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Day 4 - Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple 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. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. 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. (Isaiah 2:3-4)
The book of Isaiah is the writing of a prophet who brings primarily a word of judgment on the disobedience of the nation of Judah AND the promise of redemption and salvation for the nation in the form of the coming Messiah. Verse 4 specifically speaks to how the nations and the people will change the use of their weapons they previously used against each other as the need would no longer exist.
Oh, to envision today’s world powers dropping all their weapons; to envision in our own country the weapons of violence, the guns, the drugs, the money, the trafficking, the overall abuses being dropped as the need for their use dissipates. It is so easy to ask where the fulfillment of this prophecy is as over two thousand years later, we see where we are. Yet may we not overlook that the fulfillment of this prophecy is in each one of us.
It begins with you, with me, as followers of Jesus we can drop our “weapons” and have them used for another purpose. At the beginning of this Advent season as we look forward to celebrating the birth of our Messiah with family and friends, we should search our hearts and ask God to show us what “weapons” we can put down and repurpose this year. This is how Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. For me it’s sarcastic words, greed, and selfishness. To be used by God, to be a part of the promises that Isaiah said would come, I am asking for the Holy Spirit to repurpose my “weapons” and turn them into words of support, generosity, and asking specific people how I can help them.
As we kick off this time of hope, what “weapons” can you ask God to help you repurpose? What is the Holy Spirit leading you to do, be, and say this season to be a part of the fulfillment of the prophecy of redemption that Jesus has brought to us through his birth, life, and death?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, as we begin this Advent season, rather than wish for what we think this scripture should look like on the large scale, show us what it should look like on a personal scale. May we be willing to seek and hear what “weapons” you want us to put down, to repurpose to fulfill your will in our lives and in our world. May it begin with me.
Submitted By: Sandra Waldee-Warden
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