In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and peoples will stream to it.
2 Many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Micah specifies that this is for the last days, so that this idyllic setting isn't quite normative except for a hoped-for future. The one operative point in this vision is that it is predicated on the nations coming to Zion for advice and leadership; a group of nations following God shouldn't need to fight each other. If countries with McDonald's in common tend not to fight as per Tom Freidman, how much so countries with a Lord and Savior in common?
Easier said than done, since we have a wide disparity between countries on who God is and what He asks of us; that's just counting places that are theistic at all. That's one reason why such verses are millennial in nature; only God could pull that trick off.
That being said, those plowshares do look good, since they actually do something productive, while weapons are generally only good at breaking things and killing people; where possible, heading for a peace dividend is a good thing. Emphasis on where possible; we got some folks who really aren't with the program as we speak.
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