No Weapon Formed Against You
No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
Isaiah 54.17
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
And their righteousness is from Me,
Says the LORD.
Here is another popular coffee cup verse. You’ll also find it on t-shirt, prints, pillows, and even tattoos. Just do a google image search for “no weapon formed” and you’ll see what I mean. But pay attention and you’ll also notice that most of those items have slightly changed the text. They’ve personalized it. They often read “me” instead of “you”. In a moment we’ll deal with that, but first…
The Context
Isaiah is writing to the Old Testament covenant people of God, national Israel. The northern kingdom is already in captivity and the southern kingdom is not far behind. In fact, Isaiah has told them, earlier in his writings, that destruction and captivity are coming their way.
In chapter 54, Isaiah is dealing with the distant future. He’s prophesying about a time after the captivity, the future kingdom of God, the Messianic Kingdom of the New Covenant. This is the same kingdom described for us in Revelation, with Jesus on the throne. So there is a sense in which this promise is eschatological. But more than that, this promise is a spiritual reality for the present.
Given what Isaiah has already prophesied about coming destruction. It’s hard to read this verse as a promise that nothing bad will ever happen to God’s people. So what is it promising then?
God’s Sovereignty Over All Things
The verse preceding tells us that God created the smith who makes the weapon, and the “spoiler” who uses it to destroy. So the first thing we need to understand, and take joy in, is that God is sovereign over all things, even the weapons used against His people. When Assyria comes and destroys, when Babylon comes and takes captive, they do so as God’s tools, used by Him for His own glory and His people’s good.
In this text, God says He created, that is the language of Genesis 1. It means God didn’t just allow a smith to make a weapon, but He purposed it.
God Created the smith and his human skill to create weapons. God created the iron and laws of physics that allow such mechanical devices (weapons) to work. God created the spoiler to destroy. And God controls the outcome, the success of the use of such a weapon for evil purposes. The skill, the mechanical possibility, the evil purpose, and the outcome are all under God’s sovereign disposal.
The Corporate Nature of the Promise
Our predisposition is to read the bible individualistically. That is, we read “you” and assume he’s talking to “me” and not “we”.
Many times though, a proper understanding, which we can gather from the context, is plural rather than singular. Such is the case here, where God is speaking to His people as a whole, not to individuals within that people. Certainly, the promise of this verse is also applicable to the individual, as taught elsewhere in the scriptures, but the weight here is given to the community of God’s people, as a people.
Surely in a battle, even the victorious army suffers losses. The enemy may not succeed, in the main, but individual soldiers may lose their lives in defense of the whole.
So individual Christians should be cautious in claiming that no plan or weapon of the enemy may prosper against them personally. It may. But the enemy won’t overcome the church as a whole.
No Weapon Will Prosper
Lastly, God doesn’t promise that no weapon will be used against His people, but only that it won’t prosper, or succeed. This is an important distinction. Satan is all the time raising weapons against God’s people. From ancient times to today, God’s people have suffered, and even died, at the hands of evil men intent on their destruction. But persecution, and even death, do not equal success in God’s reckoning. In fact, it might be just the opposite.
In Hebrews 11 scripture tells us that some of the saints of God who have gone before us have triumphed over evil, while others were tortured, mocked, flogged, killed with the sword, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. All of this is the work of Satan, and evil men he has stirred up to persecute God’s people.
Persecution isn’t even Satan’s goal though. His greatest desire is to see us turn away from the Creator, to separate us from the love of God. But God has said that Satan won’t succeed.
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 8.37-39]
All of Satan’s scheming, the weapons he forms and raises against the church, the persecution he brings against God’s people, will fail. In fact, history tells us that it has the opposite effect.
Spurgeon has this to say:
Persecution shook the land, and sent forth its burning lava of cruelty, devastating the fair fields of the church of God. But did the enemy prosper? Did he succeed? Did persecution destroy his church? Did the weapon formed against us prosper? No! Each time that the church had a wave pass over her she rose out of it, and lifted her fair countenance, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners. She was all the more glorious for it all.
No, the weapons of the enemy, brought against the people of God, do not succeed. For the outcome of the war has already been decided. As Jesus promised:
I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. [Matthew 16.18]
So while individual Christians may suffer apparent destruction at the hands of the enemy, we can take comfort in knowing that our heritage as servants of the Lord is that our God reigns!
Discussion
[1] If this promise is for the New Covenant Church as a whole, how does it apply to a particular local church?
- a local church is not promised it will last until Christ returns
- its labor in Christ is never in vain, it is a part of the larger church, and its faithfulness contributes to the enduring witness of the universal church to the glory of Christ
- even when a local church closes, God’s promise stands, His purposes for His church as a whole will prevail, and every effort in obedience to Him is woven into that larger victory
- this should encourage us to perseverance, prayer, and missions, rather than fear of decline, any trial faced locally, or even nationally, is temporary in light of the everlasting promises of the New Covenant
[2] How should individual believers respond to spiritual attack and difficulties in light of this passage? How do we not lose hope personally?
- our hope is not in this world, but in the love of God in Christ Jesus, from which nothing can separate us
- remember God’s sovereignty over all things, and view hardships as part of His good plan, and our lives as part of His story of glory and grace
- take courage from other believers, and church history (2000 years of Christ’s power)
Coffee Talk: Brance and Lauren talk about flavored coffee creamer
Defining Theology: Brance and Lauren define and discuss the theological term Orthopraxy.
Resources Mentioned: