Thoughts for the Day

In days to come ....
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains...
and many nations shall come and say:
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;

He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid;
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken....

For now you shall go forth from the city
and camp in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued,
there the Lord will redeem you
from the hands of your enemies.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

In 2021 the world spent over 2 trillion dollars on armaments. The largest spenders were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia. This accounted for 62% of the expenditure.* Even through the Covid-19 pandemic this increased by 6.1%.

In Chapter 4 Micah is not talking about an earthly kingdom but about God's Kingdom, when the Messiah come to reign. For Christians this refers to Jesus and His Second Coming, when He shall judge the people. It will be a time, Micah says, when people will turn their spears into farm equipment. Today we might feel the world is turning it's pruning equipment into guns and armour, and some countries are bankrupting themselves for the sake of aggrandisation! As an ex member of the RAF I can understand equipment needed for protection but, not for out and out aggression. If 1.5 trillion dollars were spent each year to develop agriculture and provide water for the poorest people in the world what a difference that would make. At present we spend money on destroying people, rather than giving them life. All our values are twisted.

The world that Micah sees for the future is the complete opposite of what we experience today. As Christians we should hold on to this image of God's promise to His people, and continue to pray that God's Kingdom will come in its fullest!

(* Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)

Heavenly Father,
You called Micah to be Your prophet,
to warn the people that there would be a time of judgement.
but also to offer a remnant rescue and forgiveness.
May we too look forward with hope -
for the Second Coming of Your Son,
and the completion of Your Kingdom.
Amen.