Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, "I am a warrior." (v10)
This verse, describing how a rebellious mankind will oppose God and His people until the very end--the Day of Judgment--is startling. In fact, it is particularly startling as it mirrors a much more famous verse in Isaiah 2:
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and 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. (v4)
In this passage, we glimpse the peace that will settle upon the new heavens and earth, when God's people, drawn from all nations, experience the total peace that is found only in a Christ-reconciled relationship to the living God.
But that time will not come until the plowshares are first beaten into swords--when mankind makes his final treacherous attempt to dethrone the King--and is rightly condemned for it. That Day is coming, when God will judge the nations, but will be "a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel" (v16).
Such salvation comes only through the throes of judgment. Such incredible ark-borne deliverance achieved only the floods of God's righteous wrath. In that Day, justice will be firmly and finally established through the earth, and mercy will appear with glorious beauty in the eternal, peaceful reign of Christ over a people drawn from every tribe, tongue, people, and language.
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