Isaiah 2:3b-5 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 2:3b-5 on biblegateway.com
Verse 3Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Verse 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; 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 any more. Verse 5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
Devotion
So long ago, but so true now too. War then. War now. War until…when? And the prophet Isaiah tells his own people that “instruction and the word of the Lord” will go forth from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3b). Instruction against war? Against hate? Against divisions? Against blindness to war, hate, divisions of all kinds? Are we to be God’s prophets, God’s Jerusalem, to take Isaiah’s words into our hearts, into our worship spaces, into the highways and byways?
Prayer
O! God of prophets, give us ears to hear our prophets, ancient and now. Give us hearts to be more persistent than war. Amen.