REFUSING TO LEARN WAR
Part 2
When Isaiah spoke of the coming Messiah and His judging of the nations, it was uttered at a time when there were two nations of God’s people, the northern kingdom called Israel, which at this time had been taken captive by the Assyrians and the southern kingdom known as Judah as in the time of Isaiah in the last days of their nation before the coming of the Babylonians. Those, then, who were judged by the Messiah, through obeying Him. Would cease warfare with God. Here is how Isaiah describes it. They would beat their swords into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2:4).
The then existing nations of Israel and Judah would cease to learn war any more. The reference here is not to Israel and Judah in the sense of the two physical nations, rather, it is the idea that God’s people represented by the two nations of Israel and Judah would cease fighting each other. When the Messiah came in the last days, then the mountain of the Lord’s house would be established or set up (Isaiah 2:2). We know from the New Testament that the Lord’s house is the church of the living God (I Timothy 3:15). It was God’s plan to have a new body composed of both Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 3:6).
The wonderful message for us is that all men, regardless of nationality, may have the opportunity to become a child of God through faith in His Son (Galatians 3:26). That proper faith requires one to be baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27). Once this obedience is completed by being baptized and, thereby, contacting the blood of Christ, an individual is now Abraham’s seed (verse 29). All those who obey the truth to purify their hearts are now spiritual Jews (Romans 2:29, 29). The house of Israel and the house of Judah (spiritual Jews) have ceased warring against each other.
God uses this language to reveal that the coming of the Messiah would bring in a new covenant. God would make the new covenant with the “…house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Hebrews 8:8). When God comes to verse 10, He states the covenant would be with the house of Israel. What happened to the house of Judah? It is spiritual language to show us the unity of all spiritual Jews today. There are no longer two nations, but one. The headquarters or location of the presence of God is no longer in the city of Jerusalem; rather, it is in all nations wherever the gospel has gone and been accepted (Ephesians 2:22).
A great responsibility then rests on all those who would be soldiers of Christ. We are armed with the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. We use that sword in a spirit of love to reach the hearts of men and bring them to Christ (Ephesians 4:15). If we are to be true soldiers of the cross we must remain faithful to our Commander-in Chief. That faithfulness requires us to know who it is that we wield the sword against. The Messiah would teach us to not fight against each other, that is we would not learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4).
Armed with the truth, we are to be wise enough to not allow Satan to get an advantage over us (11 Corinthians 2:11). Faithful brethren can come into conflict with each other (Acts 15:38, 39). The presence of conflicts just shows us that we are indeed human and capable of making wrong decisions or statements. However, when we spend time trying to dig up dirt on someone from their distant past, it puts into serious jeopardy our faithfulness to the principle of not learning war any more. Jesus gave as our treatment of each other the proof that we are His disciples (John 13:35). Brethren, let us take up the sword of the Spirit and use it to convict hearts as followers of the Messiah.