July 7, 2025 - Isaiah 31-35

For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom,

upon the people I have devoted to destruction (34:5).

The concept of God using a sword as an instrument of judgment is found throughout the Scriptures – Here in Isaiah:  64:1-4, 66:15-16; and Revelation 1:16 describes a sword coming out of Jesus’ mouth.  In her Civil War hymn, Julia Ward Howe (1861) wrote

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

Her reference to “the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword” is not a direct quote from the Bible but, surely, she had in mind verses such as these.  For those who are enemies of God, who are enemies of his people and who seek to trample them down, they themselves will see the sword of God wielded not in their defense but as fateful lightning.  On the other hand, Isaiah assures, “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (35:10).  Not so good news for the enemies of God and truth.  Wonderful, comforting, assuring news for the ransomed of the Lord!