We are asked how, with such passages written in sunbeams in the Book which we hold to be divine, we can regard with any complacency the acts and character of a warrior.
I. The old prophet, it is often said, was anticipating the Gospel or Christian age of the world, and was pointing out what ought to be its condition always, what some day will be actually its condition. I do not object to this statement, except for being too vague. The words, "He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people," cannot be diluted into the phrase, "The pure and benign doctrines of the Gospel or of Christianity shall be diffused over the world." They speak not of Christianity, but of Christ; not of a doctrine, but of a King. The language which describes Him here does not suggest, first of all, an image of tranquillity and peace. "He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people;" thus is He represented to us who, we believe, took upon Him the form of a servant, and was meek and lowly of heart. If, then, we make Christ our standard, we must honour any man who acknowledged right, who, we are confident, was a just man. It has been said that this sense of right and order is emphatically the quality of a soldier; and the consequence from it seems to be that the discipline and the character which is moulded by it deserve not our reprobation, but our admiration and imitation, because we are Christian men.
II. It is the next clause of the text, however, which is most frequently in people's mouths. "Observe," it is said, "how strong the words are. It is not that swords shall be thrown aside for plough-shares, or spears for pruning-hooks; the first are to be changed into the last, there being no use for them in their original shape." Then it would seem to follow that the material of which the peaceful instruments are made is the very same of which the warlike instruments were made not the first of iron, and the other of some feeble and more flexible substance. Till, then, all the energies of war are faithfully represented in the acts and services of peace, the prophecy is not fulfilled.
III. But it is written further, "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation," etc. Observe that when the prophet says, "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation," he clearly assumes that there shall be distinct nations in the most perfect condition of society which can be conceived of. The distinctness of his own nation had been the assurance to him that God had chosen him and his fathers, that He Himself was in the midst of them. He longed for a time when each nation should have the same stable ground for its existence, when each should feel that the God of the whole earth was its God. Therefore let us be sure that if we would ever see a real family of nations, such as the prophets believed would one day emerge out of the chaos they saw around them a family of nations which shall own God as their Father, and Christ as their Elder Brother this must come from each nation maintaining its own integrity and unity.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons on the Sabbath Day,p. 78.
References: Isaiah 2:4. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2188; B. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 177. Isaiah 2:5. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ix., p. 280; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 340; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 263; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi,p. 216; H. P. Liddon, Old Testament Outlines,p. 167.