Isaiah 65:25, commentary and pictures

The verse promises a coming order without harm or destruction, where wild and gentle creatures share food peacefully, the strong eat like the tame, and the serpent is left to the dust. It belongs not to this sin-damaged world but to the renewed earth and the Jerusalem God creates after the thousand years following Christ's return, the future home of the redeemed. There the redeemed move safely among lions, lambs, leopards and wolves living together in unity, dwelling and resting in the open fields and woods in light and glory on the way to Mount Zion. In that holy mountain humanity regains its lost kingship over the lower creatures, which are freed from the curse and made gentle and trusting as when Adam and Eve ruled them in Eden. That kingdom is governed by holy love and tender compassion, and its message now calls God's people, especially leaders, to consecration, repentance and obedience.

Peace in God's Holy Mountain

The wolf and the lamb will feed together, the lion will eat straw like the bullock, and dust will remain the serpent's meat, and nothing will hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain, showing a future order marked by safety and freedom from harm. Animals that would normally be enemies will live and feed together, the lion will eat plant food, the serpent will remain associated with dust, and creatures will no longer hurt or destroy one another. The peace described is the peace of the Jerusalem God creates, among the blessings of the New Jerusalem and its renewed life, and the peace of Christ's kingdom as the future home of the redeemed.

On the new earth outside the city, in one field, the lion, the lamb, the leopard and the wolf will exist together in perfect union. The redeemed will pass through their midst without harm while the animals follow peaceably after, dwelling safely in the wilderness and sleeping in the woods. This will be in light and glory among waving trees on the way to Mount Zion after the New Jerusalem settles on the broad plain, a real world without fear where formerly wild and predatory animals live together in peace.

The promise belongs to life in the new and restored earth, not to life on the present sin-cursed earth. It will be fulfilled on the restored earth after the thousand years following Christ's second advent, when the animals are restored from the effects of the curse and live in their proper places as at first created. The imagery of animals living peacefully together in the holy mountain, with the lion eating straw and no creature causing harm or destruction, stands in challenge to the idea of beasts existing in heaven.

Eden Restored Under Man

In all of the holy mountain nothing causes hurt or destruction, and there humanity regains the lost kingship, with the lower orders of beings once more acknowledging human rule. The fierce grow gentle and the timid grow trusting under that restored dominion. The promise belongs to life in the new earth rather than to life on the present sin-cursed earth, when animals are restored from the effects of the curse and dwell in their proper places just as when first created. It also portrays the happy life of Adam and Eve in Eden, who exercised unlimited control over every living thing while lion and lamb played together peacefully and harmlessly around them and slept at their feet.

The same picture describes the kingdom of Christ, whose government is unlike any earthly government because it represents the character of those who make up the kingdom. It is ruled by holy love, and all its work is graced with charity, pity, lovingkindness, and the love and tender compassion of the divine nature. Happiness in that kingdom is found in reflecting that love to others.

Call to Study and Obey

As part of the message of Isaiah 60-65, the verse is to be studied, accepted and heeded with thorough consecration to God by leaders in the cause and those connected with institutions. It belongs to a connected instruction that requires full surrender rather than partial attention, and its place in that larger message gives it authority for present duty.

The verse carries reproof for accepting only the word one chooses, for disregarding reproof, and for neglecting the duty to warn the people what is truth. Such selective hearing and such neglect are not accepted of God.

The verse speaks in a most decided manner to God's people, especially to those in positions of influence and great responsibility. It calls them to stop all complaining and every evil work, to put away the evil of their works, to come nigh, and to repent and be converted. When its words are taken and obeyed in this way, Isaiah 60-61 are understood and Isaiah 62-65 speak in a most decided manner, and reformation comes through the congregation of Israel, with the Lord manifesting His power in the conviction and conversion of souls.