Isaiah 11:6-10 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
God’s Zoo Summer Worship Series Sunday, September 5, 2021 “Peaceful Animals”
There are predators and there are prey. Among the animals that we see in the world around us, there are some that attack and fight and capture and kill and eat other animals, and there are animals that are in danger of being captured and killed and eaten. That is why some zoos can have petting areas where families can feed and touch animals that are not likely to do them any harm, while other animals need to be carefully separated from people and each other by cages or enclosures. There are predators and prey. Some animals at the zoo would be fed with hay and oats and alfalfa and other plants, and some require the flesh of other animals. Perhaps even in some cases the zookeepers need to provide live animals that these animals can capture for food. In the past few weeks, I have also seen several online posts about neighborhood dogs being attacked in their own yards. A coyote or a bobcat would jump into an enclosed yard and snatch the small dog to take it away and eat it. A few of the neighbors who mentioned something like this were able to chase the predator away and save their pet, but others were not that fortunate. This is the reality in the world. There are predators and prey, so there are animals that we simply don’t expect to get along or to coexist peacefully in a single area. And that’s what is so surprising about what we read in Isaiah chapter 11. A wolf and a lamb, a leopard and a young goat, a young lion with a fattened calf. These are pairings that under normal circumstances we would expect to turn out very badly. We would expect that one of the animals in each pair would, well, be ripped to shreds by the other. We would expect the kind of scene that nature documentaries show with all the gruesome results. But that is not what Isaiah describes. He talks about these animals living a lying down together. He talks about a little child leading them and young children playing near venomous serpents. He talks about some of the most ferocious meat-eating creatures dining on grass and hay. He is talking about peaceful animals, animals without a predator-prey relationship. He is talking about animals that do no harm to each other or to people anywhere. This is what it looks like on what God describes as his holy mountain. So where is this particularly unique zoo that the prophet describes? Actually, we aren’t looking for a particular place to find this. We are really asking, “What exactly does the prophet describe? Is this a real thing that we are going to see in animals?” And the answer is no. We aren’t looking for animals that we are used to seeing as enemies to suddenly become friends. The prophet, inspired by God is describing a situation or a condition, one that involves peace and security, one that does away with or reverses the effects of sin. Think about it. In the perfect Garden of Eden, animals would not have eaten one another. They would not have threatened people. Everything lived in perfect harmony. It is a result of sin that animals kill and eat other animals. In a perfect world there is no death. But there has been death in our world, for people and for animals, for a long time. Sin entered into the world when our ancestors Adam and Eve gave into the devil’s temptation, and both sin and death affect us all our lives. But Isaiah says that this will be undone. He is talking about the work of the Messiah. He is talking about the work of the one promised long ago who has now come and done this work, Jesus our Savior. When Isaiah describes these peaceful animals, he is describing the messianic kingdom. He is describing what happens because Jesus lived and died for us and because the Holy Spirit has brought us to trust in his sacrifice. If we would have started our reading at the very beginning of the chapter, we would have heard about a shoot that comes up from the stump of Jesse. That shoot is Jesus, a descendant of Jesse and his famous son, King David. We sometimes use those verses around Christmas, to discuss how in God’s perfect timing he sent his Son Jesus to be the world’s Savior. The famous kings of Israel had been long past and gone. But a perfect Savior, a perfect man who was also God himself, out of the line of kings came to be King of the
Universe and to make for himself not an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom. He came to forgive sins and offer peace and hope. Peace and hope look and feel like what Isaiah describes. Animals at peace. Children playing near them without a concern. Nothing is out to harm or destroy or kill. That is the sort of peace that we have with God. Everything is set right. We don’t have to worry about animal attacks or anything else, even as the world around us worries about so many things. We don’t need to fret about weather or war or disease or disaster. Our God is in control. Our Savior is in control. He has saved us from every evil effect of sin. We have forgiveness. We have eternal life. We have peace. And make no mistake, this is not our doing. The way these animals are described as being at peace with one another is a far cry from the anger that so often fills our hearts. I have seen it, and I am sure you have too. People get angry and upset over opinions and decisions. They fight and argue. They mock and ridicule. And I don’t just mean other people. We do it, too, don’t we? We expect everyone to think and to react the way that we do. We expect everyone to handle things the way that we want them to. Our real life right now doesn’t look anything like the messianic kingdom of peaceful animals. No, it doesn’t look that way on the outside, but this is a spiritual reality. Jesus has taken away our sins, so they cannot harm us. He has taken away the power of death and Satan so they cannot destroy us. We really do have peace in the kingdom of Jesus. That’s what this all means. We have this reality of the peaceful animals right now. And the kingdom of our Savior is a kingdom that endures forever. It is an eternal kingdom. Here and throughout Scripture the messianic kingdom is described in incredible and amazing terms. Isaiah doesn’t get into this detail in the section before us, be we can hardly think about the peace and safety and security of the messianic kingdom without considering the eternal nature of that kingdom. Isaiah says, “They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. This is what will take place on that day. The peoples will seek the Root of Jesse, who will be standing like a banner for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious.” Isaiah pictures the mountain of the Lord as a beacon for all nations where people can find rest in Jesus. And that rest is ours right now in knowing the forgiveness of sins, and that rest lasts forever. This side of heaven, our joy and our rest will always be incomplete. This side of heaven we will always have a sinful nature that loves evil and hates good. This side of heaven there will still be crying and pain and difficulties. But on that great day when our Savior returns, all who have believed in him, trusted in him, will be changed. We will be made ready for the perfection of heaven. Listen again to how Revelation describes heaven and the people there: “[T]hey are in front of the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will never be hungry or thirsty ever again. The sun will not beat upon them, nor will any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Never again. Never again will there be hunger or thirst or suffering or pain. That is what the blessed result is of the messianic kingdom. That is when every evil effect of sin has been done away with, completely and forever. That is our home. As our summer series concludes, we can review that we have seen and heard about predators and prey. That’s the nature of animals in our world. But what we have pointed out all along is that our real predator is the devil, Satan. And the prey that he has set his eyes on is you and me. But here is the promise of God, the promise of the peaceful animals. It is the promise of peace and safety and security. You find it in the messianic kingdom. You find it in the kingdom of Jesus our Savior. And because of what Jesus has done for us, it is ours forever in the joys of heaven. That’s the guarantee we have from the blood of the Lamb. He allowed himself to become the prey so that our predator would be defeated forever.
The Text: Isaiah 11:6–10 (EHV) 6The
wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together, and a little child will lead them. 7The cow and the bear will graze together, and their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the cattle. 8The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand into a viper’s den. 9They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 10This
is what will take place on that day. The peoples will seek the Root of Jesse, who will be standing like a banner for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious.