Have you ever wondered what it means the prophecy of Isaiah
which reads “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears
into pruning hooks? Well, it simply means that a situation of war will be
turned into a situation of peace. But why swords and ploughshares? The sword in
the bible was an instrument of war. But not just war. It was a symbol of
violence. The first story of violence in the Bible was that of Cain and Abel
(Gen 4), when an elder brother killed his own younger brother. The ploughshare
was a farming implement. The first farmer was Adam, the father of Cain and Abel,
whom YHWH commanded to till the garden of Eden and care for it (Gen 2:15). The prophecy
of Isaiah is thus a vision of a return from violence to what God originally
intended – the peace of Eden. This is what God intends for us this week. May God
banish from your heart every violence and return you to the peace in which you were created.
Epiphany celebrates the coming of the Magi who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant king born in Bethlehem. But is that the first time someone brought gold, frankincense and myrrh to Israel? By no means! We could recall an episode in 1 Kgs. 10 in which a certain queen of Sheba having heard of the wise king Solomon also brought gifts to him. The passage recalls that she brought gold and a large quantity of spices. In fact, in Isa. 60:6, there is a veiled reference to this episode when it mentions that gold and frankincense will be brought to Jerusalem from Sheba. Again, in 1 Kgs. 10:25, myrrh is mentioned as one of the gifts brought to Solomon. So why gold, frankincense and myrrh? Gold is definitely a royal gift. Solomon was a King and a wealthy one too. Gold was an acknowledgement of his economic prowess and of his good fortune. Frankincense was also expressive of another reality. In 1 Kgs. 8, Solomon had just built a temple; one that had g...
Amen
ReplyDeleteVery insightful
DeleteVery impressive
ReplyDeleteAmen...
ReplyDeleteI guess the country Ghana and Africa at large needs this peace of Eden too... may God banish any form of violence, especially in the coming year of elections, and return us into the peace in which He created us. Amen...
For Ghana and Africa we pray, in Jesus name. Amen.
Thank you Father...