Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 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 pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

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.”

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).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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.

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.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 2:4

And He shall Judge among the nations . . . neither shall they learn war any more

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.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

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

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!

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

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 mens 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 mens 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 Christs kingdom.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. judgeas a sovereignumpire, settling all controversies (compare Isa11:4). LOWTHtranslates “work,” “conviction.”

plowsharesin the Eastresembling a short sword (Isa 9:6;Isa 9:7; Zec 9:10).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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:

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,

Ps 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.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

“And He will judge between the nations, and deliver justice to many peoples; and they forge their swords into coulters, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation lifts not up the sword against nation, neither do they exercise themselves in war any more.” Since the nations betake themselves in this manner as pupils to the God of revelation and the word of His revelation, He becomes the supreme judge and umpire among them. If any dispute arise, it is no longer settled by the compulsory force of war, but by the word of God, to which all bow with willing submission. With such power as this in the peace-sustaining word of God (Zec 9:10), there is no more need for weapons of iron: they are turned into the instruments of peaceful employment, into ittim (probably a synonym for ethim in 1Sa 13:21), plough-knives or coulters, which cut the furrows for the ploughshare to turn up and mazmeroth , bills or pruning-hooks, with which vines are pruned to increase their fruit-bearing power. There is also no more need for military practice, for there is no use in exercising one’s self in what cannot be applied. It is useless, and men dislike it. There is peace, not an armed peace, but a full, true, God-given and blessed peace. What even a Kant regarded as possible is now realized, and that not by the so-called Christian powers, but by the power of God, who favours the object for which an Elihu Burritt enthusiastically longs, rather than the politics of the Christian powers. It is in war that the power of the beast culminates in the history of the world. This beast will then be destroyed. The true humanity which sin has choked up will gain the mastery, and the world’s history will keep Sabbath. And may we not indulge the hope, on the ground of such prophetic words as these, that the history of the world will not terminate without having kept a Sabbath? Shall we correct Isaiah, according to Quenstedt, lest we should become chiliasts? “The humanitarian ideas of Christendom,” says a thoughtful Jewish scholar, “have their roots in the Pentateuch, and more especially in Deuteronomy. But in the prophets, particularly in Isaiah, they reach a height which will probably not be attained and fully realized by the modern world for centuries to come.” Yet they will be realized. What the prophetic words appropriated by Isaiah here affirm, is a moral postulate, the goal of sacred history, the predicted counsel of God.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

4. And he shall judge among the nations He means that the doctrine will be like a king’s scepter, that God may rule among all nations; for, by a figure of speech in which a part is taken for the whole, the Hebrew word שפט, ( shaphat,) to judge, means to govern or to reign. since, therefore, God had not taken more than one nation to be subject to his reign, the Prophet here shows that the boundaries of his kingdom will be enlarged, that he may rule over various nations. He likewise notices indirectly the difference between the kingdom of David, which was but a shadow, and this other kingdom, which would be far more excellent. At that time God ruled over his chosen people by the hand of David, but after the coming of Christ he began to reign by himself, that is, in the person of his only-begotten Son, who was truly God manifested in the flesh. (1Ti 3:16.) The prophets sometimes employ the name of David when they are speaking about the kingdom of Christ, and they do so with propriety, that is, with respect to his human nature; for the Redeemer had been promised to spring from that family. (Jer 30:9; Eze 34:23.) But here the Prophet extols his divine majesty from which it is evident how much more excellent is the condition of the new Church than that of the ancient Church, since God hath revealed himself as King in his Son. And again he confirms the calling of the Gentiles, because Christ is not sent to the Jews only, that he may reign over them, but that he may hold his sway over the whole world.

And shall rebuke many nations The word יכח ( yakach) sometimes means to expostulate, sometimes to correct, and likewise to prepare; but the ordinary interpretation is most suitable to this passage, in which the Prophet speaks of the reformation of the Church. For we need correction, that we may learn to submit ourselves to God; because, in consequence of the obstinacy which belongs to our nature, we shall never make progress in the word of God, till we have been subdued by violence. Accordingly, Christ makes the beginning of preaching the gospel to be, that the world be reproved concerning sin. (Joh 16:8.) That the doctrine may not be without profit, Isaiah shows that the stubbornness of our flesh must be subdued; and therefore he attributes to God the office of a reproving judge, that he may try our life, and, by condemning our vices, may effect a reformation of our morals. And, indeed, we see how little effect is produced by the gospel unless where that power of the Spirit is exercised which leads men to repentance.

And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares He next mentions the beneficial result which will follow, when Christ shall have brought the Gentiles and the nations under his dominion. Nothing is more desirable than peace; but while all imagine that they desire it, every one disturbs it by the madness of his lusts; for pride, and covetousness, and ambition, lead men to rise up in cruelty against each other. Since, therefore, men are naturally led away by their evil passions to disturb society, Isaiah here promises the correction of this evil; for, as the gospel is the doctrine of reconciliation, (2Co 5:18,) which removes the enmity between us and God, so it brings men into peace and harmony with each other. The meaning amounts to this, that Christ’s people will be meek, and, laying aside fierceness, will be devoted to the pursuit of peace.

This has been improperly limited by some commentators to the time when Christ was born; because at that time, after the battle of Actium, the temple of Janus (37) was closed, as appears from the histories. I readily admit that the universal peace which existed throughout the Roman empire, at the birth of Christ, was a token of that eternal peace which we enjoy in Christ. But the Prophet’s meaning was different. He meant that Christ makes such a reconciliation between God and men, that a comfortable state of peace exists among themselves, by putting an end to destructive wars. For if Christ be taken away, not only are we estranged from God, but we incessantly carry on open war with him, which is justly thrown back on our own heads; and the consequence is, that everything in the world is in disorder.

Besides, Isaiah promises that, when the gospel shall be published, it will be an excellent remedy for putting an end to quarrels; and not only so, but that, when resentments have been laid aside, men will be disposed to assist each other. For he does not merely say, swords shall be broken in pieces, but they shall be turned into mattocks; by which he shows that there will be so great a change that, instead of annoying one another, and committing various acts of injustice, as they had formerly done, they will henceforth cultivate peace and friendship, and will employ their exertions for the common advantage of all; for mattocks and pruning-hooks are instruments adapted to agriculture, and are profitable and necessary for the life of man. He therefore shows that, when Christ shall reign, those who formerly were hurried along by the love of doing mischief, will afterwards contend with each other, in every possible way, by acts of kindness.

Neither shall they practice war any more (38) The word למד ( lamad) signifies either to be accustomed to, or to learn. But the meaning of the Prophet is plain enough, that they will not train themselves in destructive arts, and will not strive with each other in acts of cruelty and injustice, as they were formerly accustomed to do. Hence we infer that they have made little proficiency in the gospel, whose hearts have not been formed to meekness, and among whom there does not yet reign that brotherly love which leads men to perform kind offices to each other. But this cannot be done before the consciences have been brought into a state of peace with God; for we must begin there, in order that we may also be at peace with men.

Some madmen torture this passage to promote anarchy, ( ἀναρχίαν) as if it took away from the Church entirely the right to use the sword, and bring it forward for condemning with great severity every kind of wars. For example, if a prince defend the people entrusted to him, and protect them against injustice, those people say, “It is unlawful for Christians to use the sword.” But it is easy to reply to this; for the Prophet speaks metaphorically about the kingdom of Christ, which leads men, through mutual kindness, to become reconciled to each other. The Scriptures frequently employ a metaphor, in which the thing signified is denoted by a sign; as in that passage,

He who hath not a sword, let him buy one. (Luk 22:36.)

Christ certainly did not intend to induce his followers to fight, but intimated that the time of war was at hand. 0n the other hand, we are told that swords shall cease to exist, or shall be beaten down to serve a different purpose, when hatred and fighting shall be at an end, and when they who formerly were at enmity shall be reconciled to each other.

