I'll bet you have sat through a sermon that referred to this passage: Mic 4: 3 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore;
Oh the day!!!
This passage becomes even more rich when its contrasted with a earlier prophecy passage that you have probably never heard in a sermon.
Joel 3:9 Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”11 Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O LORD.12 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.16 The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.17 “So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.18 “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Shittim.19 “Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.20 But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations.21 I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the LORD dwells in Zion.”
It's crazy to think that Jesus used the same reference of swords and plowshares to describe the situational moments of time that He was going to lead the people of the earth through.
Like most biblical prophecy, the prophecy itself speaks to the moment of time it was spoken and then crosses the chasm of time to another Era. It is apparent that we are living in that other Era right now.
Try to remember what 2019 was like. Can you? I mean really? There has been a shift on earth and we are never going back, heck we can hardly remember a time when we weren't always bombarded with weekly disasters.
The reason I am sharing this is that it's my hope that you might understand who you are and what that has to do with the times you are living in. Plows are being beaten into swords. War is coming! Heck in a lot of ways, its already here. The world isn't going back to the way it was. The Battles will rage in the valley of decision, a material place that speaks the the metaphysical combat in your spirit....you are probably dueling with yourself at this moment, over these words....the valley of decisions.
I would also like to point out that Joel tells us that the only Refuge from the great evil that is upon us is in the Lord himself. Not Q, not Donald Trump, not the Supreme Court, but the King Himself Jesus. So put your efforts in petitioning the King to affect Donald Trump, the Supreme Court, and those who have indulged the evil.
Christians, battle the tendency to do nothing. The King doesn't allow that. There are people that need his refuge from their own evil. Carry the message that you to were once a rebel and tried to usurp the kingdom. Tell them of the horror that, that mindset created, of the dread that you ran from. Tell them of the life lived under the Good King and the peace that passes understanding. Tell them that Jesus took on their rebellion and paid the traders death in your stead. Tell them to take in the Spirit of Jesus' life. Remind them of the truth that smashes the lies of this evil age. And, lastly remember the victory that has already been won at the Cross. Base your life in that knowledge...its assured that those swords will be beaten into plowshares and will never again have to return to the instruments of war. Remember it's a forgone conclusion, when Jesus said, "it is finished," it really was.
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