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He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; 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. Isaiah 2:4 It was the autumn of 1988, before the fall of the Iron Curtain and the demise of the Soviet Union; the Presidency of Ronald Reagan was drawing to a close. The US had been augmenting its military capability to compete with the perceived threat of the Soviet’s military might for nearly a decade.
And it was my first semester at grad school at the University of Virginia where I heard a bastardized version of Isaiah 2:4 that first made me shake my head at the distortion of the verse and then, after realizing the transposition of the parts, chuckle at the creativeness. The spurious version, “They will beat their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears,” was intended to humorously epitomize Reagan’s deterence strategy. Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, our department was named the Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations. Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy did an about face from his first term to his second. Initially a strong isolationist, Wilson had fought hard to keep the United States out of the Great War (later called World War I) during his first term in office (and was re-elected based on that success) but by 1917 Wilson was promoting a “war to end all wars,” one that would help prevent the destruction of western civilization itself. That war came and went as did the second installment of the conflict a quarter century later. As at the end of the first installment, the victors of WWII assembled to cobble a “lasting peace,” the result of which was the Cold War. Initially a stalemate over division of the spoils of war in Europe, the Cold War became an ideological battle for the hearts and minds of peoples the world over and, ultimately, led to numerous armed conflicts around the globe. According to the Nobel Peace Prize organization, during the 20th century there were over 200 armed conflicts in which a minimum of 1,000 lives were lost in each. By one count there are currently over 30 armed conflicts being waged around the globe, despite the “end” of the Cold War. Thus, neither Wilson’s League of Nations, the sequel known as the United Nations, the invention of more advanced weaponry, the creation of the atomic bomb, defense strategies amounting to mutually assured destruction, nor the fighting of “final wars” has brought about lasting peace for our world. It is evident to me that man’s sinful nature prevents him from achieving those things he so desperately desires—including lasting peace. Therefore, the only hope for mankind is the same foretold by that Old Testament prophet Isaiah some 2,700 years ago: the one born of a virgin who would become the sin offering for us and become the ultimate “head of state” as our Prince of Peace—Jesus Christ. Let us take time this Christmas season to reflect on the One who gives mankind real hope—Christ as King, living God, Messiah, Savior, Intercessor, Peacemaker, Friend. Dan Loose |
