“Nor shall they train for war again”

Nearly thirty years ago, three men – a Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim – leaders of three different nations, signed a peace treaty while each independently quoting at least part of a verse we hear in today’s first reading (Isaiah 2:1-5):

They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.

While that particular peace treaty has remained generally intact, none of those three nations stopped training for war: nor could they have, for the world is a deadly and dangerous place and the governments of these three nations have an obligation to protect their people (which is not to say that every warlike or defensive action they have undertaken has necessarily been just or unjust).

We should do what we can to eliminate war in our world, yet we must also be prudent.

This prophecy of peace, of course, is messianic: it will be fulfilled when Christ returns and all nations recognize his liberating and live-giving reign.

“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
That he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths.”

Come, Lord Jesus, and have mercy.