It may be objected that, in a state of harmony and peace, the sword will no longer be needed. I reply, that peace exists among us just as far as the kingly power of Christ is acknowledged, and that these two things have a mutual relation. Would that Christ reigned entirely in us! for then would peace also have its perfect influence. But since we are still widely distant from the perfection of that peaceful reign, we must always think of making progress; and it is excessive folly not to consider that the kingdom of Christ here is only beginning. Besides, God did not gather a Church — by which is meant an assembly of godly men — so as to be separate from others; but the good are always mixed with the bad; and not only so, but the good have not yet reached the goal, and are widely distant from that perfection which is required from them. The fulfillment of this prophecy, therefore, in its full extent, must not be looked for on earth. It is enough, if we experience the beginning, and if, being reconciled to God through Christ, we cultivate mutual friendship, and abstain from doing harm to any one.

(37) The temple of Janus was built by Numa Pompilius, whose wise and peaceful administration contrasts strongly with the bloody and ferocious wars by which many of the succeeding emperors endeavored to make themselves illustrious. It was expressly intended by its founder that this temple should repress the natural fierceness of the people by discouraging warlike operations. For this purpose the opening or shutting of its doors was made to indicate whether the Roman empire was in a condition of war or peace with the surrounding states. When war raged on all sides, all its doors stood open by night and by day; and the shutting of any one of them declared, that in that direction towards which it looked peace had been restored. Livy tells us, that so remarkable an event as the entire shutting up of this temple, which proclaimed that universal peace existed throughout the empire, had occurred but thrice during the long period of seven hundred years; once under the reign of Numa, next, during the consulship of Titus Manlius, and lastly, after the battle of Actium, in which the Emperor Augustus gained a splendid naval victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. (Liv. 1:19.) Historians have fixed the date of the latter event with extraordinary precision; and, while their only object was to pronounce a lofty panegyric on Augustus as the peculiar favourite of heaven, they have unintentionally recorded that the temple of Janus was shut up when the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6) was ushered into the world. So striking a coincidence could not fail to attract observation, as belonging to the fullness of the time (Gal 4:4) at which the Messiah appeared, and as one of the beautiful arrangements of him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. (Isa 28:29.) Rarely has chronology proved to be so delightful and instructive. — Ed.

(38) Neither shall they learn war any more. — Eng. Ver.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

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

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 Creators 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 accountas if the whole solid earth were not wide enoughthe 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, slavedrivers, robbers, and murderers! But the magistrate is not so to leave the matter to Gods 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 Pindareesa 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 thiswhat 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 mens 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. 142173.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(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.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. He shall judge That is, He from whom “the law” of the third verse goes forth.

Among Rather, between.

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.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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 . 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.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

swords. spears. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of the Part), for all kinds of weapons; while plowshares and pruning-hooks put by the same Figure, for all implements of peace. The signs are Figures, but the things signified are literal.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

The Transformation of the Sword

And he shall judge between the nations, and shall reprove many peoples and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.Isa 2:4.

It is a great vision that the prophet seesof a world transformed by religion and common sense. The nations which are now ready to fly at each others throats will one day, he sees, be willing to take their cases to Zion for arbitration; as we should say to-day, they will submit them to Jesus, to have them decided by the principles of justice and humanity, which are identified with Him more than with any other force in the world. And then, so reasonable and satisfactory will the decision be, that they will transform their weapons of war into instruments of peace, and men will be brothers the world over.

I

Why should the Nations learn War no more?

1. Because it is so costly

The cost of war is simply appalling. We cannot possibly have any adequate idea of what all the wars of the world have cost. The late Henry Richard, Secretary of the Peace Society, said, Give me the money which has been spent in war, and I will purchase every foot of land on the globe. I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens would be proud; I will build a schoolhouse on every hillside and in every valley over the whole earth; I will build an academy in every town and endow it, a college in every State, and will fill it with able professors; I will crown every hill with a place of worship consecrated to the promulgation of the gospel of peace; I will support in every pulpit an able teacher of righteousness, so that on every Sabbath morning the chime on one hill should answer the chime on another round the worlds wide circumference, and the voice of prayer and the song of praise should ascend like a universal offering to heaven.

