Today, we’ll going to be looking at even more happy verses that help us to visualize life in the thousand-year reign of Christ after His Second Coming.
This is a literal, physical, visible kingdom. His kingdom will be (a) on the earth; (b) over the earth and (c) centered at Jerusalem.
The Taming of the Animals
Isa 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Isa 11:7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. Isa 11:8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. Isa 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
These animals were chosen for a reason. There is a progression of thought. There’s more depth here than you might think.
First, let’s consider the context. Between chapter 10 and chapter 11, we have this comparison between the Assyrian in chapter 10 and the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 11. The Lord calls the Assyrian in Isa 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger. He is a wicked king that God is using as nothing more than an instrument of His judgment upon His people for their idolatry, much in the same way the Lord will use the antichrist to bring judgment upon His own people for their unbelief at the midway point of the Tribulation.
After the Lord is through carrying out all of His judgment upon Israel, He says in Isa 10:12 I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. The Assyrian was nothing but a pawn, an instrument God used to carry out judgment upon His people.
So you have this contrast between the Assyrian and the Lord Jesus Christ as rulers. In the Assyrian, there is gross wickedness, a stout heart, high looks, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have 7 spirits upon Him, and righteousness being the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
You have also this contrast between the two kingdoms. The Assyrian kingdom is throughly corrupt, selfish, full of death, and violence. But compared to the Lord’s millennial kingdom, the Lord’s righteousness will reign over the Earth. Just as the Lord’s grace reigns today, His righteousness will reign in the kingdom. His righteousness, the rightness of His ways, goodness, truth, justice, holiness, mercy, grace, love – all the right ways of God, His attributes will govern how He’ll reign over this Earth for a thousand years. Because His righteousness will reign, there will be so much peace that even the animal creation will be tamed so much so we’re given these illustrations like the wolf dwelling with the lamb. It’s the predator coexisting with the prey in perfect harmony.
I loved how Gaebelein broke down the structure of chapter 11. That entire chapter is all about the king when He establishes His millennial reign. The first five verses are about who He is and what He will do (11:1-5). From verses 6-9, which we read, we have the peace and blessing He brings (11:6-9) by pointing out that the animal creation will be tamed to such a degree enemies will coexist in peace. That section doesn’t exist to merely bring attention to the fact that the animal creation will be tamed but to demonstrate the depths of peace that will exist when He returns. These aren’t just random examples the Lord gives us either. These are carefully chosen examples designed to illustrate depths of peace. Then the rest of the chapter is about how Christ will gather scattered Israel into the Promised Land (11:11-16).
Look at Isa. 11:1. “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots”.
This is a famous passage. Even Paul references it in Romans 15:12. This passage was designed to give hope to a devastated Israel after the Assyrian invasion. After God uses the Assyrian as a rod for His judgment to destroy Israel, Israel has become a decaying and fallen tree, but this verse tells us that later… springing up from the root of this decaying and fallen tree that is Israel specifically springing out of the stem of Jesse, the father of David, will come a new Branch with a capital B, and that new Branch is the Messiah of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will sit on David’s throne.
Then we’re immediately given the character of this new Branch. Look at vs. 2. “And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD…” We have a portrait of righteous perfection personified in Christ Jesus. How? Because He will have 7 Spirits upon Him. Seven is the number of spiritual perfection or completeness. We pointed out earlier in this series that Rev 1:4 told us there are “the seven Spirits which are before his throne,” and we’ve often asked the question, “How can we not conclude the Holy Spirit is 7 in 1?”
Look at Isa 11:3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: Isa 11:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
Notice here that in the kingdom, Christ will not judge according to what He sees or hears. He will judge from a vantage point of perfect knowledge of everything, because of the seven spirits that are upon Him. This is the triune Godhead operating together as one in Christ. The will of the Father, the judgment of the Son, through the omnipresence of the Spirit.
When Isaiah says in vs. 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth, he means basically that there will be no respect of persons with Christ when He judges anyone in His kingdom. His judgment will always be righteous. And when things go wrong, someone commits an egregious sin, the Lord will consistently execute perfect justice. By His mouth, He will even carry out executions. He wrote and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. He speaks. They’re dead. That’s the end of it.
