders them so! But what a reproach to humanity is the trade of war! Men are regularly instructed in it, as in any of the necessary arts.
"How to dislodge most souls from their frail shrines
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By bomb, sword, ball, and bayonet, is the art
Which some call great and glorious!"
And is this a necessary part of a finished education in civilized society? O Earth! Earth! Earth!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 2:4. He shall judge among the nations —…
Isa 2:4. He shall judge among the nations — He shall set up and exercise his authority, in and over all nations, not only giving laws to them, as other rulers do, but doing that which no others can do, convincing their consciences, changing their hearts, and ordering their lives; and shall rebuke many people — By the power of his word, compared to a two- edged sword in Scripture, and by the grace of his Spirit, convincing the world of sin: as also by the remarkable judgments which he will execute on those that are incorrigible, and especially on those of his implacable enemies who set themselves to oppose the propagation of his gospel. They shall beat their swords into plough-shares — This description of a well- established peace is very poetical. The Prophet Joel hath reversed it, and applied it to war prevailing over peace; beat your plough-shares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears, Joe 3:10. And so likewise the Roman poet: —
“Non ullus aratro Dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis,
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Et curvæ rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.” Virg. Georg. 1:506.
“The peaceful peasant to the wars is press’d;
The fields lie fallow in inglorious rest.
The plain no pasture to the flock affords,
The crooked scythes are straightened into swords.” Dryden.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation — Peace is frequently mentioned in Scripture as the distinguishing character of Christ’s kingdom, and he himself is called the prince of peace. The design and tendency of his gospel are to produce a peaceable disposition in mankind, by subduing their pride, and various passions and lusts, which are the causes of wars and contentions, and by working in them humility, meekness, self-denial, and true and fervent love to all men, from whence peace necessarily follows. And the gospel actually does produce this effect in those that rightly receive it. It disposes them, as much as in them lieth, to live peaceably with all men. And as to that dissension and war which the preaching of the gospel has sometimes occasioned, as it was foretold it would do, Mat 10:21-22, it was wholly accidental, arising from men’s corrupt lusts and interests, which the gospel opposes; and it was not among those who received the truth in the love of it, but between them and those who were either open enemies, or false friends to them and to the gospel. But this passage foretels that even an external and general peace will be established in the world under the reign of the Messiah, which undoubtedly, in due time, will take place, namely, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in, and all Israel shall be saved, and both Jews and Gentiles shall be united together in one fold, under Christ their great Shepherd.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And he shall judge - Or he shall exercise…
And he shall judge - Or he shall exercise the office of a judge, or umpire. This “literally” refers to the God of Jacob Isa 2:3, though it is clear that the meaning is, that he will do it by the Messiah, or under his reign. One office of a judge is to decide controversies; to put an end to litigations, and thus to promote peace. The connection shows that this is the meaning here. Nations that are contending shall be brought to peace by the influence of the reign of the Messiah, and shall beat their swords into plowshares. In other words, the influence of the reign of the Messiah shall put a period to wars, and reduce contending nations to peace.
And shall rebuke - Shall “reprove” them for their contentions and strifes.
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Lowth: ‘Shall work conviction in many peoples.’
Noyes: ‘He shall be a judge of the nations,
And an umpire of many kingdoms.’
He shall show them the evil of war; and by reproving them for those wicked passions which cause wars, shall promote universal peace. This the gospel everywhere does; and the tendency of it, if obeyed, would be to produce universal peace. In accordance with predictions like these, the Messiah is called the Prince of Peace Isa 9:6; and it is said that of his peace there shall be no end; Isa 9:7.
And they shall beat ... - They shall change the arts of war to those of peace; or they shall abandon the pursuits of war for the mild and useful arts of husbandry; compare Psa 46:9; Hos 2:20. A similar prophecy is found in Zec 9:10. The following extracts may serve to illustrate this passage: ‘The Syrian plow, which was probably used in all the regions around, is a very simple frame, and commonly so light, that a man of moderate strength might carry it in one hand. Volney states that in Syria it is often nothing else than the branch of a tree, cut below a bifurcation, and used without wheels. The plowshare is a piece of iron, broad but not large, which tips the end of the shaft. So much does it resemble the short sword used by the ancient warriors, that it may, with very little trouble, be converted into that deadly weapon; and when the work of destruction is over, reduced again to its former shape, and applied to the purposes of agriculture.’
Their spears - Spears were much used in war. They were made of wood, with a sharpened piece of iron or other metal attached to the end. The pruning-hook, made for cutting the limbs of vines or trees, is, in like manner, a long piece of wood with a crooked knife attached to it. Hence, it was easy to convert the one into the other.
Pruning-hooks - Hooks or long knives for trimming vines. The word here, however, means anything employed in “reaping or mowing,” a sickle, or a scythe, or any instrument to “cut with,” as well as a pruning-hook. These figures, as images of peace, are often used by the prophets. Micah Mic 4:4 has added to this description of peace in Isaiah, the following:
But they shall sit
Every man under his vine,
And under his fig-tree;
And none shall make them afraid:
For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.
Joel Joe 3:10 has reversed the figure, and applied it to war prevailing over peace:
Beat your plowshares into swords;
And your pruning-hooks into spears.
The same emblems to represent peace, which are used here by Isaiah, also occur in pagan poets. Thus Martial; Epigr. xiv. 34:
Falx ex ense.
Pax me certa ducis placidos conflavit in usus,
Agricolae nunc sum, militis ante fui.
So Virgil; Georg. 1,507:
Squalent abductis arva colonis,
Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
So also Ovid; Fast. 1,699:
Sarcula cessabunt, versique in pila ligones.
Nation shall not lift up ... - This is a remarkable prediction of universal peace under the gospel. The prediction is positive, that the time will come when it shall prevail. But it has not yet been fully accomplished. We may remark, however, in relation to this:
(1) That the tendency of the gospel is to promote the arts, and to produce the spirit of peace.
(2) It will dispose the nations to do right, and thus to avoid the occasions of war.
(3) It will fill the mind with horror at the scenes of cruelty and blood that war produces.
(4) It will diffuse honor around the arts of peace, and teach the nations to prize the endearments of home and country, and the sweet scenes of domestic life.
(5) Just so far as it has influence over princes and rulers, it will teach them to lay aside the passions of ambition and revenge, and the love of conquest and ‘glory,’ and indispose them to war.
(6) The tendency of things now is toward peace. The laws of nations have been established under the gospel. Difficulties can even now be adjusted by negotiation, and without a resort to arms.
(7) Wars are far less barbarous than they were formerly. The gospel has produced humanity, mildness, and some degree of justice even in war. It has put an end to the unmerciful treatment of prisoners; has prevented their being sold as slaves; has taught even belligerents not to murder women and children.
(8) Nothing remains to be done to make peace universal but to send the gospel abroad through every land. When that is done, the nations will be disposed to peace; and the prophet, therefore, has predicted the universal prevalence of peace “only” when all nations shall be brought under the influence of the gospel.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain War. Ezechias enjoyed peace after the defeat of Sennacherib,…
War. Ezechias enjoyed peace after the defeat of Sennacherib, as the whole world did at the birth of Christ. (Calmet) --- Claudentur belli portæ. (Virgil, Æneid i.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain judge--as a sovereign umpire, settling all controversies (compare Isa…
judge--as a sovereign umpire, settling all controversies (compare Isa 11:4). LOWTH translates "work," "conviction."
plowshares--in the East resembling a short sword (Isa 9:6-7; Zac 9:10).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 4. He shall judge — That is, He from…
4. He shall judge — That is, He from whom “the law” of the third verse goes forth.
Among — Rather, between.
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The nations — God, by his law, instructs his own people; by his providences, the Gentiles. He impresses and informs the conscience, and inclines the masses of humanity to peace. They shall follow the peaceful pursuits of agriculture rather than war.
Swords into ploughshares — In the East, the latter resemble the short sword, and not much smithery is required for the transformation.
Pruninghooks — The “pruninghook” is like a sickle. The metallic part of the spear needs only to be a little flattened, and bent into a sickle form, and sharpened. The imagery, here, is of calm rural life, belonging to a perfectly wholesome civilization.
Learn war any more — The allusion is quite plain. Uzziah’s reign, in which this was written, was marked by the invention of new weapons of war. 2Ch_26:14-15. The prophet sees all this cease in the glorious Messianic times, when the Holy Spirit shall with effect rebuke, and lovingly reprove, Jews and Gentiles, and cause their tendencies to join and flow together toward mutual peace and general salvation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. Jehovah’s righteous judgment causes “wars to cease to…
4. Jehovah’s righteous judgment causes “wars to cease to the ends of the earth.”
among the nations] Here again Micah’s language is more indefinite: “many peoples”; “strong nations afar off.”
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rebuke] arbitrate for; or, as R.V. marg., “give decision concerning.” Cf. Gen_31:37; Job_9:33 (“umpire,” R.V. marg.). The meaning of course is that disputes which would otherwise have been settled by the sword are referred to the just and impartial arbitrament of Jehovah, whose award is accepted as final.
they shall beat … pruninghooks] For the figure cf. Martial’s “falx ex ense” (Ep. xiv. 34) and on the contrary Ovid (Fast. 1. 699), “sarcula cessabunt, versique in pila ligones”; also Joe_3:10. The word rendered “ploughshares” is found only in 1Sa_13:20 f. and in the parallels in Micah and Joel. Perhaps “mattock.”