According to reliable calculations, in less than three hundred years there has been spent in the game of human slaughter 1,500,000,000, drawn in taxes from the hard earnings of the workers of the country. The worlds wars during the nineteenth century amounted to nearly 4,000,000,000. About 16s. in every 1 raised in taxes has to be paid for existing armaments, and for interest on the National Debt, 788,000,000, incurred mainly by previous wars. All the European States are groaning under the taxation required to maintain their armaments. Some of them are almost crushed by a debt which borders on bankruptcy. The wealth, the strength, the skill which should be devoted to schools, orphanages, hospitals, the better housing of the poor, and old age pensions, are year by year more and more absorbed by the most gigantic preparations for warfare which the world has ever seen.1 [Note: D. S. Govett.]

Take some few points connected with the war in South Africa, remembering that the losses on the Boer side were at least equal to the British: killed in action, 2657; died of wounds in South Africa, 670; died of disease, 4337total deaths, 7810; total wounded, 12,209; invalids sent home, 19,277. Add to these the death of some 400,000 horses and mules, together with a debt of 250,000,000; besides 20,000,000 a year ever since the war in increased taxation.

Take next the awful slaughter of Russians and Japanese in the Russo-Japanese war, which is unparalleled in the history of the world. Of the Japanese there were killed and wounded, 218,429, besides of their sick, 221,326; total, 439,755 sufferers. Add to these the Russian losses, and the number will be nearly a million wrecked and injured men in this one war. Arbitration would have prevented this awful catastrophe.

Or take the Crimean War, which started from a trifling quarrel over the protection of holy places in Palestine, and was developed by Napoleon III. mainly for the selfish purpose of establishing his own dynasty by means of a great European war. That war cost the Western Powers 428,000 men, and the Russians 325,000. It cost England, moreover, 69,000,000 directly, and 63,000,000 indirectly. The whole of that war was sheer and useless waste of life and money, and no satisfactory object was gained.

My heart is broken, wrote Wellington on the morrow of Waterloo, by the terrible loss I have sustained in my old friends and companions, and my poor soldiers. Believe me, he said, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.

Vereschagin, the greatest military painter of the nineteenth century, has expressed himself upon the subject of war in these terms: I am not a military painter at all. I paint war scenes because they are very interesting. War is the loss of all human sense; under its influence men become animals entirely. The artist looks always for passion, and passion is seen at its height on the battlefield. This is why war attracts me, as it must always attract artists and authors too. Every hour brings something new, something never seen before, something outside the range of ordinary human life; it is the reversal of Christianity, and for the artist, the author, and the philosopher it must always have a supreme interest. But what a foolish game it is Here, men are being shot down like cattle; there, sisters of mercy are picking them up and trying to heal their wounds. A man no sooner falls than he is taken into the hospital, where men with broken limbs lie in hundreds or thousands; and while gentle women are tenderly caring for them, assuaging their agony, and lessening, as much as they can, their almost unbearable pain, men are falling like rain not far away. What nonsense. How stupid to wound a man to heal his wound again. The savages are the only logical warriors I know. They kill their enemies and eat them.

2. Because it is so cruel

How incredibly brutal it all is! The passionate fury of the fight, how terrible its power! How it lays hold of us! Who dares, in cold blood, to bring before his imagination the horror of the battle-scene? No one can believe it as he really tries to think it out. The pictures of the illustrated papers in war-time, the brilliant descriptions of correspondents, these turn us sick at the first look; and then we get used to themget used to them just because we cannot present such hideous cruelties to our imagination in real flesh and blood. As we read the wearisome repetitions of wounds and death, it becomes to us like some bad dream, some nightmareit cannot be really happening. We do not believe it. I shall never forget how this incredibility of it all came upon me once, when I passed out of the door of a panorama of the battle of Wrth, at Colognea panorama where everything was given, in terrific vigour, that could sicken and stun; where you positively felt the agony of the biting shells as they tore their way into the flesh, the crunching of the bones under the wheels of the artillery, the shrieks and yells of stricken men and terrified horses, the glare of relentless hate in the eyes of those who stabbed at wounded men on the groundwounded men who, writhing in the pangs of death, had spent their last gasp of ebbing strength in a treacherous shot into the back of the foe. There it all was, a scene of fierce madness, in which men seemed to have drunk of some hell-broth and become frenzied with the cruelty of fiends. Ah! to think that that should be the last sight of mother-earth which the memories of dying men should bear away with them into the far world beyond death! To think of the souls, flung hot from this savage roar or rage straight into the eternal silence, straight before the awful judgment throne of God! And then outside, as you passed into the pleasant Cologne gardens, there sat in crowds the soldiers of Germanythe very men who had maddened in that horrible frayquietly taking their ease in the sun, subdued and gentle; men with friendly faces and kindly eyes, strolling under the trees, and watching the merry children dance and play, surrendered to the sweet homeliness of household peace. And, as you looked at them, it seemed absolutely impossible to put the two contrasted scenes together. There was nothing in these men to suggest that it was conceivable that they actually could have ever been hotly engaged in deeds so barbarous and so bloody; that within them somewhere lay latent the fires that could blaze out in such frenzied violence, in the lust of slaughter, in the reckless ferocity of killing and being killed.1 [Note: Canon Scott Holland.]

