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How often have we heard people say or said ourselves that if governments were to cut out military spending there would be enough money to eradicate poverty, to explore the ocean depths and space. There would be enough money to find cures for diseases that appear incurable. If only our governments would learn war no more. Well, Isaiah gives us a picture of that day. His book begins with the Lord telling his people that they are a rebellious lot and so he hates their religion, doesn’t want their sacrifices. He wants to get ‘em, but not in the way you’d think. He wants to redeem them, give them back their dignity. He will refine them and make their sins though scarlet as white as snow. What he wants from them is their repentance which means he wants them to turn from the idolatry and set their minds on him and walk in his ways. Then they will be righteous, upholding their end of the covenant. Then on the coattails of the Lord’s redeeming and refining and his peoples repenting, once his people are righteous, in the last days, Isaiah says the nations will stream to Zion to the mountain of the house of the LORD to learn the ways of the Lord that that might walk in them, to face judgment by the one who speaks the Truth, and to have their disputes settled by the LORD. Then they will learn war no more.
The poetic imagery is pretty profound in what Isaiah is saying. The people will stream to the mountain of the house of the Lord. By saying “stream”, Isaiah doesn’t mean people will binge watch it over the internet. He’s talking about how water flows. There have been Sunday mornings when driving from Southampton to Chesley crossing over the bridges overlooking the Saugeen and I see the river is running high and muddy. It strikes me as weird because I knew it had rained a little on Saturday night but I didn’t think it was enough to put the river up that much. But, you know, it doesn’t take much for a good-sized river to get up because water comes from near and far. Water that fell on far away fields and forests filled up little runs and licks which flowed into small creeks that flowed into the Saugeen River making it grow more and more flood-like as it made its way to Lake Huron which itself is fed by many rivers.
That’s the way Isaiah foresees all the nations of the earth streaming together, flowing together, flooding together to come to the place where the presence of the LORD is and there…they shall learn war no more. As they flow to the LORD, many people will say, “Come (“Lehku!” in Hebrew. I like the sounds of that word.)! Let us go up to the mountain of the LORD to the house of the God of Jacob.” Imagine with me, because desire is fed by imagination. Imagine the days when the peoples of all nations start desiring to be in the presence of the Triune God of grace that they might learn the ways of the LORD taught by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Imagine the days when all nations truly want to walk in the light of the LORD, when all nations truly want to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Imagine those days for they are the reality of our hope.
Isaiah says “from Zion shall go forth Torah (law or teaching), and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Zion to Isaiah has nothing to do with the Zionism of today which is at the heart of the war in Gaza. Isaiah’s Zion is the place where God is and where God’s people gather to worship him. It’s Utopia but it’s the presence of God that makes it utopia. Zion is where God and people gather together in worship with justice, equity, and peace. When we gather for worship in the Presence of the Holy Spirit to worship, we are in Zion. Gathered here in Zion, the teaching and the word of the Lord that all nations need for their healing goes forth. From the midst of this Zion and millions of other Christian fellowships just like ours God is speaking the word of his having reconciled us to himself in Christ Jesus as Paul writes in chapter five verses seventeen to nineteen of Second Corinthians: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
When the LORD speaks a word, it does what it says it will do. The Lord speaks later in Isaiah about his words. In chapter 45 Lord says: 22 "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.' 24 "Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. 25 In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory." And again, in chapter 55: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
The word of God’s having reconciled the world to himself in Christ is going forth into the world through a people such as little ol’ us and the response will be that all nations are going to flood into the presence of the LORD to learn from him his ways and to be sorted out and put to right and the result will be that “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 anymore.” The machinery of warfare will be turned into the means for fair and equitable life among all peoples. The desire to learn the ways of Jesus will surpass war, greed, injustice, and self-preservation. We are part of that many people who along the way are saying, “Come! Let us go together into the presence of the LORD that he might finally make peace so that it will be here on earth as it is in heaven.
There’s an African American spiritual about this flowing of the nations to the LORD called “Down by the Riverside” and I’d like to leave it with you. It goes:
Going down by the riverside, meet my Jesus there. Study war no more.
I ain’t gonna study war no more, study war no more, study war no more.
Study war no more, study war no more. I ain’t gonna study war no more.
I’m gonna lay down my heavy load, down by the riverside. Study war no more.
I’m gonna talk to the Prince of Peace down by the riverside. Study war no more.
I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield down by the riverside. Study war no more.
I’m gonna shake hands with everyman down by the riverside. Study war no more.
Friends, come! Let us walk in the light of the LORD. We do it and the nations will come. Amen.