The cessation of war is a prominent idea in Messianic prophecy. See esp. Hos_2:18; Zec_9:10; and on Isa_9:5 below.
Ch. Isa_2:5-22. The False Glory of Israel to be annihilated by the Glory of Jehovah in a Day of Judgment
The passage may be divided into three brief sections:—
i. (Isa_2:5-9). After a transition verse (5, see below), the prophet proceeds, in an impassioned appeal to Jehovah, to contrast the actual condition of His people with the ideal set forth in Isa_2:2-4. The city destined to be the source of light and truth to all nations is at present a receptacle for the darkest and most degrading errors of heathenism. Having surveyed the symptoms of apostasy and ungodly pride which are everywhere around him—foreign superstitions (6), display of wealth (7), confidence in military resources (7), idolatry (8)—he gives utterance to the conviction borne in upon his mind, that the sin of the nation is unpardonable (9). Then follows,
ii. (Isa_2:10-17). A powerful description of the physical convulsions which mark the great “Day of Jehovah.” The conception seems to combine the features of the earthquake with those of the thunderstorm; it is a judgment directed against all that is “high and lofty” (12); i.e. everything, whether in nature (13 f.) or in human civilisation (15 f.), which seems to lift its head against the majesty of Jehovah (11, 17).
iii. In Isa_2:18-21 the prophet returns to the subject of idolatry, describing the sudden despair and ignominious discomfiture “in that day” of all who put their trust in images. The last verse then sums up in general terms the lesson of the preceding prophecy.
5 is apparently a transition verse (cf. Mic_4:5), “Since this great destiny is ours, O House of Jacob, let us at least for ourselves rise to the height of our privileges. But how vain is the exhortation! (6) For Thou, Jehovah, hast rejected, &c.” Or, the prophet may be supposed to cut short abruptly a line of thought he meant to pursue, and to make a fresh start at Isa_2:6. But neither of these views is convincing enough to remove the impression that Isa_2:2-4 are not the original introduction to 6 ff.
light of the Lord] Not the “light of His countenance” (as Psa_89:15; Psa_44:3), but of His Revelation (cf. Isa_51:4).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) He shall judge among the nations.—For “rebuke” read…
(4) He shall judge among the nations.—For “rebuke” read decide or arbitrate. The ideal Divine King is to be all, and more than all, that Solomon had been (1Ki_10:24). In reliance on His wisdom and equity, nations would refer their disputes to His decision instead of the arbitrament of war. Here again we have a partial fulfilment, it may be hoped, a “springing and germinant accomplishment,” in the history of Christendom. So far as the teaching of Christ has influenced international polity and law, He has been the supreme arbitrator of their disputes.
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares.—The words invert the picture of an earlier prophet, who spoke of a time of war (Joe_3:10). Isaiah must have known that prediction, and yet he proclaims (following Hos_2:18) that peace, not war, is the ideal goal towards which the order of the Divine government is tending. (Comp. Zec_9:10; Luk_2:14.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain PROPHECY OF THE LAST DAYS. The resemblance of this…
PROPHECY OF THE LAST DAYS. The resemblance of this prophecy to Mic_4:1-3 is so close as to necessitate the conclusion either that one of the two prophets copied from the other, or that both copied from an earlier document. The latter view, which is that taken by Rosenm Maurer, De Wette, Meier, and Mr. Cheyne, seems preferable.
In the last days; literally, in the sequel of the days; but generally used of a remote future. (Gen_49:1 Num_24:14 Deu_4:30, etc.) The mountain of the Lord"s house; i.e. the Church, the true Zion, which is to be the antitype of the existing Zion, and is therefore given its material attributes. Spiritually, it would be a "mountain," as "a city set on a hill," which "could not be hid"; (Mat_5:14) and again, as occupying a position from which it would command the whole earth. In the top of the mountains; rather, at the head of the mountains; i.e. with pre-eminence over them. The metaphor is drawn from the common physical fact of a high mountain range culminating in a single supreme eminence. So Mount Hermon towers above the rest of the Antilibanus, Demavend over Elburz, Rowandiz over Zagros. The "mountains" above which the true Zion shall tower are the kingdoms, or perhaps the religions, of the earth. All nations; literally, all the nations; i.e. "all the nations of the earth". (comp. Psa_72:11) Shall flow; or, stream. A constant accession of converts from all quarters is intended. These are represented as continually streaming upward into the holy mountain of God"s house.
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He shall judge among the nations. This is clearly not yet fulfilled. How God shall ultimately "judge among the nations," or rather "between nation and nation," is a mystery which only the future can reveal. It has been supposed that "by his providential retributions he will decide those international questions out of which war ordinarily springs" (Kay). But it would seem to be at least as likely that he will bring the nations to such a pitch of wisdom and moderation, that they will voluntarily discard war, and agree to decide any disputes that arise by means of arbiters. The arbiter would then, like other judges, represent God, and "by him decree justice". (Pro_8:15) Shall rebuke. Rosenm translates, "Arbiter pacts sit;" Cheyne, "shall arbitrate." Here again, as in ver. 3, "people" should be "peoples." They shall beat, etc. On a sudden call to war, nations "beat their ploughshares into swords, and their pruning-hooks into spears". (Joe_3:10) They will do the reverse "in the latter days," when God shall have "made wars to cease" (Psa_46:9) and "speak peace unto the nations". (Zec_9:10)
War no more.
It seems that the reign of Uzziah was famous for the invention of new weapons of war. (2Ch_26:11-15) Isaiah, observing this, contrasts with it the good time coming, when righteousness rules the relations of kings and kingdoms; and when Messiah, the Prince of righteousness, and therefore Prince of peace, judges among the nations. If Christ really reigned, and held the allegiance of every man and of every nation, all disputes could be settled by arbitration; if each man, and each nation, only wants what is right and what is kind, there need be no more war. Matthew Henry well says, "The design and tendency of the gospel are to make peace and to slay all enmities. It has in it the most powerful obligations and inducements to peace, so that one might reasonably have expected it should have this effect; and it would have had it if it had not been for those lusts of men from which come wars and fightings." Christianity has, in some measure, already triumphed over war and the war-spirit.
I THE HORRORS OF WAR ARE RELIEVED. Certainly they are so far as concerns civilized and Christian nations. Compare ancient and modern warfare in respect
(1) of giving no quarter;
(2) of unbridled license on taking a city;
(3) of the treatment of captives;
(4) of provisions for the care of the wounded;
(5) of the respectful burial of the dead.
"So far as the teaching of Christ has influenced international polity and law, he has been the supreme Arbitrator of their disputes." "It is undeniable that Christianity has greatly contributed to ameliorate the political condition of mankind, by diminishing the horrors of war, promoting mutual intercourse, and advancing the useful arts.
II THE IMPLEMENTS OF WAR ARE DEVOTED TO OTHER USES. The expression, "beat their swords into ploughshares," is figurative, and what it represents is met by the fact that commerce and manufactures advance faster than the making of war-tools. Time was when men and energies were given to the manufacture of weapons and implements of war, and when kings lived to make war. That is all past and gone. Only a small fringe of human labor is related to war material; and kings have discovered that national prosperity and national peace go together hand in hand. Contrast the life in England under the Edwards, and under Victoria. "In such states of society as that among the Hebrews, the peasantry, when summoned to the field, are obliged to provide their own weapons. When, therefore, they were poor, and material for weapons was too expensive for their resources, it would be an obvious thought to turn the ploughshare, which was thin, long, and light for such an instrument, into a sword, which was short and thick as compared with our sword. When the war was over, the change might easily be made back again. A sword would, of course, with equal facility, be changed into a ploughshare. Pruning-hooks may include anything employed in reaping or mowing; such as a sickle or scythe, as well as the long knives used for trimming vines." Show that commerce, knitting lands together by mutual interest, is a handmaid to Christianity in her work of peace.
III THE WASTE OF TIME AND POWER IN LEARNING WAR ARE CHECKED, Illustrate from the formation of our volunteer army, the members of which give their best energies to peaceful pursuits, and only their leisure to learning the art of war. Note the growing feeling that the soldier-class is almost a useless class; that the money expended on them is a waste; and that the nation suffers by having so much of her young manhood idle, and getting into the moral mischiefs of the idle. The results we thus can recognize have been attained by the triumph of the great Christian principles, of peace, brotherhood, and care for others rather than for self. But we may not rest with any present attainments; we must witness and work for that glorious coming time, when the ideal king is to "judge among the nations," and in reliance on his wisdom and equity, the nations will refer their disputes to his decision, instead of the arbitrament of war. R.T.
Vers. 5-11. THE CONTRAST OF THE PRESENT WITH THE FUTURE.
Having shown to Israel the vision of a far-distant future, when holiness and peace would reign upon the earth, and "the mountain of the Lord"s house" would draw all men into it, the prophet returns to things as they are first exhorting Israel to "walk in the light of Jehovah" (ver. 5), and then showing how far they have withdrawn from the light;
(1) by magical practices (ver. 6);
(2) by commercial greed (vers. 6, 7);
(3) by ostentation and luxury (ver. 7);
(4) by idolatry (ver. 8).
