Isaiah 11:7, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures animals now hostile living together without fear or harm, the cow and the bear feeding together while their young lie down together, and the lion giving up prey to eat plants like the ox. This harmony looks back to Eden before sin, when wild creatures rested peacefully under human care without hostility. Its fulfillment comes when Jesus returns in glory to receive dominion and remove the curse, for this changed nature of the animals belongs to the new earth and not to the present mortal earth. Then strife and groaning will end in universal peace, and human beings will regain their lost rule while fierce creatures become gentle and timid ones become trusting. In that eternal home the redeemed will dwell with wild and tame beasts on peaceful plains and pass safely among them without harm.

Words and Original Peace

The cow and the bear feed together and their young lie down together, animals that are now enemies and hostile living together without fear or harm in peace and safety, with nothing harming or destroying. Even the wilderness and woods become places of security where the beasts are gentle and people can pass among them and through their midst safely, while the lion and other beasts follow peaceably after them and the former order of strife is gone. The lion eats straw like the ox, eating plants and following a harmless diet, showing that violence and predation have ended. This is a wonderful transformation, pictured as a lion changed into a lamb.

The harmony belongs to a place where nothing hurts or destroys in all God's holy mountain because the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord. It forms part of Isaiah's prophecy of Christ's birth and of His work and its results, describing the peace and transformation of Christ's reign and of Messiah's kingdom. The peaceful order of nature reveals Christ and testifies of God and Jesus Christ as the great Creator of all things. Nature itself is not God and is not to be worshiped in place of the Creator.

The picture reflects the peace of Eden before sin and the fall, when animals lived together harmlessly without fear or hostility. Then the lion and lamb played together or rested together at Adam and Eve's feet under humanity's care. Human beings had been given control over every living thing.

Fulfillment in Renewed Earth

The savage nature will be taken away and the effects of the curse removed when Jesus returns in glory to receive dominion over the earth and subdue creation to Himself, and at that time the animal kingdom will change its nature. This condition belongs to the new earth, not to the present mortal earth. Then universal peace will prevail, the former order of strife will be gone, the groaning and lamentation of creation will end, and the earth will again be declared very good.

Human beings will regain their lost rule and the lower order will again recognize their sway in their proper places as before the fall, with fierce creatures becoming gentle and timid ones becoming trusting. Nothing will hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain. The restored new earth is the literal eternal home of God's people, where wild and tame animals dwell peacefully together with the redeemed on peaceful plains beside living streams after the holy city comes down from heaven to the vast plain.

There the wolf dwells with the lamb and the leopard lies down with the kid led by a little child, and in a field full of all manner of beasts the lion, lamb, leopard, and wolf live together in perfect union. Animals that are now enemies and now dangerous will live together harmlessly, safely and without fear. People will pass safely among the gentle beasts and through their midst without harm, while the wild creatures and the lion and other beasts follow peaceably after them in a creation made safe and glorious, so that even the wilderness and woods are places of security.