Lesson on Isaiah 2:3-4

In the previous lesson, we discussed how the new Jerusalem will serve as the center of the nations (not necessarily geographically). Drawing from other passages, we also saw that global peace, even among animals, would blanket the earth. In this lesson, we will see how such peace is possible.

Isaiah 2:3-4. (NIV)(NASB)(NKJV)(NCV)

Worldwide peace. We never stop talking about it, but we never attain it. Yet, according to Isaiah, it will one day envelop our world for one simple reason. God will serve as both teacher and judge among the nations.

In verse 3, Isaiah explains that many people groups will travel to Jerusalem with the intention of learning from God's teaching. Furthermore, these people hold a clear purpose in mind for their learning. The whole reason they want to learn is that they "may walk in his paths" (v. 3).

God will not only make His teaching available to those who come to Jerusalem. At the end of verse 3, we also see that He will send His law out from the city. Everyone will know.

In the next verse, we read of God's function as judge among the nations. Any nations who have unresolved disputes will bring them before God and abide by His decisions. According to Isaiah, the people will feel so secure of the end of these disputes that they will refashion their weapons into tools and stop training soldiers for war (v. 4).

Therefore, we can see through these two verses in Isaiah that global peace is possible because the people of many nations will abide by God's teaching and judgments. After that, they will enjoy the natural fruit of this obedience.

Certainly, the nation of Judah needed this fruit. Caught in the crosshairs of the Arameans, Assyrians, and then Babylonians, they knew both the sorrows of war and the shakiness of apparent peace. Our modern world isn't so different, at its depths. I don't think it's any stretch to imagine with Paul the whole earth "groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time" (Romans 8:22).

Final peace among the nations will have to wait until God rules the earth openly. In the meantime, God has called us as individual Christians to live peacefully with one another. Christ does indeed make this peace possible for us through His power in our lives. Paul summarizes his instructions to the Colossian believers:

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Colossians 3:15-17).

Notice what appears three times in this shorts passage. Gratitude. Paul instructs the believers to be thankful, sing songs out of gratitude, and give thanks to God. When gratitude consumes us, gratitude that God has spared us from condemnation, we find it much harder to condemn others. Although we may not be able to live a peaceful world, we can live in harmony with those around us.

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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.