Such being the case, punishment must come mean and great must be equally brought low (ver. 9) the people must fly to their cave-fastnesses (ver. 10), and hide themselves; they must be humiliated to the uttermost (ver. 11).
O house of Jacob. "House of Jacob" is the common expression in Isaiah, instead of "house of Israel". (see Isa_8:17 Isa_10:20 Isa_14:1 Isa_29:22 Isa_46:3 Isa_48:1 Isa_58:1) It has no particular force, merely signifying "Israelites." Come ye, and let us walk. The same words as those of the "nations" in ver. 3, "Come ye, and let us go up." As the nations will invite each other "in the last days," so the prophet now invites his countrymen to walk with God.
Vers. 5-10. Purgation by judgment.
The blessed age cannot yet come in. If we suppose the prophet to have been reading the previous oracle as a sabbath lesson out of the elder prophet Joel"s scroll, he adds the exhortation, "Let us walk in the light of Jehovah!" Then a sudden pause. For he calls to mind the present corrupt condition of the nation. They cannot pass over to that new and happy condition of things as they now are. Peace can only be the fruit of righteousness. God cannot impart blessings for which the heart makes no room.
I THE REASONS OF DIVINE REJECTION. The nation"s practices and fashions are inconsistent with the religion of Jehovah.
1. Wizardry, magic, soothsaying, and augury prevail. These are distinctly heathen, Philistine, practices. The Law repudiated every kind of magic. (Lev_19:26 Exo_22:17) Such arts are described under various names in Deu_18:10, Deu_18:11. The principle was in every case the same the attempt to gratify human curiosity and desire by unlawful means. Modern "spiritualism" springs from the same root. The path of true science is above-ground and full of light; that of false science is subterranean and dark. The methods of sound knowledge may be explained to all. The worker of good comes to the light, and hates occult procedure which can give no account of itself. The magical spirit still works against true Christianity, which is the "light of the Eternal." Christian ministers become magicians if they teach that changes can be wrought or blessings secured by the mere administration of sacraments; or by the mere repetition of a formula, such as "I do believe, I will believe;" or by the artificial putting on of a particular frame of mind. Obedience, not the mimicry of it, purity, not the representation of it, is required by God.
2. Ill-gotten wealth and luxury. The people were immoderately money-loving. Like Tyre, they heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the mire of the streets. (Zec_9:3) "Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
The excess of accumulation ever does mean the waste of manhood. A nation is only healthy when the vigor of its masculine intellect goes to promote the ulterior ends of existence. Those ends are spiritual. Wealth should be prized for the sake of leisure, and leisure for the sake of culture. When leisure hangs heavy on the business man"s hands, it is a sign that he has been overtrained in one direction. "Tis a sad failure to be found fit only for grinding at the money-making mill. Such a man cannot enjoy wealth when he has got it. We need a larger conception of the true conduct of life. Men often lose more morally in their rest-time than they can recover in their work-time. No unjust trading can produce real prosperity. England has gained by every act of righteous policy, such as the abolition of the corn-laws, the slave-trade. Whatever is gain to the health of the national conscience is permanent. Every just act is a tonic to the soul.
3. They are full of the materials for war, Their reliance is on horses and chariots. When a nation places confidence on physical force only, it is another symptom of moral enervation. How often has this been seen in history! The very existence of a great armed force is a constant provocative to war. It breeds a martial imagination and a bellicose spirit. National jealousies are roused, and the slightest occasion may set a continent aflame. The people must learn that Jehovah delights not in the legs of men, i.e. in serried battalions, and that in proportion as they lean on armies they are faithless to God. They must learn to say, "Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy". (Hos_14:3)
4. They are full of idols. This is perhaps the worst feature of their state. The prohibition of idols is grounded in the nature of our thought. The idol defines and narrows what ought to be left indefinable. The Phoenician and other idols introduced into Israel brought down the Divine to the forms and dimensions of the human being, and all human passions the most sensuous could be projected upon them. And when man sees only his idealized self before him in the sculptor"s work, he falls to self-adoration. It was quite otherwise with the grand music and religious poetry of the prophets and psalmists. Lofty poetic images by their very vagueness and suggestiveness lead the mind to the truth beyond and behind them. High music and poesy we ever need in worship; but too definite forms fetter the flight of the devout imagination. In general idolatry means self-love, and must ever be antagonistic to pure religion. "Thus man lowers himself, becomes unworthy to appear before Jehovah, and belong to his people." And judgment is inevitable; there can be no escape from it now!
II TERROR AT THE APPROACH OF THE JUDGE. "Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, fleeing before Jehovah"s terror, and the splendor of his majesty." The soul living in falsehood as its element shrinks away from the coming truth which must annihilate it. Men"s fears represent to them at last their follies and their sins. "Like bats and vermin hurrying from the sudden light. Our sordid vices far from God would take their flight.
The eyes that were not cast down in prayer, the mien of profane impudence that laughed at Heaven, are now shriveled, prone in the dust now before the lonely sublimity of the eternal Holiness. Those who made naught of God must learn that naught can exist which does not exist in God. "At last we hear a voice upon the slope Cry to the summit, Is there any hope? To which an answer peals from that high land, But in a tongue no man can understand; And on the glimmering limit far withdrawn, God makes himself an awful rose of dawn.
The wisdom of walking in the light.
The prophet inserts a parenthesis which evidently expresses the deepest and strongest feelings of his heart. He is oppressed with a sense of the folly of those who deliberately go astray in the darkness, when they might walk on in the light of Divine truth toward the goal of human blessedness; hence his fervent exclamation, "O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us," etc.
I THE TRUTH OF GOD THE LIGHT OF THE HUMAN SOUL. Light is "that which makes manifest". (see Eph_5:13) And as the sunshine makes clear to us our own persons, shows us all surrounding nature, and enables us to find our way to the objects of our desire, so the truth of God
(1) enlightens us as to our own selves, revealing our spiritual nature and our actual character;
(2) shows us the relation in which we stand to our fellows and to our Divine Maker, revealing to us human life and human destiny; and
(3) enables us to walk in the way of eternal life, becoming that which pleases God, and doing that which is right and good in his sight.
II THE SUPREME WISDOM OF WALKING IN ITS LIGHT. Well may the man of God exclaim with even passionate earnestness, "Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." For:
1. It is the one right course to take; any other must be one of error and of sin.
2. It is the path of progress, leading up to heights of strength, prosperity, sanctity.
3. It is the way to abiding joy; other paths, though they may open temptingly enough and may promise keen delights, will conduct ultimately to sorrow, shame, and death. This way, in which the light of the Lord leads us, may be entered upon with spiritual struggle, (Luk_13:24) may be attended with much self-denial; (Mat_16:24) but it is a path of purest and noblest joy, (Rom_5:11 Php_3:1 4:4 1Pe_4:13) and it ends in everlasting glory. C. (1Pe_1:3, 1Pe_1:4)
Walking in the light.
That is in the path of present duty on which the light of revelation shines. The text is part of a spirited address to the Jews to avail themselves of the privileges they had. The prospects of a glorious peace-time must not keep them from fixing their thoughts on their immediate and pressing duty. It is right for us to cheer our souls by the look away to rest and heaven; but we must not lose the present opportunity in idle dreamings. The real way to win the heavenly is to live in righteousness, in truth, and in charity to "walk in the light of the Lord." We remark, in unfolding this "light" in which we are invited to walk, that
I GOD GIVES LIGHT BY GIVING COMMANDMENTS. Illustrate from the great natural laws written in men"s consciences and hearts. The Decalogue was in existence as unwritten law before the finger of God traced it on the tablets. Also from the ten commandments, as elaborated by Moses, and made to cover all the minutest details of a Jew"s life and relations. And also from the commandments given by the Lord Jesus, and elaborated in detail by the apostles, so as to apply to all the circumstances and relations of the early Christians.
II GOD GIVES LIGHT BY REVEALING PRINCIPLES. These underlay Mosaism, and were discovered by the more devout and thoughtful Jews. These were brought out to view by the later prophets. It is the great characteristic of Christianity that it is a religion of principles rather than of commands; and makes its appeal to the purposes and the motives rather than to the mere ordering of the conduct. The renewed man, in whom the Holy Ghost dwells, should rule life by the light of holy principles.
III GOD GIVES LIGHT BY MANIFESTING HIMSELF. In the person of his Son, who is the "Light of the world;" "the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." God shows us his glory in the face of Jesus Christ; and to walk in obedience to Christ, in dependence upon Christ, in fellowship with Christ, and in full purpose to serve, honor, and glorify" Christ, is the way to "walk in the light of the Lord. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And He shall Judge among the nations . .…
Isa_2:4
And He shall Judge among the nations . . . neither shall they learn war any more
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Christs kingdom upon earth
1.