II

The Moral Value of War

Such is war itself, as a visible fact. And all the concentrated skilfulness of science has but intensified this, its horrid aspect of hate and cruelty and hideousness. As our nerves grow ever more sensitive, and our instruments of slaughter ever more heartless and excruciating and far-reaching and wholesale, the horror ever grows in intensity and in range. And then, as we recognise this, there breaks in upon us the contrast which so surprised Plato. Somehow, who can deny it?out of this debasing and intolerable carnage there rises before us a moral character which startles us by its beautythe character of the perfect soldier. Whence has it sprung? What strange efficacy is there in this dark soil to breed such fair flowers? We can discern a reason, perhaps, for this steadiness of will, this trained and firm nerve, this disciplined obedience; but how has there been added to them this nobility of reserve, this delicacy of honour, this courteous deference, this quiet gentleness? Even in its rougher forms, we cannot but realise the value of the character built up under the training of the barracks. We see the rawest material, which defies all other methods of education, taken up by this disciplinary system and endowed with the instincts of confederated honour, and with the brotherly heart that comes from responsibilities shared in common. This in the very roughest. And, in its finer examples, it touches the very heights of the spiritual life; it becomes typical of all that is most serene, and high-strung, and controlled, and tender; it can pass up to the very glories of Christian saintliness. We in England know that type well, for we have had it portrayed for us in its most captivating and exquisite reality by the pen of Thackeray, in the pathetic figure of Colonel Newcome. And we have its entire secret faultlessly disclosed to us in the immortal lines of our highest master-poet, On the Character of the Happy Warrior. He

Who, if he be called upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined

Great issues, good or bad for human kind,

Is happy as a Lover, and attired

With sudden brightness like a Man inspired,

And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law

In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw;

Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth

For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,

Or he must go to dust without his fame,

And leave a dead unprofitable name

Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;

This is the happy Warriorthis is He

That every Man in arms should wish to be.

If we turn to the poetic literature in which all nations have expressed their first consciousness of the ideal element in life, we find that exaltation of heroism in battle forms one of its two most prominent themes. Poetry always seeks for its object in something that has an ideal meaning, something that shows an elevation of mans spirit above his merely physical existence; still it seeks this, not by breaking away from that existence, but rather by casting a new light upon it. If it tends to liberate mans soul from the contracted cares and fears of his natural life, it is not by setting the higher against the lower, the spirit against the flesh, but rather by lifting the latter, so far as may be, to the level of the former. Poetry seeks to turn the common bread of life into sacramental food, and its water into wine. Hence it attaches itself most often to those first and simplest manifestations of mans social and individual nature in which he shows that he is something higher than an animal; it attaches itself to the love which is the natural root of all the affections of the family, and the first expression of that capacity of living for others, of which the highest Christian charity is but the purified and extended manifestation; and it attaches itself in like manner to the valour of the soldier, which, as it rises above mere animal rage and deliberately faces and overcomes the fear of deathespecially if it does so not merely in defence of the honour of the individual, but of some wider interest of family or nationseems to give evidence of a nature that is above time and change. Hence it is that the simple tale of love and battle has such undying interest for us, and seems to encircle it with a halo of imagination and romance which is seldom associated with higher and less equivocal manifestations of mans moral nature. It is as if the earliest throb of the higher life in us had in its spontaneity a kind of attractiveness which is wanting to its later, more deliberate and self-conscious manifestations.

