The vision of world peace in Isaiah 2:1-5 is so iconic that there is a statue of a man beating a sword into a ploughshare at the UN headquarters. It was donated by, of all countries, the USSR. It’s an image which captures something of the world we all yearn for.
But how could such a world come about? In its context, the statue at the UN suggests that by coming together and talking, the nations can put aside their differences. For all the good that the UN has undoubtably done, it is clearly incapable of such a far-reaching peace.
In Isaiah’s vision, world peace is not a human achievement. Instead, it happens as God’s word goes out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and the nations come to him for wisdom. In God we have grounds for hope that his peace will one day come.