When There is So Much Peace you have Weapons to Burn
[7] “And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. [8] Behold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord GOD. That is the day of which I have spoken.
[9] “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, clubs and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years, [10] so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons. They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 39:7–10 ESV
It is easy, some days, to wonder what in the world God is doing. Violence, evil, hardship etc. can be a constant discouragement to our hope of a new Heaven and a new Earth where God’s glory reigns.
It was worse for ancient Israel.
Israel had it bad and things were getting worse. Their land was pillaged and invaded over and over again but they still held on to the promise that they were God’s chosen people in the land that He had prepared for them. The day that Ezekiel speaks of here is exceptional when you consider the violence in Israel.
A time is coming when there will be so much peace, people will use their weapons as firewood. Think about that! There are countries today where you can’t find a single tree in a public area because they have all been picked over and chopped down and stolen for firewood. Where they lack wood in parts of Central Asia, they cook their food over dried cow manure! If wood from a forest is so unnecessary that the people don’t chop down a tree for seven years, that is incredible.
Their alternative fuel source makes it even more awesome. People won’t need their clubs and spears to fight, they’ll just burn them up. Think of the times you had so much of something that you couldn’t get rid of it all. This is like business cards from an old job or the T-shirts that have the wrong Super Bowl winners. Weapons of war will be so plentiful and yet so worthless that people will be cooking and heating with them for seven years.
Literal or figurative, it’s a beautiful thing. The objects that hurt, killed, and destroyed will be so triumphed over that they will be harmless and weak. There will be such peace that the thought of keeping a weapon would be like storing firewood under your pillow at night or charcoal in your closet.
Let’s pray for that peace to come, and joyfully look forward to it.