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Isaiah 2:2-4
2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.

This paragraph is one of the most beautiful from the prophets describing the age to come. We note that this prophecy begins with “it will come about that in the last days…” which indicates that this is a prophecy of the end times. The mountain of the house of Yahweh will be lifted up and made the chief of the mountains. This may refer to a physical increase in size but more likely is speaking of reputation. This one mountain will be hallowed not merely in the hearts of all of true Israel but in the world at large.

The nations stream to this mountain, the mountain of God, and want to learn his ways. Suddenly the people of earth are interested in what God has to say about how to live. How radically different this is from the modern predicament in which the word “God” is more often used in the context of cursing or an expression of surprise than as one who can teach us how to walk on the right path. Rather than worshiping other gods, rather than marginalizing and ignoring God, rather than removing God from every practical area of life, people will seek God. Now there is an appetite for the uncreated one and his divine wisdom. People stream in to hear the law from Zion. The word of Yahweh emanates from Jerusalem and all want to learn.

No longer are national leaders the ones who render decisions for many peoples, now God himself makes the judgments. No more is justice perverted for the sake of the privileged, the wealthy, the powerful, the corporation, etc., now decisions are made by the one who “is no respecter of persons.” In fact, so thorough and righteous will his decisions be that war is now obsolete. No more is the battle cry to be heard when man in his savagery slices fellow man (equally made in the image of God) with a sword. In God’s new world one can get more usage out of spear if it is transformed into a pruning hook. Indeed in the course of time, there is no more need to even “learn war.” There are no standing armies, no stockpiles of deadly weapons, instead there is the certainty felt in the breast of every human that this divine peace will forever stand.