A quote from the book of Isaiah:
And 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; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 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.
This has to be one of the most frequently used passages in any written word that is used both in and out of context to justify all sorts of philosophies, movements, and predictions. I remember back in the 80s, there was this group called the Ploughshare movement. Some sort of anti-nuclear group that decided to break into a naval base and pour blood on missiles. That stuck with me for some reason. They were a peace loving group, however, a few years later I saw a flyer up for a support group for an anti-violence protest meeting. The bottom of the flyer posted their rules, and the last one said, we do not pour blood on things! I thought that was funny.
Anyway, as I was struggling today through various battles, this thought came to my mind. I have always had the same idea that the peaceful protesters had about this passage. You need to convert your weapons to ploughshares. Basically stop fighting and be like a peaceful farmer. However, I realized today that the passage says BEAT their swords into ploughshares. That connotates work, in fact probably a lot of work under intense heat. So is that what we are doing in life, literally getting beat into submission?
Perhaps the meaning is really that before we can be a peace or to be able to comprehend that it is going to take a lot of work. A lot of lessons need to be learned by you, by an organization, even a nation before it can really even deal with such a concept. Hmmm, just a thought rumbling around in my head. The result of being on 28 conference calls in one day. Peace, as it were, is something that is earned by a long repetitive process. Peace is the result at the end, after all your hard work.
Guy Reams
