SALT & LIGHT Jesus, the Righteous King: Our King brings supernatural reconciliation and peace

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

and a little child shall lead them.

And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. HOS 2:20

Rashi

With the beasts of the field for I will destroy harmful creatures from the world. And so Scripture states (Isa 11:9): “They shall not hurt or destroy etc.”

5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.

6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. LEV 26:5-6

John Gill

I will give peace in the land—Among yourselves, as Aben Ezra; that as safety from enemies is promised before, here it is assured they should be free from insurrections and from riots, broils, contentions, and civil wars among themselves:

And you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid—that is, lie down upon their beds, and sleep quietly and comfortably, and not be in any fear of thieves and robbers breaking in upon them (Psa 3:5; 4:8);

And I will remove harmful beasts from the land—Out of the land of Israel, as the Targum of Jonathan, not out of the world, such as lions, bears, wolves which were sometimes troublesome and mischievous in the land:

And the sword shall not go through your land—Either the sword of the enemy, which if it entered should not be suffered to proceed, much less to pervade the land and destroy the inhabitants of it: so the Targum of Jonathan,

“they that draw the sword shall not pass through your land,”

or the sword of the Lord, that is, the pestilence (1Ch 21:12); as Ainsworth suggests; though the Jews commonly understand it of the sword of peace, as they call it, though that is of one that is not an enemy, but passes through one country to destroy another; which yet is distressing to the country he passes through, as in the case of Pharaoh Neco, whom Josiah went out to meet (2 Ch 35:20); though, by what follows, it seems rather to be the first of these.

Rashi

I will give peace—Perhaps you will say, “Well, there is food and there is drink; but if there is no peace, then all this is nothing!” Scripture therefore states after all these promises “I will give peace in the land.” Hence we may learn that peace counterbalances everything. In a similar sense it states: “Who . . . makes well-being and creates everything” a paraphrase of the verse (Isa 45:7; Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 1 8).

And the sword shall not go through your land—It is unnecessary to say that they shall not enter to wage war, but they shall not enter even to pass through your land from one country to another (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 2 3).

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

he burns the chariots with fire. PSA 46:10

John Gill

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth—As at the birth of Christ, the Prince of Peace, in the times of Augustus Caesar, when there was a general peace in the world, though it did not last long; and in the times of Constantine, signified by silence in heaven for half an hour (Rev 8:1); when for a while there was a cessation from wars and persecution; and as will be in the latter day, and which is here chiefly designed; when nations shall learn war no more, and Christ’s kingdom will take place; of which and its peace there shall be no end (Psa 72:7; Isa 2:4; 9:6-7), the consideration of which may serve to relieve distressed minds under terrible apprehensions of present troubles and public calamities;

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire—That is, “chariots,” or “carts,” or “wagons,” in which, as Aben Ezra observes, arms and provision were carried for the use of soldiers; the Targum renders it “round shields”: and the destroying of all these military weapons and carriages is a token of peace, and of war’s being caused to cease, there being no more use for them; with this compare Eze 39:8-9. It was usual to burn the arms of enemies taken in war.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ROM 14:17

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. MAT 3:2

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,

5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, TIT 3:3-5

7 The cow and the bear shall graze;

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

John Gill

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra—Without fear or danger:

And the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den—And suffer no damage: the meaning is explained in the next words, and to be understood of regenerate persons, both of new born babes, or just born, and all such who are weaned from their own righteousness, and live by faith on Christ, who shall not be hurt by the poison of false teachers, nor by the force of violent persecutors, now no more (see Gill on Isa 11:6).

9 They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. JOB 5:23

John Gill

For you shall be in league with the stones of the field—So as to receive no hurt from them, by walking among them, and even barefoot, which was usual in the eastern countries, see (Psa 91:12); or by their being in the field, so as to hinder the increase of them; but on the contrary, even from such fields as were stony ground, a large crop has been produced, and so rather receive benefit by them, as men do from those with whom they are in league; and may therefore likewise signify, that these stones should be useful in being boundaries or fences about their fields, and landmarks in them, which should not be removed: many interpreters take notice of a sense that Pineda gives of these words, and which Cocceius calls an ingenious one, that it refers to a custom in Arabia, which may be called Scopelism, and was this; a man’s enemies would lay stones in his field, and these signified, that if any attempted to till and manure those grounds where they were laid, some evil would befall him by the means of those persons who laid the stones there; and which stones were thought to be ominous and formidable; something like it is in 2Ki 3:19, 25; and so the sense is, that a good man had nothing to fear from such stones, he being in league with them; and this malicious practice is thought to have had its origin in Arabia Petraea; but the first sense seems best:

And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you—A covenant being made with them, as in Hos 2:20; meaning either literally, the beasts of the field; and these either the same as before, wild beasts, or beasts of prey; or rather, in distinction from them, tame beasts, as cows and horses, which should be so far from doing any harm, as sometimes is done by these tame creatures, that they should be very serviceable in tilling fields and drawing carriages, and the like: or else figuratively, men comparable to such creatures; and so the sense may be, that when a man’s ways please the Lord, and he behaves according to his mind and will, particularly under afflictions, even his enemies are made to be at peace with him (Pro 16:7); the Targum interprets this of the Canaanites, comparable to the beasts of the field.

Rashi

The stones of the field—They are: a type of man.

And the beasts of the field—That is what is known as grouse(?) in Old French, and this is actually a beast of the field. In the language of the Mishnah in Torath Kohanim, they are called “adnei hasadeh.”

Shall be at peace with you—Shall have peace with you.

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

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. ISA 2:4

Shabbat 63a:5

And the Rabbis say: They are nothing other than reprehensible and in the future they will be eliminated, as it is written: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not raise sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore” (Isa 2:4).

Shabbat 63a:9

We learned in the mishna that Rabbi Eliezer says: These weapons are ornaments for him. It was taught in a baraita that elaborates on this subject: The Rabbis said to Rabbi Eliezer: And since, in your opinion, they are ornaments for him, why are they to be eliminated in the Messianic era? He said to them: They will not be needed anymore, as it is stated: “Nation will not raise sword against nation” (Isa 2:4). The Gemara asks: And let the weapons be merely for ornamental purposes, even though they will not be needed for war. Abaye said: It is just as in the case of a candle in the afternoon. Since its light is not needed, it serves no ornamental purpose. Weapons, too; when not needed for war, they serve no ornamental purpose either.

44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. MAT 5:44-45

25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion,

he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; ROM 11:25-26

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. GAL 5:22-24

The picture that Isaiah painted seems like a list of impossibilities. But this is what true reconciliation looks like—the kind that only Jesus can and will bring. Prey and predator, natural enemies living together in harmony for his purpose. Jesus, through his sacrifice on the cross, did not just pave the way for people to be restored to God; He also made possible the restoration of our relationships with other people and with creation. This is something God continues to do for those who put their faith in Christ. How have you experienced the power of Jesus to bring reconciliation and be salt and light to the earth?