Let me in illustration take one slight incident which I find quoted from the account of Sir Charles Napiers war against the robber tribes of Northern Scinde: A detachment of troops were marching along a valley, the cliffs overhanging which were crested by the enemy. A sergeant with eleven men chanced to become separated from the rest by taking the wrong side of a ravine, which they expected soon to terminate, but which suddenly deepened into an impassable chasm. The officer in command signalled to the party an order to return. They mistook the signal for a command to charge; the brave fellows answered with a cheer and charged. At the summit of the steep mountain was a triangular platform, defended by a breastwork, behind which were seventy of the foe. On they went, charging up one of these fearful paths, eleven against seventy. The contest could not long be doubtful with such odds. One after another they fell; six upon the spot, the remainder hurled backwards; but not till they had slain nearly twice their own number. There is a custom, we are told, among the hillmen, that when a great chieftain of their own falls in battle his wrist is bound with a thread of red or green, the red denoting the highest rank. According to custom they stripped the dead, and threw their bodies over the precipice. When their comrades came up, they found their corpses stark and gashed; but round the wrist of every British soldier was twined the red thread of honour.1 [Note: E. Caird.]

III

How are we to abolish War and preserve its Moral Value?

We can throw off the horror and wickedness of war only by releasing from out this embroilment of blood, the moral qualities, the spiritual character, which have hitherto found their meaning and discipline under the conditions of war. Those qualities are too precious and rare for society to afford to lose them. They have on them the stamp of nobilitythe ideal beauty that belongs to the high excellences of obedience, of restraint, of self-sacrifice. They keep alive in us the sense of causes and of creeds for which it is a light thing to lay down our lives. They sustain that moral fibre, that fine and nervous temperament, which wealth, and ease, and the weight of crowds, and the irresolution of infinite debate, and the tumult of wordy talk, are but too apt to disannul. We cannot spare these virtueswe, least of all we English, who are so slack to recognise ideal motives, and so suspicious of all that is not practical and profitable. Yes; the world is right in its dim consciousness that, if by abolishing war it dropped these moral characteristics of the happy warrior, it would pay too high a price. It would be morally retrograding. This is why the poets, who are our idealists, have so often disappointed us by the zeal with which they have sounded the trumpet for war as against industry, just because they have felt sorely the depressing conviction that an industrial era of peace meant too surely the dearth of those finer moral elements that have somehow, as yet, shone in their brightest and fairest through the smoke and heat of the battle.

We have got to make human society aware that it can secure and retain and develop, under conditions of unbroken peace, all those precious qualities which now go to make the highest type of soldierly excellence. We shall never fully succeed in that object until we make it evident to the spiritual element in us that it does not need war in order to survive; that it can, without the ugly necessity of killing and being killed, still find vent for all that is in it of chivalry and of valour, for the heroism of self-devotion, and for the splendour of courage. We must educate these very qualities themselves to shrink in disgust from the barbarism of battle, to hunger for an exercise that will be free from cruelty and hate. If the soldier-spirit itself once learned the sensitiveness which would feel the moral hideousness of the scene in which it has to display its gift, then we might hope to see the beginning of the end. Then, and then only, could we genuinely look for the day when the very implements with which we fight should be turned to happier uses; when the very temper out of which wars are bred should devote itself to the labours of peace; when the very swords should be turned into ploughshares, and the spears into pruninghooks.

I remember being deeply struck by an illustration of this truth, given in some words of Johnson, the noble-hearted missionary on Lake Nyassa, when, some years ago, he was pleading for a steamer, which at this moment is running up and down the waters of the lake carrying peace and goodwill amid villagers that once never met except to fight. He showed us how the difficulty of ending the slave trade lay in thisthat the slave caravan was the only outlet for energy, the one spot of active motion that ever shook the stagnation of the blind African land. Into it, therefore, poured all that was vigorous and alert; those who took no part in its vile work were those who had no craving to move and live and act. The material that went now to work the slave trade was the best stuff in Africa; and you could never make anything of your civilisation there unless you could divert this excellent material into some new channel, where its energy would discover a fitter outlet than it could find in the old wickedness of enslaving. Therefore it was that he needed this steamer, in order that he might offer a field for the spirit of active adventure, which might thus be drawn off and purified and redeemed.1 [Note: Canon Scott Holland.]