But look at Isa 11:5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. Just like the Roman armor, or the armor of God in Eph.6, what holds everything together is the girdle.
There are two attributes of Christ that will make-up the girdle – His righteousness and His faithfulness.
First, we’re told, righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins. Christ’s personal attribute of righteousness will hold the entire kingdom together. The kingdom will be about the reign of His righteousness, Christ acting rightly always because He is holy. Righteousness is the rightness of God, the rightness of all His ways, the moral perfection and correctness in all that He thinks and does. God’s holiness is the purity of His nature being free from all sin and iniquity whereas His righteousness is the rightness with which He acts. So everything Christ does and will do in the kingdom will be righteous because His thoughts and actions are inseparable from His holy nature.
Second, we’re told that faithfulness will be the girdle of his reins. This is the faith of Christ in the kingdom. In His exercise of authority, there will always be His faithfulness to the will of His Father, His faithfulness to His people, His faithfulness to all His promises about the kingdom, and His faithfulness to all that He is, which means He will always be faithful to His own holy nature by which He will consistently judge every circumstance righteously. What holds everything together, like the girdles of Roman armor, are these two aspects of His nature, which are eternal and immutable, and that is His righteousness and His faithfulness.
The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb
All of this brings us to the passages we read at the beginning, the taming of the animals. These passages are not to be spiritualized as many in the Evangelical Industrial Complex like to do. These passages are not to be allegorized either. These are not figurative promises as Matthew Henry and many in the Reformed camp like to think. These animals are also not types of men and their supposed animal-like characteristics.
These verses mean exactly what they say.
When Isaiah writes, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb”, do you know what he means? He means the wolf shall dwell with the lamb. This is real. This is literal. We will see this when the kingdom is here. We’ll all be in our heavenly seats. We will see somewhere on the earth a wolf dwelling with a lamb, and we will all rejoice and say, “Hey, there’s a fulfillment of Isa. 11: 6.” That will happen.
Interesting enough, a lot of writers would conclude from Isaiah 11 that the sin curse has been lifted off of the animals, but the Bible never tells us that. What Christ tells us is that He will make a covenant with the animals. I kid you not.
Hos 2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
When the Lord says here in that day, He means the future day of Israel’s restoration, when the kingdom is finally here. When He says I make a covenant for them with the beasts, He means He will make a covenant with all the animals for the sake of everyone in the kingdom. And He breaks it down to three groups of animals: the fowls, the beasts, and the creeping things, which covers everything. He will make a covenant with all of them all at once.
Do you remember how the Bible handles a covenant that God makes? It is a declaration made by God that is an unmerited blessing extended out of love, which immediately becomes the agreement. God declares, “I’m going to bless you.” That declaration becomes the covenant. It’s a done deal. And that’s what God does with the animals. He makes a declaration out of love promising peace and blessings.
He does not change their natures. He doesn’t put chemicals into water that’ll turn the frogs gay. He simply makes a covenant with them. He shows them grace. He tells them He’s going to bless them. Then they are all naturally at peace just as they were before the fall.
Can a leopard change its spots? No, but a leopard can change its behavior after his Creator talks to him and gives him perfect peace in a sinless environment.
Animals were created to be able to do that. The animal kingdom, the lower creatures, have always obeyed God perfectly no matter what He tells them to eat.
There are some corresponding verses, too, in Job 5:23 and Ezek. 34:25. In fact, in Ezek. 34:25, the Lord calls it a covenant of peace with animals. He says, And I will make with them (all animals) a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. The Lord calls it a covenant of peace with the animal kingdom. We mentioned last week Romans 8, all of creation groaning together, and I’ll bet you what the animals are groaning for is… peace. So when God promises to them peace in a new covenant, they all embrace it. They’re willingly at peace as vegetarians.
Consider again these passages. Isa 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Isa 11:7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. Isa 11:8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. Isa 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
First up, we’re told in vs. 6, The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb. Why does he say “also?” This is a continuation of all the thoughts in the first five verses about the personification of perfect righteousness we will all see in the Lord when He reigns over the Earth.
Then he says in vs. 6, The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb. In other words, not only will the Messiah reign on this Earth in perfect righteousness, which inevitably means there will be perfect peace, but get this, The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb. It is written in this way to convey the additional depths of peace in the world when He reigns. It’s as if Isaiah is saying, look, it’s not enough to just state the obvious and say there will be peace in the kingdom. Let me illustrate the depths of peace, The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.
There’s a corresponding verse in Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together… Not only will the wolf and the lamb coexist in the same environment in perfect harmony, without a care in the world, but they’ll also be eating together! What will they be eating? Not each other! They will all become vegetarians in the kingdom. In fact, the last time animals will ever eat meat will be when the birds feed on the carcasses after Armageddon.
Notice the pairing, which is typical of all the pairings of animals in these passages. It’s not like God gives us two predators who would’ve gone at each other and killed each other. Here we have the wolf and the lamb, a pairing of a predator and its prey.
The wolf, in the Scriptures, is ravenous, fierce, cruel, an emblem of a wild, ferocious, savage beast. The sacrificial lamb, on the other hand, is everywhere the emblem of mildness, gentleness, innocence; also inoffensive, and forbearing, longsuffering, which makes that animal a perfect representation of Christ.
We also have throughout Scripture the contrast between the wolves and the sheep. Christ described false prophets as wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15). He’d tell the disciples in Mat 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves... Even Paul would use this contrast between wolves and sheep when he talked to the Ephesian elders in Act 20:29 and said, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. So the Bible presents this contrast to us of the wolf and the sheep, OR the wolf and the lamb. Two animals with natures that are completely opposite of each other, and now they’re coexisting in the kingdom in perfect harmony, which conveys to us the very depths of peace that will exist, peace that is unimaginable in today’s world.
The fact that two animals with polar opposite characteristics are coexisting in the same space speaks to the very depths of peace that will exist in the kingdom. The idea is that the harmless, the innocent, will never again fear predators in God’s kingdom on Earth.
Next, we have in vs. 6, the leopard shall lie down with the kid (or young goat). With each new illustration the Lord gives us, He’s actually demonstrating greater depths of peace in His kingdom. The wolf and the lamb gets your attention, but the leopard and the young goat, as an illustration, conveys greater depths of peace, because the leopard is a more dreaded, more cunning, and more fierce animal than the wolf. In Scripture, the leopard is an object of total dread. He lurks around for his prey, like the lion. He hides. He calculates the perfect moment. Then he suddenly jumps on his prey (Jer_5:6, Hos_13:7). In some passages the fierceness of a leopard is equal to a lion.
The young goat, on the other hand, is much like the lamb. The young goat in Scripture is also an emblem of gentleness, mildness, inoffensiveness, innocence. This is also, like the lamb, an animal that was sacrificed. Plus, he’s designated as clean to eat. The leopard with the young goat conveys greater depths of peace than the wolf and the lamb because the leopard is a more fierce, more dreaded animal than the wolf.
Finally, we have in vs. 6, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The calf, a young cow, is again an emblem of innocence. Another animal used for sacrifices.
Then we’re told about a lion, the greatest of all the beasts, the king of beasts.
We went from a wolf… to a leopard… and now to the king of the beasts, the lion, and not just any lion but a lion in its prime, a young lion. A lion in its youth is when it is most deadly. His kill ratio in his youth is greater than mom and dad. So now we’ve arrived at the king of beasts in the prime of his youth when he is most deadly. He’s the predator in this section.
Then we’re told of a fatling, which is an animal, any animal, that is well fed, fattened for a feast, which would look particularly delicious to a young lion. It would be a tough choice for the lion between the calf and the fatted animal. He’d probably go for the fatted animal.
Then we also have the addition of a little child brought into the mix. And a little child shall lead them… In this, God has given us a portrait that conveys even greater depths of peace than before. We now have the king of beasts in his prime who could easily take out the calf, the fatted animal, and the child, all without breaking a sweat. But they’re coexisting in perfect peace.
Not only that, all three animals together are led by a little child. They’re playing! They’re having fun! Animals in the kingdom aren’t simply subject to the will of man, but here, they also willingly submit themselves to the playful whims of a child! They’ll play around with kids! This conveys even greater depths of peace than the previous examples. There won’t simply be peace between animals and humans. There will be fun, happy interactions between them, so much so that a young lion, a calf, and a fatted animal will all together willingly be led around by the playful whims of a child. And they’ll love it.
Every animal on the planet is your friend. Every animal, including lions, will treat all the humans and their children better than any domesticated animal today. The animals aren’t simply at peace with humans. They actually love being with humans. They’ll play. They’ll actually play along with children, and they will never do anything to harm that child. This is why I say on podcasts that I hope we’ll have access to the Earth during the kingdom because I want to play around with lions and polar bears. That’d be cool.
In vs. 7, we have, And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together. The cow is another sacrificial animal. The bear is not the king of beasts but he’s the most terrifying of all – often presented as this voracious, raging war machine. It’s not strategic like the lion but fearless. It charges ahead and devours out of pure rage. We have illustrated here even greater depths of peace because the bear is the most raging, the most voracious of all the beasts.
Then we read that the lion shall eat straw like the ox. I suspect here that God is switching gears. Rather than continue to convey even greater depths of peace, He opts to explain the logical question any reader would have, which is, “If the animals aren’t eating each other, what will they be eating?” The answer here is that they all become vegetarians.
A Calvinist wrote, “This cannot be taken literally, for such an interpretation would suppose a change in the physical organization of the lion – of his appetites, his teeth, his digestive organs – a change which it would be absurd to suppose will ever exist. It would in fact make him a different being. And it is clear, therefore, that the whole passage is to be interpreted in ‘moral’ sense, as denoting great and important changes in society, and in the hearts of men.” What an absurd statement because the natural, original state of animals was to be vegetarians!
Les Feldick pointed this out. Gen. 1:30, “’And to every beast of the earth (that also includes the animals we read about in Isaiah), and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: (or food) and it was so.’” Feldick said, “You won’t see God give permission (I don’t think even to the animal kingdom) to kill and eat meat for food until after the flood. Noah was then instructed that he could kill and eat the meat of these animals. But definitely before Adam sinned, none of the animals could eat meat, only green herbs. So that is what is here in Isaiah 11. The whole animal kingdom, including the most ferocious, carnivorous meat-eating species are going to change their diets and live peaceably with animals they once would have eaten.”
Then we get to the verse that really freaks me out. Isa 11:8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
This is a verse I’ve no doubt God knew would make every normal person cringe – the idea of babies with venomous snakes. But the Lord puts them together to again convey perhaps the greatest depths of peace that can be illustrated between animals and humans in the kingdom. There is so much depth of peace in the animal kingdom and there is so much joyous interaction between animals and humans that babies can play with (what were) venomous snakes!
We have in this passage two children and two locations both in the proximity of asps, which are snakes – some say, really really deadly snakes.
We have a sucking child and a weaned child. An infant and a child.
When the Lord judges the nations after His Second Coming, He allows the sheep nations, the believing Gentiles, to enter His kingdom. They will all come into His kingdom just as they are in their corrupted flesh (if they have any infirmities they’ll be healed). They will have children. They will create new nations. The Earth will be so at peace, the natural realm so perfectly safe and so glorious and vibrant and alive, that a family could take their children on a trip into a forest and allow their infant to lay right over the hole of where a snake lives and have nothing to fear. OR a child could wander into a cavern into a cockatrice’s den. It’s like a lion’s den but it’s a den for the cockatrice, a serpent. The den is usually thought to be in a cave or hollow place in the earth, a subterraneous recess, you know, for shelter, protection. That child could wander into a cave, go up to a nest of snakes, and have nothing to fear.
In fact, that child might even have fun playing with the snakes! I can’t even imagine seeing that in my glorified body from my heavenly seat without freaking out! But do you see the connection between the serpent and the innocent human? The serpent who was a threat in the Garden of Eden is no threat at all in the kingdom. It’s safe for babies to play with snakes! I don’t think one could conceive of a visual portrait of greater depths of peace than that!
Isa 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in ALL my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.First, we’re told, They shall not hurt nor destroy in ALL my holy mountain.
This doesn’t mean that the animals won’t do any harm only in Zion. In ALL my holy mountain is an expression that means everywhere that falls under the purview of the Lord’s authority, which means the entire universe.
Then he writes, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD. This is more than just every human knowing that the Lord exists. He says, the earth shall be FULL of the knowledge of the LORD. People will certainly know of Christ, that He is the Son of God, and that He is reigning in perfect glory atop His holy mountain in Zion. They will certainly know that. They will also know that He rules over the entire Earth. They will know that His reign is characterized by His righteousness. Just as the Lord’s grace reigns today, His righteousness will reign in the kingdom. But Isaiah writes the earth shall be FULL of the knowledge of the LORD. Everything people will see will have God’s creative genius stamped on it. Every glorious aspect of the Earth they see, the natural realm, the animal kingdom, all of that will teach people about the Lord Himself and the wisdom of His ways. Everything that exists will teach people about the Lord everywhere they turn.
The Earth itself becomes the book anyone can read to know more about God.
Then we’re given that added expression: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. In other words, as the waters cover the depths of the oceans, so too, in the kingdom, endless depths of knowledge about the Lord can be discovered everywhere in creation. Just as there is an endless depth to God personally, so too, there is endless depth of knowledge about Him that could be discovered in creation in the kingdom.
The Earth itself becomes the book anyone can read to know more about God.
The way He designed creation for you speaks of His love and grace to you. How everything functions speaks of His genius and His wisdom. If you’re a normal human in His kingdom, you may not literally be in His presence as often as you’d like, but His presence will be felt everywhere you are. The knowledge of Him will be everywhere, and that knowledge of Him will inspire worship, which governs behavior.
This is true even today. Paul speaks of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. He wants us increasing in the knowledge of God. Paul’s prayer request for all of us in Eph 1:17 is That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him… The greater knowledge you gain of God the Father, learning His wisdom, learning His will for your life, then you will exhibit wisdom. You will walk like someone who had actually experienced the revelation of God Himself, because you’ve taken His Word and all His attributes and you’ve figured out how to apply all His grace and His life to the details of your own life.
On top of all of that, this prophesy about the earth being full of the knowledge of the LORD is repeated five times in Scripture (Num 14:21, Psa 72:19, Isa 6:3, Isa 11:9, and Hab 2:14.), five being the number of grace, according to Bullinger, which speaks to overwhelming, unmerited, extraordinary blessings in all the ways that the Lord will transform the Earth after His return. Bullinger would also point out that the earth being full of the knowledge of the LORD is the fulness of blessing that could ever be extended to mankind on the Earth.
I want to circle back to a point we made earlier. In all these pairings of these animals in these verses in Isa. 11, we were repeatedly given a predator and one of its prey. We had the wolf and the lamb. We had the leopard and the goat. We had the calf, the young lion, and the fatling together with a little child leading them. We also had the cow and the bear, the lion and the ox, and the babies playing with the (former) venomous snakes. Always a predator paired with its prey. The fact that you had two animals with polar opposite characteristics, and they’re now coexisting in the same space, speaks to the depths of peace that will exist in the kingdom. And the list of polar opposites goes to greater extremes with each new example to convey greater depths of peace until you finally arrive at two babies playing with snakes! Amazing!
But you may have also noticed that the majority of the animals who are the prey in each of those pairings were also animals used for sacrifices. But now, in the kingdom, the prey is at perfect peace in the presence of what once was its predator in ages past. No more predators anymore. No more worrying about predators. No more looking out for predators. Peace!
So these pairings of different predators coexisting with their prey in utter peace in the kingdom, is as much about the peace felt by the prey, as it is about the change in the behavior of the predators, which by the way, God achieved without changing its nature. He merely shows them grace. He will bless them with peace and safety, and they just willingly live in peace for their creator.
And the reason the kingdom will exist this way is because of the victory of one innocent prey, over all the predators, when the Lamb of God sacrificed Himself to take away the sins of the world, which lays the foundation of the New Covenant, and is the very reason why we have such depths of peace in the kingdom.
SUPPLY OF GRACE 