Joel 3:10

Beat your plowshares into swords
    and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weak say,
    “I am strong!”

In 1959, Soviet Union artist Evgeniy Vuchetich, gifted his statue called, Let Us Beat Swords Into Ploughshares, to the United Nations.  Ironically, based on the verse found in Isaiah 2:4, the Soviet Union was anything but peaceful.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was created out of a bloody revolution. Prior to World War II, it saw civil wars, massive famines, and even a ‘Great Purge’ of mass executions, imprisonments, and deportations.  Following WWII until it’s fall in 1991, the Soviet Union engaged in the Cold War Arms Race, and was a land of espionage, isolation, and walls despite being a founding member of the “United Nations.”

It is no wonder that the Soviet people were yearning for peace. Most of us pray for peace!

But what many fail to understand is the verse in Isaiah is prophecy. It speaks of a time when the Messiah reigns, not man. Often the verse is taken out of the context of prophecy and is used as a platform for human judgment. Leaders, with dark agendas posing as advocates for peace, proverbially bludgeon citizens into passivity with a sledgehammer of guilt for exercising the right to defend freedom and family.

Almost forgotten, Joel 3:10 says, “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’”

God is reminding us that no one is excused from doing His will. Even the physically or spiritually weak have a roll to play in God’s plan. The Bible time and time again tells us to defend the poor or those in need, protect children and widows, stand up for the oppressed, and illuminate the Truth for the lost.

God is mighty and does not need your defense, but He asks you to defend yourself with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) Be vigilant and guard your heart until the return of Jesus when true peace will reign forevermore. Only then will it be time to lay down your sword and beat it into a peaceful plowshare.