In the work of covering the waste lands of vast colonies with ordered homes; in the wards of hospitals, where so much is offered to doctor and nurses that calls out the finest nerve, the steadfast resolution, the clearest self-sacrifice; in efforts spent in the task of winning to happiness and love the thousands who stagger down to degradation under the clouded misery of our foul and hideous slums;in all these directions the way is open for high endeavour, for heroic devotion, without the stain of blood, without the curse of cruelty. Gordon found in the alleys of Woolwich work more congenial and more bracing than the long agony of the fight round Khartoum.2 [Note: Ibid.]

Christianity introduced mankind to a new kind of courage; the courage which is shown, not in resisting or gaining the victory over enemies, but in a love that refused to count any man an enemy, and that sought to conquer by patient endurance of every wrong, and even of death itself. For this new spirit the highest honour possible to man was not the prize of victory in battle, but the crown of martyrdom. This type of fortitude was for a time so exclusively honoured, that by many Christians the life of a soldier, even of one who fought for the best of causes, was regarded as profane and unholy. How, asks Tertullian, shall Christians go to war whom Christ has disarmed? In taking the sword from St. Peter, Christ has disarmed all soldiers.

In the year 1746, the Jacobites, or adherents of the Stuarts, inspired by the charming personality of the Young Pretender, made a determined attempt to defeat the Royalists, but were unsuccessful. A conflict which had lasted half a century was brought to an end on the battlefield of Culloden; for Parliament immediately took steps to break the power of the Highland chiefs and the clan system, by abolishing their authority, and parcelling out their lands among the officers and favourites of the victorious Royalist cause. Disappointed but undaunted, some of the chiefs, accompanied by members of their clans, emigrated to Canada, arrived in the province now known as Nova Scotia, and founded the county of Picton. Here they were inspired by two men of great mind and heart, Dr. MacGregor, a member of the famous fighting clan of MacGregor, and Dr. MCulloch, the former the greatest minister Nova Scotia has seen, the latter, its greatest educationist. Mainly through the efforts of these leaders, who had seen God, and had had their minds trained in His school, the Highland chiefs and their followers proceeded to make use of those same qualities which they had in the old land manifested in their determined fighting, in the cause of agriculture, education, and religion. The church, the school, and the home became the three greatest institutions in the new land, and have had that place till now. To-day, the descendants of these men, who still delight in the name Scotchman, are prouder by far of their habits of industry, their high intelligence, their Christian principle, than they ever were of their fighting. The instruments of war have been converted into weapons of peace, and Canada stands as the glorious result.

I saw a picture the other day which was intended to represent the re-enshrinement of peace. A cannon had dropped from its battered carriage and was lying in the meadow, rusting away to ruin. A lamb was feeding at its very mouth, and round it on every side the flowers were growing. But really that is not a picture of the Golden Age. The cannon is not to rust; it is to be converted, its strength is to be transfigured. After the Franco-German war many of the cannon balls were remade into Church bells. One of our manufacturers in Birmingham told me only a week or two ago, that he was busy turning the empty cases of the shells used in the recent war into dinner-gongs.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

IV

Transformation

The nations do not fling away their weapons, nor do they destroy them; they transform them, by beating them into pruninghooks. For every weapon of war there will be a use, even in the era of peace. The swords will not be shivered, they will be turned into ploughshares; the spears will not be snapped, they will be fashioned into pruninghooks. The instruments which desolated the world, and filled it with blood and horror, are not to disappear; they are to be turned into instruments which will make it fair and fruitfula very house of God and gate of heaven. It is not enough that men learn war no more, they must go on to learn the higher arts of peace. The ideal life or society does not consist in negations; it deals with its material in a constructive and transforming spirit. It delights to see the pruninghook in the spear, and it hastens to transform the one into the other.