When it is said that He should judge among the nations, we must observe that the term is continually used in the Old Testament of the rule of a chief magistrate. Under the theocracy those who ruled the nation, as we read in Jdg_2:1-23, and in many other places, were termed judges. Of one of these it is said--The Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel, and he judged Israel, and went out to war,--acted as their supreme ruler. And the same language is employed continually of those who ruled in Israel, under God their King. The prediction is very nearly parallel to one in the seventy-second Psalm respecting the Messiah: He shall judge--or rule--the people with righteousness, and the poor with judgment.Accordingly, in our text it is declared that the Messiah should be a Ruler among the nations. This rule was to take place, according to the language of prophecy, when the Redeemer came into this world. Hence when our Lord was upon earth, He Himself proclaimed that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. He directed His disciples to preach the same truth. And we know that a time is to come, when the kingdoms of the world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. When our Saviour was upon earth He allowed the expression used by Nathaniel--Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel. When He came in triumph into Jerusalem, and the people shouted out--Hosannah! I blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, our Lord did not repress the exultation. All believers, then, have already become subjects of His Kingdom, and He is stated in Scripture to be their King. He has a dominion, indeed, far more extensive than that of the Church; He has all power given Him in heaven and earth. But the passage before us does not refer to this universal dominion, which He exercises in providence, but it speaks of the dominion of grace, His dominion limited to His Church--because it is a dominion that was to result from the promulgation of His Word out of Zion, and a dominion to be co-extensive with the exaltation of His Church of Zion. Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations.
(1) Since this dominion was to be established by the promulgation of the Word of God we may learn that no other ways are legitimate for the extension and establishment of Christs Kingdom than this weapon of truth.
(2) Till He establishes His dominion over any mans heart that man is not a Christian.
(3) Christ has a right to rule. (Rom_14:9.) But it is here said, not merely that He shall judge among multitudes, among His universal Church, but, He shall judge among the nations, by which we learn that He means still to multiply the numbers of His people, till nations are born in a day, and irreligion and rebellion against Christ on this earth shall be as rare as they are now general.
2. It was added, as a contemporaneous act of His sovereignty, He shall rebuke many people. By that word rebuke is evidently meant, He shall reprove them for their sinfulness.
(1) Wherever He sets up His dominion over any heart He first makes that heart to feel bowed down by the load of its guilt.
(2) Nations shall also be rebuked for their sinfulness. The Gospel tends to rebuke all abuses and evils among mankind--in Churches, governments, etc.
3. The effect of the Saviours reign is further described; it is to be universal peace. They shall beat, etc. (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
Anomalies in the history of Christendom
An obvious reflection which occurs to us, when reading this prediction--or at least which is likely to occur to anyone not well acquainted wire Scripture--is, that the effect of the Gospel, going forth from Zion and from Jerusalem, seemed from the very first to be quite the opposite of this prediction. How can it be said that the effect of the Gospel has been to introduce a universal peace, when it seems man fest from history that it has introduced universal disturbance and confusion? Our Lord Himself, when on earth, by His ministry and life, only led to a universal conspiracy against Him; and when He ascended to His glory, and His disciples began to preach in His name, it was the signal for general confusion. As that Gospel advanced, it was the signal for more savage opposition, till every part of the Roman empire was stained with the blood of Christs followers, till everywhere there was a universal warfare among menu between those who were the advocates of the old system, and those who proclaimed the new. At length, when the empire was conquered, it was only to be the occasion of still wider and more sanguinary disturbances. Many as had perished through popular fury, or by legal interference, during the three first centuries, multitudes more perished, as the indirect consequence of the Gospel in after ages. When the Roman empire was shivered by the shock of barbarian invaders, and the feudal kingdoms of Europe rose in its place, in each of those kingdoms the castle of the noble frowned defiance upon the castle of every good and great man; the wars between neighbouring nations became interminable; and when at last the monarchies were consolidated, and the great modern monarchies rose out of that confusion, it was only to see in every page of history an interminable war fare between Christian nations. So that, for instance, in our own frontiers, the Border warfare between Scotland and England was almost interminable; and yet these were Christian nations; and the Christian nations of France and England were termed hereditary foes, and there was not a monarch of Europe that did not join in some sanguinary strife, to please a minister, or to gratify his own ambition, or for some vain pretence, as corrupt as it was often false. But this has not been the only way in which this prediction appears to have been perpetually frustrated--for there have actually been sanguinary wars that have arisen from no other cause than religion. The wars of Bohemia and the Low Countries, and the civil wars of France and many other countries which long raged in the hearts of nations, for no other cause than a difference in Christian doctrine, seem to be a contradiction of the prophecy in our text, beyond all apology. And even when the disturbances of nations have not risen to actual warfare, how lamentable have been the cruelties exercised over a profession belief in Christianity! See the dukes of Savoy soaking the valleys of Piedmont with the blood of their best subjects; see the rage of the Roman Catholic persecutors exhibiting itself in the massacre of St. Bartholomew; view the remorseless Dragonades in the south of France; see the many enormities which were perpetrated in our own country during the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Eighth, and Charles the First and Second. Carry your views to the northern parts of this island, and there see Claverhouse and his companions reeking with the blood of the guiltless Covenanters; cross the Channel, and see the Roman Catholics of Ireland massacring thousands of Protestants because they were Protestants, and the equally bloody return secured to them by the iron-hearted and relentless soldiers of Oliver Cromwell. So that everywhere massacre and misery have followed the introduction of the Gospel. Is this the fulfilment of the promise--They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more?
1. Let us first notice, that the Gospel is not responsible for the acts of its enemies,--and in all the cases I have named its friends might still be like sheep in the midst of wolves. They might be wise as serpents, harmless as doves, and yet all this slaughter might take place under the name of religion. They have been the enemies of the Gospel, and not its friends, who have thus manifested such savage cruelty and unprincipled cupidity towards their fellow men.
2. And let us notice, in the next place, that the prediction in our text was manifestly not to be fulfilled immediately; it was to take place in the last days--and those last days have not yet transpired. (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
War during the Christian centuries, though peace predicted
It may be said, that however guiltless the Gospel may have been of these sanguinary results, yet they are facts of history. The prediction was, universal peace to follow from the Gospel, and the experience has been universal war. Does not this seem to contradict the prediction? Nothing is more conclusive than the answer which may be given to this objection.
1. The Gospel was declared to be of a pacific tendency. It forbids all the causes of war in the world--pride, passion, cupidity, etc. It bids all who become the subjects of Christs dominion to be mild and meek and patient as their Master was.
2. There must be the same pacific tendency among nations that are in any degree Christianised.
3. This tendency has not been and could not be wholly counteracted. It is true there have been these shameful wars; but it is no less true that under even the partial influence of the Gospel wars have in our day assumed a humanity which they never before manifested.
4. The influence of each individual Christian and the tendency of Christian institutions combine to secure the fulfilment of these prospects. And if so, may we not reasonably exult in this blessed doctrine of Christ? And if we look back with shame and pain on the history of the nations that call themselves Christian, let us seek our selves to manifest a better spirit and be men of peace. (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
God the Arbitrator
Here is a prediction of arbitration in case of war. He . . . shall rebuke many people. Read the word rebuke--He shall arbitrate amongst many people; He shall hear their cause; He shall redress their grievances; He shall determine their controversies, and men shall accept His award as final. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Learning war no more
Not learning war is something more than not continuing to practise it (Calvin), and signifies their ceasing to know how to practise it. (J. A. Alexander.)
War
I. THE MISERIES AND CRIMES OF WAR.
II. THE SOURCES OF WAR. Many will imagine that the first place ought to be given to malignity and hatred. But justice to human nature requires that we ascribe to national animosities a more limited operation than is usually assigned to them in the production of war.
1. One of the great springs of war is the strong and general propensity of human nature towards the love of excitement, of emotion, of strong interest.
2. Another powerful principle of our nature, which is a spring of war, is the passion for superiority, for triumph, for power.
3. Another powerful spring of war is the admiration of the brilliant qualities displayed in war.
4. Another cause of war is false patriotism.
5. Another spring of war, the impression (and false views of war)we receive in early life. These principal causes of war are of a moral nature. They may be resolved into wrong views of human glory, and into excesses of passions and desires, which, by right direction, would promote the best interests of humanity. From these causes we learn that this savage custom is to be repressed by moral means, by salutary influences on the sentiments and principles of mankind.
III. THE REMEDIES OF WAR. Without taking an extreme position, we ought to assail war, by assailing the principles and passions which gave it birth, and by improving and exalting the moral sentiments of mankind.
1. Important service may be rendered to the cause of peace by communicating and enforcing just and elevated sentiments in relation to the true honour of rulers.
2. To these instructions should be added just sentiments as to the glory of nations.
3. Another most important method of promoting the cause of peace is to turn mens admiration from military courage to qualities of real nobleness and dignity.
4. Let Christian ministers exhibit, with greater clearness, the pacific and benevolent spirit of Christianity. (W. E. Channing, D. D.)
Private war abolished
There was a time, not very long ago, when private war was even more universal than public or international war is today. City against city! Baron against baron! Even private persons were entitled to settle their differences by judicial combat if they preferred. Right of trial by combat still survives in some European countries in the form of duelling. But with that solitary exception, private war has now been entirely abolished throughout the civilised world. How has this immense improvement been achieved? The fact to be specially remembered is that the barons of the Middle Ages submitted very reluctantly and slowly to the substitution of judicial arbitration for private war. Kings had not the power to compel, and the barons continually defied the kings. Gradually a more enlightened and moral public opinion grew up in favour of the rational and Christian method of settling disputes. At last the supremacy of law and of courts of justice became established. Private war is now impossible, so absolute is the triumph of Christianity in the internal affairs of the nation. Now, a precisely similar slow and intermittent change is evolving better order in international life. Barbarous and heathen governments still defy the dictates of reason and of conscience as the cities and barons of the Middle Ages did. But slowly and intermittently their ferocity is being overcome. Arbitration has already been substituted for war in a large number of important cases which, in any previous period of human history, would inevitably have deluged the world with blood. (H. P. Hughes, M. A.)
War
I. THE TERRIBLE EVILS OF WAR. There are many evils we have to endure in this life that we cannot avoid. They are unforeseen, indirect, irresistible. Disease, domestic sorrows, adversity, and other evils befall men; but none can equal war.
II. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SETTLE NATIONAL DISPUTES BY WAR. No argument is necessary to prove that physical force can never settle the right or wrong of any question. The most powerful battalions are not always on the side of the just cause. And when a war is over, who accepts it as a final settlement of the question in dispute? Often a bloody war is followed by conferences and treaties, and after a vast expenditure of treasure and life, after the entrance of sorrow into many homes, the measures which should have been resorted to at first are the measures which decide the question How often one side accepts peace simply because, for the present, it can no longer prosecute war. The only true method of settling quarrels is by reason, the furnishing of explanations, the granting of concessions, the manifestation of a desire and purpose to agree. Two nations may thus settle their misunderstandings without calling in a third party, or they may call in others to arbitrate between them and agree to abide by their decision. A high court of arbitration is in full agreement with enlightened reason and Christian teaching; it seems in the highest degree practicable, and it would prove, in its operations and results, one of the greatest blessings to the nations of the earth.
III. ONE OF THE MOST PRESSING DUTIES OF CHRISTIAN MEN IS TO EMPLOY ALL POSSIBLE MEANS FOR THE EXTINCTION OF WAR. We should steadfastly set ourselves against the maintenance of large standing armies. We should leaven public opinion with the principles of peace by the press, in social intercourse, and by using our power as citizens in seeking to purge our Legislature as much as possible from warlike influences. There is no cause in which womans influence may be more appropriately exercised or can have greater weight. Preachers of the Gospel should preach peace. (W. Walters.)
Universal peace
Let me attempt to do away a delusion which exists on the subject of prophecy. Its fulfillments are all certain, say many, and we have therefore nothing to do but to wait for them in passive and indolent expectation. Now, it is very true, that the Divinity will do His work in His own way, but if He choose to tell us that that way is not without the instrumentality of men, might not this sitting down into the mere attitude of spectators turn out to be a most perverse and disobedient conclusion! The prophecy of a peace as universal as the spread of the human race, and as enduring as the moon in the firmament, will meet its accomplishment; but it will be brought about by the activity of men--by the philanthropy of intelligent Christians.
I. THE EVILS OF WAR. The mere existence of this prophecy is a sentence of condemnation upon war. So soon as Christianity shall gain a full ascendency in the world, war is to disappear. We have heard that there is something noble in the art of war; that there is something generous in the ardour of that fine chivalric spirit which kindles in the hour of alarm, and rushes with delight among the thickest scenes of danger and of enterprise; that expunge war, and you expunge some of the brightest names in the catalogue of human virtue, and demolish that theatre on which have been displayed some of the sublimest energies of the human character. One might almost be reconciled to the whole train of its calamities and its horrors, did he not believe his Bible, and learn that in the days of perfect righteousness, there will be no war;--that so soon as the character of man has had the last finish of Christian principle thrown over it, all the instruments of war will be thrown aside, and all its lessons forgotten. But apart altogether from this testimony to the evil of war, let us take a direct look at it, and see whether we can find its character engraven on the aspect it bears to the eye of an attentive observer. Were the man who stands before you in the full energy of health, to be in another moment laid by some deadly aim a lifeless corpse at your feet, there is not one of you who would not prove how strong are the relentings of nature at a spectacle so hideous as death. But generally the death of violence is not instantaneous, and there is often a sad and dreary interval between its final consummation, and the infliction of the blow which causes it. A soldier may be a Christian, and from the bloody field on which his body is laid, his soul may wing its way to the shores of a peaceful eternity. But when I think that the Christians form but a little flock, and that an army is not a propitious soil for the growth of Christian principle; when I follow them to the field of battle, and further think, that on both sides of an exasperated contest the gentleness of Christianity can have no place in almost any bosom, but that nearly every heart is lighted up with fury, and breathes a vindictive purpose against a brother of the species, I cannot but reckon it among the most fearful of the calamities of war, that while the work of death is thickening along its ranks, so many disembodied spirits should pass into the presence of Him who sitteth upon the throne, in such a posture, and with such a preparation.
II. Let me direct your attention to THOSE OBSTACLES WHICH STAND IN THE WAY OF THE EXTINCTION OF WAR, and which threaten to retard, for a time, the accomplishment of this prophecy.
1. The first great obstacle is the way in which the heart of man is carried off from its barbarities and its horrors, by the splendour of its deceitful accompaniments. There is a feeling of the sublime in contemplating the shock of armies, just as there is in contemplating the devouring energy of a tempest; and this so elevates and engrosses the whole man, that his eye is blind to the tears of bereaved parents, and his ear is deaf to the piteous moan of the dying, and the shriek of their desolated families. There is a gracefulness in the picture of a youthful warrior burning for distinction on the field, and lured by this generous aspiration to the deepest of the animated throng, where, in the fell work of death, the opposing sons of valour struggle for a remembrance and a name; and this side of the picture is so much the exclusive object of our regard, as to disguise from our view the mangled carcasses of the fallen, and the writhing agonies of the hundred and the hundreds more who have been laid on the cold ground, where they are left to languish and die. On every side of me I see causes at work which go to spread a most delusive colouring over war, and to remove its shocking barbarities to the background of our contemplations altogether. I see it in the history which tells me of the superb appearance of the troops and the brilliancy of their successive charges. I see it in the poetry which lends the magic of its numbers to the narrative of blood, and transports its many admirers, as by its images and figures and its nodding plumes of chivalry it throws its treacherous embellishments over a scene of legalised slaughter.
2. But another obstacle to the extinction of war is the sentiment that the rules and promises of the Gospel which apply to a single individual, do not apply to a nation of individuals. If forbearance be the virtue of an individual, forbearance is also the virtue of a nation. If it be the glory of a man to defer his anger, and to pass over a transgression, that nation mistakes its glory which is so feelingly alive to the slightest insult, and musters up its threats and its armaments upon the faintest shadow of a provocation. If it be the magnanimity of an injured man to abstain from vengeance, and if by so doing, he heap coals of fire upon the head of his enemy, then that is the magnanimous nation, which, recoiling from violence and from blood, will do no more than send its Christian embassy, and prefer its mild and impressive remonstrance; and that is the disgraced nation which will refuse the impressiveness of the moral appeal that has been made to it.
III. IT IS ONLY BY THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE AMONG THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH THAT THE ATROCITIES OF WAR WILL AT LENGTH BE SWEPT AWAY FROM IT. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
The worlds deliverance from war
Ever since the fall, our world has exhibited much of degradation and misery; and it is lamentably true, that a vast amount of its wretchedness has been produced by the active agency of its own inhabitants. Man has hated and oppressed his fellow man But how delightful is it to think that we have been assured by the word of Divine inspiration, that it is the design of the great Creator of all things, to reclaim our earth from its state of degradation and wickedness and misery, and to make it again the scene of holiness and harmony and happiness!
I. THE NATURE OF THE EVIL TO BE REMOVED. This evil is represented to consist in the lifting up of the sword, and in the learning of the art of war.
II. THE CHARACTER OF THE CHANGE TO BE PRODUCED. They shall beat, etc. The period is to arrive, in the history of our world, in which the operation of those unholy passions by which so much destruction and misery has been produced, shall be subdued; and in which the principle of love to God and to men shall be delightfully predominant within the human bosom.
III. THE MEANS BY WHICH THE HAPPY TRANSITION IS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED. Swords are to be beaten into ploughshares, and spears to pruning hooks, and war is no more to be learned, when many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, for He will teach us of His ways. Hence, it appears that the change is to be produced by the agency of the Gospel. There may be other instrumentalities era subordinate nature brought into operation, such as the commercial intercourse of nations with each other, and the knowledge which they may acquire of their mutual interests and dependencies; but the religion of Jesus is to be the principal cause of the termination of hostilities in our world, and the introduction of the reign of universal peace and felicity. The Gospel of Christ informs us of the source whence all our enmities and contentions proceed, even from the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of our hearts. The Gospel of Christ first of all reconciles man to his God, and then works within him the dispositions which lead him to be reconciled to his fellow man, and to love him with a pure heart fervently. The Gospel of Christ inculcates those principles of peace and goodwill, the recognition of which composes differences, softens down resentments, inspires with forgiving and kindly feelings, and prompts, to deeds of beneficence. It is the testimony of experience, moreover, that nothing but the Gospel of Christ has ever opposed the system of war, and diminished in any degree the amount of the evil which it occasions. The ancient philosophy dignified with the name of virtues the unholy passions from which it arose, and the poets of the olden times made it the theme of their highest admiration, and of their sweetest praise. The classical heathenism of Greece and of Rome had its god and goddess of war, and represented its deities as mingling in the fray and delighting in the carnage of the battlefield. But Jesus appeared in our world as the Prince of Peace; and one of the most delightful precepts of His meek and gentle faith is, Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God. What was it but the spirit of Christianity which put an end to the cruel gladiator ships of the amphitheatre of Rome? What was it but the spirit of Christianity which subdued the fierceness of the Huns, the Goths, and the Vandals of former times, and made so many of them the soldiers of the Cross and the followers of the Captain of our salvation? (W. MKerrow.)
