What does the scripture mean in Isaiah 11 where the wild animals dwell together in peace?
Let us consider the passage in question. “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. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den” (Isaiah 11:6-8).
This is an important and valid question as there are many pictures that show a lion laying down with a lamb depicting a millennial reign here on this earth when Christ sets up an earthly kingdom. That is a wrong and scripturally incorrect interpretation of the referenced passage in Isaiah 11. People have dreamed and imagined an age to come in which there is world peace and an absence of violence even amongst the animals. Man has used many colorful pictures and fanciful words to depict such a time of earthly glory.
Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God was a spiritual kingdom, not an earthly kingdom. Isaiah 11 is a beautiful, symbolic prophecy of the wonderful experience of peace and harmony that comes from salvation through Jesus Christ. We need not look to the future to find the fulfillment of this prophecy, for it was fulfilled with the first coming of the Messiah.Read more
