Kingdom of God article...the prophet Isaiah's inspiration of the world of tomorrow...Beautiful lion picture, lamb image.

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THE LION & THE LAMB

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. ---- Isaiah 11:6

R ECONCILIATION and renewal. Peace and harmony. These images of peace that God inspired through the prophet Isaiah have captured the imagination of millions for more than 2,500 years.

Writers and artists have been motivated to create their own portrayals of the scene based on these symbols. Some have founded their interpretations on the child and all seven animals mentioned by Isaiah. Most artistic re-creations of this vision contrast the lion and the lamb. A close reading of Isaiah 11:6 will reveal that linking the lion and the lamb is an artistic liberty. Isaiah pairs the wolf and the lamb, and the young lion and the fatling.

But the lion and the lamb is a dramatic picture. The intimidating, conquering, invincible lion living peacefully with his prey, the innocent, helpless, pastoral lamb. And both lion and lamb are symbols used throughout the Bible.

God continually inspired Isaiah and the other Hebrew prophets with visions of a new age when righteousness and justice would triumph over sin and inequity.

The prophets dreamed of a time when the deserts would flower, when weapons for killing would become tools for farming, when the crooked would be made straight and the rough places smooth. The prophets employed beautiful word pictures to depict a time of peace and brotherhood. Mountains and valleys levelled, tears wiped away, children playing in the streets.

Of all these portraits, the lion and the lamb remains the most enduring and captivating. It illustrates a coming time of salvation so complete that only a miraculous change in the natural order could describe it. An age and time when the most ferocious and the most vulnerable coexist.

But, as appealing and endearing as this vision of God's kingdom is, Isaiah 11:6 does far more than point us to a future world that is merely one big petting zoo.

More Than Physical Perfection
The Hebrew prophets did not intend to provide an exact physical description of what a reconciled world would be like. The return to Eden they saw transcended exact size, shape and dimension.

God inspired and moved the prophets to see a reality that their word pictures could only begin to describe. References to topography, ethnic origins, gender, age, geography ---- all physical descriptors and limitations ---- need not be limited to only a literal understanding.

Without negating the possibility of literal fulfillment, we can understand a deeper and more profound meaning from this passage. The symbolic meaning may be understood in addition to the literal.

For many centuries, students of the Bible have debated whether the prophet's intent was literal or symbolic. It is possible that Isaiah's ink was barely dry when the first argument started. The debate continues to rage today. One major difficulty in assuming that Isaiah 11:6 has only a literal fulfillment is that physical changes alone do not solve spiritual inequities. God revealed to the prophets that this world needs spiritual renewal, redemption and reconciliation. He inspired the unorthodox vision of a lion, a lamb and other animals being led by a child.

A physical lion living in peace with a lamb is not the epitome of all that God promises. The great promise and hope is much more than a lion and a lamb. The image of natural opposites that are peacefully reconciled directs us to the greater reality of salvation in and through Jesus Christ.

In Interpreting Isaiah, Herbert M. Wolf writes: 'By using illustrations from the animal world, Isaiah portrayed a scene of unparalleled peace and safety. The lack of hostility between the animals reflects a return to a Paradise where sin and its effects are absent. The animals are grouped largely in pairs that join a normally wild animal with a tame one. Isaiah emphasised the complete safety of infants and children, those who often suffer most in this sin-cursed earth.'

We should not view this scene an exclusively literal and we should avoid the temptation to allegorise it. 'One must exercise caution in pressing the details of so ideal an environment because the poet may have used figurative language to make his point. A similar description appears in 65:20-25, a passage that blends the kingdom period with the new heaven and new earth. Verse 25 has close verbal parallels with 11:6-9' (page 104).

Not Just Physical Eden Restored
The kingdom of God will not be merely another physically perfect, idyllic Garden of Eden. While Eden may be eventually restored and possibly transcended, Christians read Isaiah 11:6 in light of the saving work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We understand that Jesus, the second Adam, has come and accomplished what the first did not and could not.

Christians not only look forward to a literal fulfillment of Isaiah 11:6, but they look to the Lamb of God who makes the fulfillment possible. If we try to visualise God's coming kingdom as merely a second physical Eden, we are confronted with questions that cannot be answered.

For example, how might technology fit into a millennial Eden? What about the internal combustion engine? What about the computer? What about information highways, refrigeration, medicine and fibre optics?

Twentieth-century ideas of another physical Eden are often romanticised visions of the horse-and-cart era. The world of tomorrow can be recast into a stereotypical of the writer or speaker. But one person's dream of perfection may be a nightmare for someone else. That is why God will decide future reality ---- not you, me or anyone else.

The future that God will bring will be just, fair and fulfilling ---- unlike any science-fiction fantasy future world that humans might create. We all tend to think of perfection and happiness as a direct extension of our own interests and culture, the fulfillment of our own hopes and dreams. But God has something far bigger and better in mind.

If our varying ideas of perfection were to become future reality, then the vision of Isaiah might very well have been of lions, wolves or bears peacefully coexisting with thousands of other lions, wolves or bears. But not lambs. Or the vision might have been of vast herds of sheep, with no ferocious animals in sight.

Instead, God paints a picture of diversity and pluralism. It is not likes with likes, but extreme opposites that God uses to inspire us about the future. The animals are paired with traditional enemies. The world of tomorrow that God promises will not be a return to any state of condition the world has ever enjoyed, including Eden. For Christians, ultimate happiness does not result from returning to the 'good old days'. The kingdom of God results only when Jesus Christ is Lord, and for Christians that event happens when they accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour. The kingdom of God is not defined physically.

The citizens of the kingdom must believe in Jesus Christ as both Lord and saviour. We believe in Jesus Christ as both Lord and Saviour. We believe that as our Saviour, he has redeemed us through his blood. And, as citizens of the kingdom, we obey him as Lord because we believe in him and what he has done for us.

Christians experience a taste of the Kingdom now, always looking for and anticipating the future fullness of the kingdom. Christians hope for the day when Isaiah 11:6 is completely fulfilled, realising that it will come in its fullness only with the second coming of the Lamb of God.

Another Look at Isaiah 11:6
Before considering this passage, we should understand the context. First, the context of the chapter. Isaiah 11:1 begins: 'A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.'

Second, as we note the capitalised word Branch, we gain further insight by understanding the context of the book. A complete study of the prophet Isaiah, his culture, history and literary style is necessary to understand his message. To understand the artistic vision of the lion and lamb better, we can take a look at the portion of Isaiah in which both 11:1 and 11:6 appear.

The six chapters from Isaiah 7 to 12 are often read and understood as a unit. In this section of Isaiah, the Assyrian military expansion and threat to both Israel and Judah is contrasted with a future time of peace.

Isaiah uses the real Assyrian danger to illustrate the future peaceable kingdom that would eventually rule the world with justice. Two familiar and beautiful passages in this section of Isaiah speak of the birth of the coming King, the Messiah:
The Sign of Immanuel. 'Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel' (Isaiah 7:14).
A Child Is Born. 'For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace' (Isaiah 9:6).

This section of Isaiah points to the coming of Jesus Christ. He alone brings salvation, healing and peace. With that context in mind, we can consider Isaiah 11:6-7: 'The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 'The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.'

Verse 6 tells us that traditional and natural hostilities will cease. Natural fears dictated and taught by our present environment of sin will be overcome.

Verse 7 tells us that the natural order of things will be changed. The expectations of behaviour and life will be upended. The supernatural will make possible what was impossible naturally.

Loss and Restoration
Adam and Eve were created and placed in paradise, a state of perfection. but they didn't remain in this state of perfection. Sin entered the picture. They were seduced, falling or crashing into a state of sin.

By their own choice, they exchanged a state of righteousness and holiness for one of sin and evil. Sin changed everything: childbearing, food production, the flora and fauna and, most importantly humanity's relationship with God. Now sin described the world as completely and thoroughly as perfection had described everything in the garden. Adam and Eve were cast out of the paradise of God and were surrounded and engulfed by sin.

They were in the wilderness of sin. They were lost, tragically and completely without hope and desperately in need of salvation.

As the pages of the Old Testament continue with the history of God's relationship with humanity, God promises a Messiah-Deliverer, a conquering King. A warrior who would fight against the forces of sin and evil. The lion of the tribe of Judah.

The Jews of Jesus' day looked for just such a person. They believed they understood and interpreted the Scriptures accurately. They anticipated the inauguration of the kingdom pictured by Isaiah's vision of reconciliation ---- the lion, lamb and other animals dwelling together in peace.

But Jesus did not fulfill their messianic expectations. He was not a war-waging conqueror. His mission was as different from their expectations as a lion is from a lamb.

The Lamb of God came to take away the sin of the world ---- to redeem, restore and reconcile fallen humanity. But not until the Church began did Jesus' disciples begin to understand what had happened on the cross. None other than the Lamb of God, God in the flesh, had lived among them. And that Lamb had been crucified.

Jesus' disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross' (Colossians 2:15). To humans who witnessed his death on the cross, Christ failed. But, through the saving work of Jesus Christ, the power of sin was overcome.

Of course, the Lamb of God did not remain hanging on the cross. He was buried and rose from the tomb. He triumphed over sin, paying our debt of sin. The Lamb of God took away the sin of the world. He is the risen Redeemer.

The Grand Design of Redemption
But the prophecy of Isaiah is only half complete. Jesus Christ will complete the picture of Isaiah 11 when he returns.

The first stage of our return to God was accomplished through Jesus, who was God-man ---- fully God and fully man. Christians who accept and believe in the Lamb of God experience the new life in Christ. And living in Christ means that we accept his as our Lord and Master. Jesus is both Saviour and our Lord. And the combined image of a Lion and a Lamb that Isaiah was inspired to see is what fills us with vision and hope for a time of reconciliation for all humanity.

As Saviour Lord, Jesus not only enables redemption and reconciliation, he perfectly represents and fulfills the symbolic Lion and Lamb. The Lion/Lamb will then completely transform human ideas of peace. His rule will be characterised by justice, by serenity, by knowledge, by innocence, by healing, by purity, by pastoral scenes of unparalleled beauty.

Human implements of war and aggression will be transformed into ploughshares. And the lion will dwell with the lamb (and the wolf, leopard, goat, calf and yearling) and they will be led by a little child.

The record of history should convince us that humans do not know the way to peace. We do not know the way back to God. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can be reconciled to God.

We must come to Jesus in faith and belief, accepting his as our Lion and as our Lamb. He is 'the way and the truth and the life' (John 14:6).

by Greg Albrecht