The cessation of war an effect of the prevalence of Christianity
Notwithstanding any accompanying references, we cannot hesitate to take this for a prediction of times yet to come. Evidently, it has never yet been fulfilled.
1. It is as conjoined with very nearly the beginning of our race, that we have to look upon this direful phenomenon. But how strange, for a creature, come fresh, living, and pure, from the beneficent Creators hands! The least that we can think of that original state of man is, that there must have been in his soul the principle of all kind affections,--a state of feeling that would have been struck with horror at the thought of inflicting suffering. And, from the creature thus originally constituted, all the race was to descend. Can such a nature ever rage with malignity and revenge, and riot in suffering and destruction? Yet, in this original family, in the very first degree of the descent, war and slaughter began. While we think of the deadly conflicts of those early ages, the idea may occur to us of the peculiar atrocity of destroying a life which might, in the course of nature, have lasted so long. Living beings cloven down or mortally pierced or poisoned or burnt that might have lived seven or eight centuries, for improvement, for serving God, for usefulness, for whatever happiness there might have been in this world or preparation for another!
2. The world began anew in the person and family of a selected patriarch, whom alone the Lord had seen righteous in that Generation. Now, then, for a better race,--if the human nature were intrinsically good, or corrigible by the most awful dispensations. But all in vain! The flood could not cleanse the nature of man; nor the awful memory and memorials of it repress the coming forth of selfishness, pride, ambition, anger, and revenge.
3. The sacred history, after Just recounting some successions of names in the different branches of the new race, limits its narrative to the origin and progress of what became the Jewish people--Abraham and his posterity. Their history, however, in proceeding downward, involves much of that of the surrounding nations. And some of the profane histories go far back into the period subsequent to the deluge. And what is so conspicuous over all the view, as wars and devastations? There is one portion of this tragical exhibition which we are to take out of the account of ordinary war, namely, the war of extirpation against the Canaanites. But, setting this portion of the history aside, think of the long course of sanguinary conflicts within the boundary of the selected nation itself, between Israel and Judah. Besides the slaughters, of battle and massacre, within each separately, of these two divisions of that people, add, all their wars with Syria and Egypt, with the Babylonian, Grecian, and Roman powers, closed finally, in that most awful catastrophe, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.
4. Then glance a moment over the wider view of the whole ancient world; as far abroad and as high up in time as history has made it visible. The human race is exhibited, in some regions, in the form of numerous small states. But their smallness of size and strength was not the measure of their passions. What we are certain to read of them is, that they attacked and fought one another with the ferocity of wild beasts. By some ambitious conquering hero a great number of these were subdued and moulded together into a great kingdom, on one large space of the earth, and the same on another. And then with a tremendous clash, these empires came into conflict.
5. But now if we could take one grand compass of view over the earth, and down through time from that period to this! What a vision of destruction! And to complete the account--as if the whole solid earth were not wide enough--the sea has been coloured with blood, and received into its dark gulf myriads of slain, as if it could not destroy enough by its tempests and wrecks! Reflections--
(1) What a state of the spirit of mankind, of their heart and intellect is here disclosed before us!
(2) What a state of their social constitution, and of their national situation, that the mass and strength of nations should, over the greatest part of the world, be at the absolute disposal of a few individuals, for this very business of war!
(3) What a state of the moral sense, that there should be whole hosts of men, leaders and followers, capable of holding themselves totally divested of all personal responsibility for right and wrong, in the zealous prosecution of such achievements!
(4) What a state of Christianity, as to any real, vital prevalence of it among the nations denominated Christian! (John Foster.)
War
I. SOME OF THE LEADING FEATURES OF WAR, AS RECORDED IN GODS WORD.
1. The cause of war (Jam_4:1-2). From this passage, we see that just as in domestic broils, just as in strifes between sects and parties, so in strifes between nation and nation--they all proceed from the lusts of men, and from that carnal mind which is enmity against God.
2. We learn from Gods Word that war is a tremendous evil. What horror filled the soul of the prophet Jeremiah, when he heard the rumour of war--My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketha noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war (Jer_4:19). See again Jer_47:2-3, how the prophet describes the distress and anguish of the Philistines at the approach of an invading army--an anguish so great and so terrible, as to lead them even to forget the common ties of humanity. See again Deu_28:50-51, how Moses speaks of the devastating force of an invading army; and Joe_2:2, where the prophet describes the day of the Lord as compared to an invading army.
3. Gods Word shows us that war is one of Gods scourges, by which He punishes guilty nations for their wickedness. In Eze_14:21, the sword |s distinctly spoken of as one of Gods four sore judgments.
4. Gods Word shows us that it is He alone who can bring war to an end. Psa_46:9.) In every war God has a special design of His own to fulfil--a purpose into which the eye of mortality can never pierce--but untilthat purpose is executed the war can never end. (Jer_47:6-7.)
5. Gods Word shows that war is to be the immediate precursor of the terrors of the latter days. (Joe_3:9, etc.; Mat_24:6.)
6. Gods Word declares that there is a time approaching when wars will forever cease.
II. PRACTICAL LESSONS.
1. What is our present duty
2. The necessity of being prepared for the things that are coming upon the earth.
3. The awfulness of being overtaken unprepared. You will be speechless. (A. W.Snape, M. A.)
The means by which this prophecy is to be fulfilled
I. A PROPER ESTIMATE OF THE MISERIES OF WAR must prepare the way for universal peace.
II. THE DISSEMINATION OF THE WORD OF GOD. Nothing but the Word of God can effect the cure of this moral distemper--nothing but the Spirit of God can subdue the native principles of the heart--nothing but the salvation of the Gospel can remove the evil we deplore. There is no other remedy can reach the core of the malady.
III. THE PRAYERS OF CHRISTIANS must accompany the other means used for the establishment of peace. (J. Gray, M. A.)
War to cease
I. HUMAN INDUSTRY IS A FEATURE IN THE BRIGHT PICTURE OF FUTURE HAPPINESS. The inhabitants of the earth throughout the millennium, when the globe is to be covered with its first beauty, are not to subsist without some measure of labour. They are to use the ploughshare and the pruning hook; and this use is sufficient to show that the ground will not then yield its fruits, except in return for the toil of the husbandman. It seems to indicate how accurately the world will be put back into its condition before defiled by sin--that a necessity for toiling should be alleged or implied; though all that is painful or exhausting in labour must be supposed to have ceased. We are greatly struck by the carefulness displayed throughout the Bible, to put honour on industry, and to represent labour as in the largest sense an appointment of God. The too common sup position is, that labour was a curse which disobedience provoked, whereas labour was appointed unto man while yet in the full enjoyment of the favour of his God. We are so constituted, that labour is indispensable to our happiness, to the strengthening of our faculties, and to the preservation of a wholesome tone in our spirits. We know not whether the going to the armouries, and ransacking them for the materials of the implements of agriculture, may not mark such increase in the number of the inhabitants of the world, as would require continued effort on the part of the husbandman to keep pace with the growing demand, so that ploughshares and pruning hooks are not furnished fast enough, and swords and spears must be made to do their office. But we now proceed to consider what seems given as the reason for this conversion of the instruments of war into the implements of husbandry.
II. THERE WILL CERTAINLY BE NO FURTHER USE FOR THE ARMS OF WAR--Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. It is Isaiahs assertion, that the cessation of war is to result from the general diffusion of Christian principles. And there is no difficulty in tracing the necessary connection between the sovereignty of Christ and the extinction of war; for the tendency of the religion of Jesus is to bind the whole world in brotherhood.
III. WAR SHALL NOT ONLY CEASE AS AN EMPLOYMENT, BUT ALSO AS A SCIENCE--Neither shall they learn war any more. They shall not only enjoy the liberty of peace--for peace may be, and too commonly is a season in which war is studied, and preparations are made for future battles; they shall be so secure of peace being permanent, that the arts of attack and defence will fall into oblivion, and the whole array of military tactics pass from the world like the science of the necromancer, or any other exploded and reprobated study. We find no hint in Scripture, but altogether the reverse, that the profession of a soldier cannot harmonise with godliness. The angel sent to the Roman centurion bore no message as to the unlawfulness of his calling. But these admissions are quite in harmony with what we have stated as to the condemnation of war, which is wound up in the sentence that war is a science. That men should not merely have been roused by sudden passion into the doing violence to one another, but that they should actually have studied how best to effect the butchery of thousands, having their schools and establishments in which numbers may be trained in the art of destruction--this, of itself, presents such a picture of human depravity as would serve for the painter who might desire to exhibit it in the darkest possible colours. There is a great difference between a prophecy which should assert the termination of war as an employment, and another which affirms its termination as a science; since the former might only show the existence of a restraining power, whereas the latter indicates such a forgetfulness or renunciation of everything military as requires the supposing the human race universally changed, and all the elements of discord eradicated from every bosom. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
William Penn
The King of England strongly urged William Penn (the founder of Pennsylvania), out of the kings great respect for his father, Admiral Penn, as he was going out with many followers amongst known savages, to take out with him sufficient troops which should be placed at his service. It was averred that William Penn and his followers would speedily be placed in the war kettle of the untutored Indians, if he did not go out well armed to protect himself and his large colony. In the spirit of his Master, the Prince of Peace, he declined to take any soldiers; he went open handed and unarmed to the red men! When the Council of State was held, the red men believed in William Penns professions of amity, and they always thereafter lived in peace! When the Indians disagreed amongst their several tribes they frequently took their differences to be settled justly by William Penn, or their Father Onas, as they became accustomed to call him. (James Withers.)
War sometimes justifiable
A war undertaken in self-defence is natural and right, and under the rights of self-defence must be included the protection of our countrymen in distant lands and of our interests in the future as well as in the present. It must be carried on with a serious mind, with a consistent purpose, and not without the hope of benefiting other nations as well as ourselves; it can only be justified by the event whether it leaves the world better off than it found it. There are many evils for which war provides the only remedy, and we cannot say that centuries of oppression are better than a struggle for independence. The religion of Christ gives no sanction or encouragement to war. The conscience of mankind acknowledges that while wars continue there is something not altogether right in the world; and yet under given circumstances it may be the duty of a nation to strike the blow; the greatest safety may be the willingness to meet the greatest danger. (Prof. B. Jowett, D. D.)
The evils of war--loss of life
What a fearful loss of human life it entails! It is computed that Alexander and Caesar caused, each of them, the death of two millions of the human race. Bonapartes campaign in Russia carried death to five hundred thousand human beings, and in the vast majority of that number death was accompanied by the most awful sufferings. At Borodino in one day eighty thousand were sacrificed amid the most horrid cruelties. The next day it was found that a surface of about nine squares miles was covered with the killed and wounded; the latter lying one upon another, destitute of assistance, weltering in their blood, uttering fearful groans, and beseeching any who passed by to put an end to their excruciating torments. During the burning of Moscow, twelve thousand wounded were in the hospitals; and almost all perished in the flames. No tongue or pen can describe the horrors of the retreat. Multitudes of these desolate fugitives, says Sir R.K. Porter, in his Narrative of the Campaign in Russia, lost their speech, others were seined with frenzy, and many were so maddened by the extremes of pain and hunger that they tore the dead bodies of their comrades into pieces, and feasted on the remains. The last Russian war cost this country a hundred thousand human lives. Hundreds of thousands fell victims during the Franco-German war. In one sortie from Metz four hundred wives were made widows, and upwards of a thousand children fatherless, out of a single Prussian regiment in the course of an hour. What barbarities are practised! What disastrous results follow! What desolation to fertile and flourishing districts of country! What a blight shed on commerce! What an increase of taxation! What corruption to public morals! It is impossible to exaggerate, in conception or statement, the evils of war. (W. Waiters.)
The enormous cost of war
When Napoleons army marched up towards Moscow, they burned every house for one hundred and fifty miles. Our Revolutionary war cost the English Government six hundred and eighty millions of dollars. The wars growing out of the French Revolution cost England three thousand millions of dollars. Christendom--or, as I might mispronounce it in order to make the fact more appalling, Christendom--has paid in twenty-two years fifteen thousand million dollars for battle. Those were the twenty-two years, I think, ending in 1820 or thereabout. Edmund Burke estimated that the nations of thin world had expended thirty-five thousand million dollars in war; but he did his ciphering before our great American and European wars were plunged. He never dreamed that in this land, in the latter part of this century, in four years, we should expend in battle three thousand million dollars. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
Enormous sacrifice of human life through war
In one battle, under Julius Caesar, four hundred thousand fell. Under Xerxes, in one campaign, five millions were Slain. Under Jengispham, at Herat, one million six hundred thousand were slain. At Nishar, one million seven hundred and forty-seven thousand were slain. At the siege of Ostend, one hundred and twenty thousand. At Acre three hundred thousand. At the siege of Troy, one million eight hundred and sixteen thousand fell. The Tartar and African wars cost one hundred and eighty million lives. The wars against the Turks and the Saracens cost one hundred and eighty million lives. Added to all these, the million who fell in our own conflict. Then take the fact that thirty-five times the present population of the earth have fallen in battle. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
The greatest peace
The greatest peace can only be secured by the entire extinction, as speedily as possible, of the false Gospels of Materialism and Force. Empires built on Force have never persisted. Military kingdoms must pass away. No nation was ever more military than Rome; it was armed from head to foot; it was a great fighting empire, and though it lasted long it had to go. The seven Oriental empires that preceded Rome were military; they, too, have disappeared. Permanence of empire depends on peace, social justice, liberty, and brotherhood. (J. Clifford, D. D.)
Christian achier and war
There is no reason why a Christian soldier should not as vehemently denounce war as a medical man attacks disease, as a minister does sin. Success would mean in either ease an end of their work, but that in either case were a consummation devoutly to be wished. The sooner the profession of arms becomes unnecessary and impossible, the better for everybody. (H. P. Hughes, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Isa_2:4. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and…
THE CESSATION OF WAR
Isa_2:4. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more
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A prediction of times yet to come. It has never yet been fulfilled. It is true that when the religion of Christ came to the world it came with the spirit and principles of an all-pacific dispensation (“On earth peace, good-will towards men”); and true that, in the degree of its actual prevalence, this has been the effect. But how far is this from anything adequate to the terms of the prediction, which exhibit a bright and ample idea of this spirit and tendency of Christianity realised, reduced to fact, on the great scale!
I. War has been a prominent character of all ages.
1. Man, when he came fresh from his Creator’s hands, must have had in his soul the principle of all kind affections (Gen_1:27), a state of feeling that would have been struck with horror at the thought of inflicting suffering. Yet in the first family of man war and slaughter began. Men may argue and quibble against our notion of “the fall,” but here was fall enough! and demonstration enough!
2. War prevailed among the antediluvians (Gen_6:5; Gen_6:12). We are told of some that “became mighty men, men of renown.” How? Partly perhaps in a war against savage beasts, but far more in the exploits of that “violence” which filled the earth, and doomed it to be overwhelmed.
3. War prevailed among the race descended from Noah. It was by the descendants of the only faithful friend and servant of the Almighty found on earth that the desolated world was to be repeopled, and we might have hoped for a better race, if human nature were intrinsically good, or corrigible by the most awful dispensations. But the Flood could not cleanse the nature of man, nor the awful memory of it repress the coming forth of selfishness, pride, ambition, anger, and revenge.
(1.) The history of the Jews is to a large extent a history of wars.
(2.) The history of the other races is a history of their conflicts with each other, of a terrible process by which the smaller states were absorbed in others, until they were all included in the Roman empire. How many millions of human beings were destroyed in the process!
(3.) Since that period the history of the world has been to a large extent written in blood, [1279]
[1279] What a vision of destruction! Think of all that tormented and desolated the earth during the long period of the fall of the Roman Empire,—of that inundation of ravage and death, the progress and utmost extension of the Mahomedan power; of the mighty account of slaughter in the Spanish conquest of America; of the almost incessant wars among the states of civilised Europe down nearly to the present hour. Think even of the bloody wars within our own island, especially on the border between its northern and southern divisions; the hundreds of remaining fortresses, monumental of war. And to complete the account—as if the whole solid earth were not wide enough—the sea has been coloured with blood, and received into its dark gulf myriads of the slain, as if it could not destroy enough by its tempests and wrecks!—Foster.
Reflections:—
1. What a state of the spirit of mankind is here disclosed to us!
2. What a state of Christianity, or to any real prevalence of it, among the nations denominated Christian!
3. How necessary that all religioirs persons, especially tutors and parents, should set themselves systematically, as opportunities offer, to counterwork that maddening enchantment of the “glory” of war; of war considered merely as the field of great exploits. Let them strive to break up, in the view of young and ardent minds, this splendid, pestilent delusion about heroes, conquests, fame, and glory.
II. War is not necessarily sinful, nor are those engaged in it to be always condemned. Defensive war does not violate Christian principles. Nay, it is sometimes a duty. [1282] An opposite opinion is held by some who rest on the literal and extreme construction of a few expressions, such as “Resist not evil,” “Give place to wrath,” “Love your enemies,” “To him that smiteth thee on one cheek, turn also the other.” These interdict revenge. But their unqualified literal interpretation requires that Christianity should subject mankind universally to the unrestrained will of whoever is the most unjust and wicked; should teach that so long as there are men who have more of Satan and Moloch in them than the rest, and are intent on practising oppression and cruelty, it is the absolute duty of Christians, as such, individually and nationally, to let them do it,—at least rather than resist them in such a way as to endanger their persons. This would be a delightful doctrine to all the tyrants, bigots, slave—drivers, robbers, and murderers! But the magistrate is not so to leave the matter to God’s disposal, or to refrain from using the “sword” against the doers of evil. And the government of a nation is but a magistracy on a large scale.
[1282] About four or five years since, our Government had a war with the Pindarees—a terrible assemblage of outlaws, robbers, and murderers, to the number of fifty thousand, occupying a strong and almost inaccessible tract on the northern frontier. Thence with impetuous rapidity, they rushed down, all horsemen, on the country, inhabited by a population of cultivators; seized whatever could easily be carried off, and with furious eagerness demolished, burnt, destroyed the rest. But far more than this, they were universally possessed with the spirit of murder; they killed the people without regard to sex or age. Not only so, but when sufficiently at leisure for such amusement, they inflicted excruciating tortures previous to death.