A great and far-reaching principle this! Nothing need be lost; all things may be transformed. The powers and energies which were dedicated to the cause of evil, if only they be touched and consecrated by a new sense of the meaning of life, will be equally mighty when thrown upon the side of God and good. Paul, the tireless persecutor of the Christians, becomes the great missionary to the Gentiles.

When the Lord laid hold of Zacchus, He did not destroy his shrewdness and despoil him of his foresight and enterprise. The redeemed Zacchus was just as shrewd as the unredeemed Zacchus, but the shrewdness had been transformed. It was no longer a poisoned sword; it had become a ploughshare used in the general welfare of the race. When the Lord laid hold of Hugh Latimer did He draw away the power of his wit? Nay, the redeemed Hugh Latimer was just as witty, just as humorous as Hugh Latimer unredeemed, only the wit had been transformed. It was no longer a sword, but a ploughshare; no longer turning with destructive energy upon his own soul, but used in the ministry of purity, and as the happy servant of righteousness and truth.

One of the Greek philosophers wrote: And this is the greatest stroke of art, to turn an evil into a good. Such is the grand mission of the faith of Jesus Christ. It is the work of the devil to debase good things to vile uses; it is the task of the Spirit of grace to make of evil things vessels unto honour, fit for the Masters use. The other day we heard of a shell found on the battlefields of South Africa being converted into the bell of a church, as the brazen serpent was lifted up to save those who were dying of the bite of venomous serpents; and in many ways things, institutions, and methods which for ages have tormented and destroyed society are being transformed into instruments of blessing.1 [Note: W. L. Watkinson.]

The Transformation of the Sword

Literature

Alford (H.), Truth and Trust, 57.

Caird (E.), Lay Sermons and Addresses, 232.

Holland (H. S.), Pleas and Claims, 276.

Jowett (J. H.), Meditations for Quiet Moments, 94.

MFadyen (J. E.), The City with Foundations, 127.

Watkinson (W. L.), Ashes of Roses, 230.

Christian World Pulpit, xxii. 18 (Walters); xxvii. 177 (Jowett); lii. 389 (Sinclair); lxi. 376 (Parker); 378 (Clifford); lxvii. 6 (Horton); lxxii. 358 (Govett).

Church of England Pulpit, xlii. 40 (Jenkins); xlv. 73 (Sinclair); lxiii. 8 (Govett).

Expository Times, iii. 272 (Huddle); 321 (Currie); v. 392 (Davidson); vi. 129.

Homiletic Review, xliv. 134 (Parker); 1. 305 (Metcalf).

Jewish Quarterly Review, vi. 583.

Treasury (New York), ix. 202.

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

And he: Isa 11:3, Isa 11:4, 1Sa 2:10, Psa 82:8, Psa 96:13, Psa 110:6, Joh 16:8-11, Act 17:31, Rev 19:11

and they: Isa 9:7, Isa 11:6-9, Psa 46:9, Hos 2:18, Joe 3:10, Mic 4:3, Zec 9:10

pruninghooks: or, scythes

neither: Isa 60:17, Isa 60:18, Psa 72:3-7

Reciprocal: 2Ch 20:12 – wilt Job 29:3 – by his light Psa 72:7 – abundance Isa 11:9 – not hurt Isa 32:17 – quietness Isa 54:14 – for thou Isa 65:25 – shall not Jer 10:7 – O King Jer 23:6 – dwell Jer 33:6 – and will Joe 3:12 – for Jam 3:17 – peaceable

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

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,

Et curv rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. Virg. Georg. 1:506.

The peaceful peasant to the wars is pressd;

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 Christs 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 mens 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.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2:4 And {g} he shall judge among the nations, and shall {h} rebuke many people: and they shall {i} beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn {k} war any more.

(g) The Lord, who is Christ, will have all power given to him.

(h) That they may acknowledge their sins, and turn to him.

(i) He shows the fruit of the peace which the gospel should bring, that is, that men should do good to one another, while before they were enemies.

(k) He speaks not against the use of weapons and lawful war, but shows how the hearts of the godly will be affected one toward another, which peace and love begin and grow in this life, but will be perfected when we are joined with our head Jesus Christ.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes