March 3, 2011

Minor Prophets XXIX: Field or Battlefield


We see the famous “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!” in Joel 3:10

Unlike the Isaiah passage below, this verse is requisitioning agricultural/farming implements or national resources and making them into implements of war. The Isaiah passage is doing just the opposite. The implements of war are being utilized as tools in peace time. The nation’s resources are being reallocated for different purposes. One is for a time of judgment and another for a time or a kingdom of righteousness. These verses are not so much parallel as they are antithetical. Judgment-Restoration, War-Peace. We almost detect hints of Ecclesiastes here due to the pattern.

“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Isaiah 2:4

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