Now, when the Governor-General had intelligence of this—what was he to do? what, acting as a Christian? Nothing? What, as a great magistrate, did he “bear the sword” for? What was he Governor at all for? To live in splendid state, and number and tax the people? Or was he to direct that prayer should be made in the churches for something very like a miracle? And on failure of that, prayers that the wretched people he governed might be all meekly resigned to their fate! and that even should the fell and fiendish legion, being unresisted, choose to pursue their way all down to Calcutta, all the people in their tract that could not escape, and at last himself and the people of the city, might be enabled calmly to submit to a sovereign dispensation of Providence?
He did not do this. He chose rather to act on the rule of his appointment, to be “a terror to evil-doers,” “a minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon them that do evil” (Rom_13:4). But if war is in all possible cases wrong, he perpetrated an enormous crime against Christianity in marching his armies with a celerity unparalleled in that climate, and encountering, intercepting, and exterminating the murderers, so that the surviving people could feel themselves in peace.
Put the stronger case of an immense host of northern barbarians being landed on our coasts (Tartars, Cossacks, Calmucks), and joined there by the legions of the Popish states, what would happen if we all, as Christians, judged it wrong and wicked to fight? Unless, indeed, we should suppose a divided opinion in the nation with respect to the Christian principle of the case, and that so a very large and powerful proportion was resolute to resist in all the array and action of war. Now, while with the utmost sacrifice and peril they were doing so, and suppose successfully, what a remarkable phenomenon would be presented! namely, the other division of the people deploring these very proceedings and successes by which their houses are saved from ravage and desolation,—deploring them as an awful outrage against Christian rectitude,—praying for the instant conversion of these deluded men to a right apprehension of Christian duty,—that they might immediately throw away their arms and allow the barbarian inundation to burst forward! Or, having failed in this prayer (and a mighty victory having finally cleared the land of the infernal irruption), then lamenting that a dreadful national violation of Christian principles had been irretrievably consummated! And as success purchased by crime can in the result be little else than a calamity and a judgment, they might be alarmed and dismayed to find themselves still in possession of their former freedom of worship, of speech, and of action, and of all their rights as citizens.—Foster. (Written in 1823.)
But those principles upon which a Christian casuist would justify war, under certain possible circumstances, would not justify perhaps one in twenty of the wars that have been waged. Very rare has been the instance of a war, on either side, strictly and purely defensive, of either the nation itself or any other endangered or oppressed people depending on its protection. Hence—
III. We rejoice over this prediction that war is to cease on the earth.
1. This prediction spreads a visionary scene before us so new, strange, and delightful, that nothing but prophecy, and faith in the divine power and goodness, could enable us to expect its realisation. [1285]
[1285] It is difficult to realise the fact to our imagination. No fighting on the face of the whole earth! no armies, nor military profession, nor garrisons, nor arms, nor banners, nor proclamations! No leagues, offensive or defensive; no guarding of frontiers; no fortresses; no military prisons! No celebrating of victories in gaudy pomps and revelries for the vulgar, or in prostituted poetry for the more refined! A wondering what kind of times those could be in which mankind accounted it the highest glory to kill one another! Truly this is a state of things we are ill prepared even to conceive!—Foster.
2. It is difficult to conceive the practicability of its attainment. For it is something intrinsic in the soul and nature of man, throughout the whole race, that war has sprung from. There is the hot and terrible element that has burst abroad in so many thunders. And yet it is man that is to be universally at peace! How can it be? (2Ki_7:2.) Vicious selfishness, ambition, envy, rivalry, rapacity, revenge, these are the things in men that cause wars between them, on the small scale and the great. How can these ever be so repressed, subdued, extirpated, that all war shall cease?
3. Certainly not by experience, philosophy, or civilisation, [1288]
[1288] Such things will be included, certainly, in whatever process can and shall reduce the world at length to peace; they will be taken as accessories and subsidiaries to the Master Power in operation. But whoever would reckon on such things alone should be strangely mortified, one thinks, in adverting to many facts of old and recent history. What, for example, is he to do with the history of Greece? or of the Italian Republics? Or nearer home, Britain and France account themselves the most enlightened and civilised states in the world: have they not been, with all their might, fighting and slaying each other and neighbouring nations for centuries, almost without intermission, down to this time? In the French revolutionary government, which, after a time, became essentially warlike, there were more philosophers, speculative, literary men, than ever in any other. In our own country, through the last half-century, the enlightened and civilised people (often so described and lauded at least) have needed but a little excitement, at any time, to rush out into war. Our institutions of learning, and even theology, have constantly abetted the spirit. An ever-flowing, impetuous stream there has been of oratory, poetry, and even pulpit declamation, mingling with and inspiriting the coarse torrent of the popular zeal for battles and victories. We have had both poets and divines actually sending the most immoral heroes to heaven, on the mere strength of their falling in patriotic combat. All this tells but ill for the efficacy of civilisation, literature, refinement, and the instruction of experience to promote the spirit of peace, without the predominance of some mightier cause.—Foster.
4. Nothing will operate efficaciously to this grand effect that does not go deep into the constitution of men’s souls, and quell internally those fatal passions which have perpetuated external war. And that is what cannot be done by any civilisation, national refinement, science, or even an enlightened theoretical policy. All these may be but like fair structures and gardens extended over a ground where volcanic fires are in a temporary slumber below. All these may be shattered and exploded by some mighty impulse of ambition or some blast of revengeful anger. No; there must be a greater, nobler power brought into prevalence among mankind. Nothing springing merely from the action of the human mind can suffice. It must be something coming from heaven. CHRISTIANITY is the appointed and qualified agent.
IV. It is credible that Christianity will cause wars to cease upon the earth.
1. It has accomplished something in this direction already. To it is mainly attributable the mitigation of ferocity and exterminatory rage, so evident in modern wars. We dare not assert even that it may not have prevented some wars.
2. It is essentially a peacemaker. Look at its genuine tendency, as displayed on the smaller scale, in a family, a neighbourhood, a district: a family in a constant state of hostility within itself, but at length the members of it are converted by the religion of Jesus Christ. The consequence how happy! (H. E. I. 1126.)
3. Precisely as it progresses among any people it will produce a distaste for war. [1291]
[1291] What will the natural consequence be in respect to war? Will it not be coldness towards that pernicious phantasm, martial “glory”;—a loathing of that sort of eloquence and poetry that are making a god of it;—a hatred of the very name of ambitious conquerors;—horror at the image of vast masses of men waiting to destroy one another;—a sense of the flagrant absurdity, as well as iniquity, of avenging some little wrong at the cost of so mighty a portion and variety of misery;—and a faith that Providence has not so abandoned the world that we are not to wait one moment for any interposition from it in favour of justice, but, the instant the scales of justice are poised, we must throw in the sword? Such would be the spirit and temper of a nation predominantly Christian.—Foster.
4. Consequently its progress among the nations is a progressive abolition of war. Every extension of this blessed religion is so much gained against war; quenching still another and another spark of infernal fire; repressing in some more minds those evil passions which are the prompters and the essential power of war.
5. Christianity is progressing among the nations.
6. Consequently it is reasonable to cherish the hope of a scene of universal peace (P. D. 2675).
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.—
1. The universal cessation of war means much more than merely the cessation of much mischief. Think what will be effected when the wealth, time, labour, art, ingenuity, of truly Christian nations are directed to the noblest purposes of peace!
2. Extirpate the war-spirit from your own breast. The selfish, proud, arrogant, envious, revengeful, are essentially of the war tribe, however little they have to do with actual war, however much they may condemn and profess to deplore it. Such individuals are not fit for that future terrestrial “kingdom of heaven.”—John Foster: Lectures, Second Series, pp. 142–173.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Isaiah speaks to the people of Judah in the form of a poem. (See: Parallelism)
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He will judge
"Yahweh will judge"
will render decisions
"will solve disputes"
they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks
The people of the nations will turn their weapons of war into tools for farming.
swords ... spears ... sword
These words are synecdoches for weapons of any kind. (See: Synecdoche)
plowshares ... pruning hooks
These words are synecdoches for tools of any kind that people use in peaceful activity. (See: Synecdoche)
they will hammer their swords into plowshares
"they will make their swords into tools for planting seeds." A plowshare is a blade that people use to dig into soil so they can plant seeds there.
their spears into pruning hooks
"they will hammer their spears into pruning hooks" or "they will make their spears into tools for caring for plants." A pruning hook is a knife that people use to cut unwanted branches off of plants.
nation will not lift up sword against nation
"no nation will lift up its sword against another nation." The sword is a metonym for war. AT: "one nation will not fight wars against another nation" (See: Metonymy)
nor will they train for war
"nor will they even train to fight wars." The writer expects his reader to believe that those who fight wars train before they fight and that some who train do not fight.
translationWords
judge
nation
people group
spear
sword
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:4 The Kingdom of God is evident when conflict…
2:4 The Kingdom of God is evident when conflict and violence end, and it is characterized by peace (Rom 14:17). People will cooperate willingly or they will be forced to end their hostilities (Ps 46:9). The nations will submit to divine arbitration rather than go to war (see Isa 1:18-20). • The words mediate and settle refer to God’s acts here, but later verses show the Messiah as the executor of justice (11:3-4). When this takes place, war will cease, and the nations will change their instruments of war into agricultural tools. • swords into plowshares: Cp. Joel 3:10, where the nations are exhorted to hammer their plowshares into swords.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.