NL 111: Swords into Plowshares

image: “Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares”, sculpture by Yevgeny Vuchetich - 1959 gift of the Soviet Union to the United Nations - garden of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, photo by Neptuul, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, viaWikimedia Commons

Isaiah 2:1-4

November 20, 2022

Isaiah 2:1-5

Initial Thoughts

  • The importance of vision- where are we headed?

  • Hope Sunday, but we are talking peace- there is no peace without hope

    • Miroslav Volf on Exclusion and Embrace 

Bible Study

  • Ch 2 is one considered an add-on by a later redactor.  

    • It contains the second of three introductions to the work.

    • “Chapters 2-4 are a collection of sayings from the prophet’s first period, but were probably put in this position by a later redactor.”Alberto Soggin Introduction to the Old Testament

      • This passage has close parallel to Micah 4:1-4.  Not known which was first.  Micah’s promise of salvation is to Israel.  Isaiah’s is more universal in nature.

    • Pre-exilic Jerusalem - In a precarious political situation, wedged between the world powers of Assyria and Egypt.

      • Blame for Jerusalem’s position is placed on the people, who are sinful

      • Failure of the people in Isaiah “For Isaiah, too, human sin consists in a refusal to recognize divine sovereignty in the whole of life.  Dishonesty, corruption, immorality, the thirst for riches and luxury, irresponsibility or downright oppression in the social sphere, syncretistic worship are all aspects of a basic attitude of human rebellion against the divine will.” Alberto Soggin Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 312.

    • Acts as introduction to Isaiah’s theme of promise in the midst of despair.

    • Immediately precedes oracle of great devastation and despair.

    • Back and forth between promised redemption and judgment. 

  • In the days to come

    • Not necessarily apocalyptic

    • “Indefinite and vague. It refers neither to the end of time nor beyond time, but within it” (NIB)

    • Anticipates a radical transformation of this, tangible reality

  • Universal desire to follow God and God’s ways

    • Our journey of faith has a destination

    • God’s eschatological vision is for ALL people

  • Isaiah is the most quoted book of Old Testament in the New Testament.  Connection between promise as found in Isaiah and Kingdom of God in the gospels is easy to see.

    • Reinhold Niebuhr makes the connection:

      • “The prophet Isaiah dreamed of the day when the lion and lamb would lie down together, when , in other words, the law of nature which prompts the strong to devour the weak would be abrogated… Sometimes the contrast between the real and the ideal is drawn so sharply that the religious man despairs of the achievement of the ideal in mundane history.  He transfers his hope to another world… It is the peculiar genius of Jewish religious thought, that it conceived the millennium in this-worldly terms.  The gospel conception of the kingdom of God represents a highly spiritualised version of this Jewish millennial hope… Wherever religion concerns itself with the problems of society, it always gives birth to some kind of millennial hope, from the perspective of which present social realities are convicted of inadequacy, and courage is maintained to continue in the effort to redeem society of injustice.”  Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society, p. 61.

    • Walter Brueggemann makes the connection in Texts for Preaching: A lectionary commentary based on the NRSV - Year A

      • The vision of Isaiah is “an act of imagination that looks beyond present dismay through the eyes of God, to see what will be that is not yet.  That is the function of promise (and therefore of Advent) in the life of faith.  Under promise, in Advent, faith sees what will be that is not yet.”

      • “Sharp contrast between what is and what will be.”

  • Centrality of Torah

    • Justice and peace come from “The Instruction… from Zion; the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.”

    • When the nations learn the Torah, then war is no longer needed as the arbiter.  Instead, God’s will can be the judge.

      • What does God’s justice look like? Hesed and peace, not national interest or triumphalism

  • Live and walk into this vision- don’t just sit around and wait for it

    • The passage ends with an invitation to walk or mirror or reflect the light of God (God’s vision)

    • This is not only a proclamation but a vision - how will you accept this invitation? How will you extend it to others?

Thoughts and Questions

  • Many times we talk about the journey of faith without adequately describing (as Isaiah does) what the destination looks like. What is the Kingdom of God? What does the Kingdom of God look like for your community? How does that vision guide your ministry as an individual and a church?

  • God’s vision is universal and rejects nationalistic triumphalism or the victory of any one political ideology. War does not lead to peace, division does not lead to peace, only relying on God’s love, forgiveness and grace leads to peace. Is this good or bad news?

Year 1Eric FistlerIsaiahComment