Plowshares And Pruning Hooks; Swords and Spears
Devotions for Growing Christians
Plowshares And Pruning Hooks
Joel 3:10 - Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.
Isaiah 2:4 - They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Micah 4:3 - They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Read Joel 3:17, Isaiah 2:14, Micah 4:18 and Matthew 25:31-46.
“Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.” Wait! Was this verse from the book of Joel misquoted? At first glance we might think so, because the verses from the prophets Isaiah and Micah are more familiar. But Joel 3:10 was not misquoted. The prophet Joel, in contrast to Isaiah and Micah, predicted that the farm tools of peacetime would be converted into weapons of war. Plowshares and pruning hooks, symbols of tranquility, would be exchanged for swords and spears, symbols of war.
The fact that Joel's prophecy is the reverse of the Isaiah and Micah prophecies does not mean there’s a contradiction in the Bible, or that one prophet misquoted another prophet! The truth is that Joel was looking ahead to a different phase of the last days. Joel foresaw a time of great warfare among the nations in the future. Isaiah and Micah foresaw a time of great peace among the nations in the future. Plowshares and pruning hooks will be hammered into swords and spears, but swords and spears will also be hammered into plowshares and pruning hooks. Both prophecies are true - and they are not in conflict. Both prophecies will be fulfilled at the proper time, in line with God's purpose for the nations.
When will these prophecies of warfare and peace be fulfilled? It’s clear that the prophecy of peace among the nations cannot and will not be brought to fulfillment by mere humans. Isaiah and Micah emphatically indicate that it is only when the Lord Himself returns to "judge between the nations" and "settle disputes for many peoples" that worldwide peace will come about. Although the United Nations has the prophecy of Isaiah and Micah inscribed in stone near the entrance to its headquarters in New York City, this human organization will never be able to bring about world peace. While we support every good intention and effort for peace that is made by any organization, we must recognize that international peace will never come until Jesus Christ returns.
World peace has certainly not been attained yet. It is true that individuals from any nation around the world who respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ and accept Him as their personal Savior immediately receive the peace of God and the peace of mind and soul that only Christ can give. But there is a tremendous difference between the international peace among the nations predicted by Micah and Isaiah, and the peace with God we experience as individuals through Jesus Christ. They predicted that "Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" (Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3). When this prophecy of peace is fulfilled, all military academies in the world that "train for war" will close their doors. Permanently!
Isaiah and Micah prophesied during the same general historical time period in Judah, and they probably heard each other preach. It’s possible that the Lord instructed Micah to take the words of Isaiah, the royal court preacher, and preach them to the common people. This should not be considered plagiarism, but rather the way the Spirit of God reinforced the prophetic ministry of both men. The process of inspiration does not mean that one prophet can’t write something that was already the spoken or written message of another prophet! In fact, such cases emphasize the unity of the message of the prophets.
Both Isaiah and Micah stated explicitly that their prophecies will be fulfilled in the "last days" (Isaiah 2:2 and Micah 4:1). The emphasis on the "last days" by both prophets should convince us that the peace they predicted will not come about until the second advent of Christ. The “last days” of human history began with the first coming of Christ (Hebrews 1:2). Thus in one sense we are now living in the last days. However, the literal international peace predicted by Isaiah and Micah awaits the time when Christ will personally return to this earth to reign over the nations. Let's not postulate dates for these last days - but they may be soon!
Before we look more closely at Joel's end time prophecy of warfare among the nations, let’s pause to appreciate the great future ahead for this earth. In this world of turmoil it is a wonderful encouragement for Christians to know that the present fighting among the nations and the global stockpiling of weapons will come to an end before mankind annihilates itself. The fact that Christ will return and successfully teach the Washingtons and Moscows and Beijings how to live in total internal and international peace is almost too good to believe! To know that the Lord will render decisions that will finally bring about the long-sought "impossible" peace between Israelis and Palestinians is beyond our wildest dreams. To realize that tanks will be made over into tractors and missiles will be recycled into farm machinery should excite us to the point of exulting in the Prince of Peace!
What about Joel's prophecy of warfare? After such exalted thoughts about the peace of the last days, it is not so pleasant to have to think about the ugliness of war. But Joel prophesied that plowshares would be hammered into swords and pruning hooks into spears. When will this be? From Joel's time until the present, nations have been converting peacetime tools into weapons of war. However, the text indicates that Joel's prophecy is primarily referring to the end time. While the predictions of immediate judgment (3:4-8) were fulfilled in intertestamental times, the rest of the prophecy in Joel 3 has not yet been fulfilled. It will come about in a time when all the nations are gathered together in one location for judgment (v2 and v12). Such a time has never yet occurred in history. Even the extensive alliances and confrontations of the World Wars have not fulfilled this prophecy.
The exact future time of Joel's warfare prophecy appears to be given in the phrase, "Bring down, O Lord, Thy mighty ones" (v11.) This strongly implies that the time of warfare immediately precedes the return of the Lord with His holy angels. The end of Joel's prophecy seems to further indicate that the gathering of nations for judgment comes right before the peace of the last days that is prophesied by Isaiah and Micah. In fact, verse 17 shows that the peace comes about as the result of the Lord's return to judge the nations that have gathered together for war.
While we rejoice in the fact that someday there will be perfect peace among the nations, we are awestruck and subdued by the magnitude of the judgment that will precede the peace. All nations will be brought before Christ, the Judge. Multitudes upon multitudes will be judged in the Valley of Decision (Joel 3:14). The judgment seems to extend beyond the armies to the individuals of all nations. No one will be able to escape "the sickle and the wine press" (v13). The Valley of Decision is so named, not because individuals will have an opportunity to decide about Christ, but because Christ will decide about them. In view of such an awesome judgment to come, how important it is to make sure that you have decided to follow Jesus now!
Joel's scenario of the nations poised for an all-out world war, who then find themselves all gathered together for judgment by the Lord Himself, is right in line with our Lord's statements about the future. In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus said, "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the king will say to those on His right, `Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.'"
The subject of the Lord's Olivet Discourse was His second coming and the end times. (See Matthew 24:3.) Notice how the sequence of events in the verses quoted above is the same as what we see in Joel, Isaiah and Micah. The Lord returns to earth in glory, with His holy angels (25:31). All the nations that had gathered together for war are brought before Him in judgment (25:32). The righteous individuals among the nations are separated and set apart from the unrighteous by the Lord Himself, just as a shepherd of the Middle East separates sheep from goats (25:3233). The righteous are invited to enter and possess the Kingdom of Christ here on earth, and the peace of the last days begins (25:34).
Isn’t it great to see how the Old and New Testament prophetic Scriptures fit together? The war and peace of the last days is bound to take place in precisely the way and order that the prophets of Scripture predicted.
How thankful we can be that when Jesus Christ returns to earth, the plowshares and pruning hooks that were once forged into weapons of war will be re-hammered into the plowshares and pruning hooks of peace!
- Dave Reid