SWORDS TO PLOUGHSHARES

Swords To Ploughshares

Moist earth is the hazy memory of melted snow when summer spreads its picnic blanket across the prairie. The breadbasket is lined with all the colours of the Manitoba tartan. In shady groves monogamous grackles plot communal raids on fields of ripening golden nuggets while plump pigeons preen themselves in the shadows of grain silos overflowing on to eagerly awaiting trains. Too soon the patchwork quilt is ceremoniously folded up to a lament by a lone cricket: Farewell to Summer. As the echo of the last cricket fades away the five o’clock shadow is burned off and ploughed under. The land is laid bare and awaits renewal.

The LORD God formed Adam out of moist earth and planted him in His garden to till the ground (Gen. 2:5b). Sweat began to form on Adam’s face as he beat his ploughshare into a sword upon the anvil of a sin-hardened heart. Among the trees he plotted and rebelled against our Maker. He and Eve were laid bare when the LORD God came down to visit them in the cool of the day. For ‘They knew that they were naked.’ Genesis 3:7. But instead of burning them off and ploughing them under the moist earth from whence they had come the LORD God made them a promise and He clothed them.

Though the reminder of the desolation and curse Adam brought upon creation and mankind is never far away, the promise is repeated in various ways and elaborated on throughout the Bible. E.g., ‘The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away; the haughty people of the earth languish. The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.’ Isaiah 24:4-6. But Isaiah speaks also of a future time of renewal. ‘He shall judge between nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift of sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’ Isaiah 2:4. Thus God graciously and progressively reverses mankind’s rebellion.

Because of our sins the whole earth has become, as it were, a field of burned off and ploughed under stubble But Isaiah says of Jesus Christ, the second Adam, ‘For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.’ Isaiah 53:2a. Paul says, ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order; Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.’ 1 Corinthians 15:22-26. Thus the bountiful blessings of summer return to creation and mankind only in Jesus Christ.

God is renewing the heavens and the earth – but, first the burning off and ploughing under: ‘But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.’ 2 Peter 3:10-13. ‘“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” says the LORD of hosts, “that will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the LORD Of hosts.’ Malachi 4:1-3.

Dear reader, don’t get burned up and trampled underfoot as so much stubble and ashes. Start beating your sword into a ploughshare by seeking forgiveness for your sins in Jesus Christ.