ANIMALS

                                                                        Animals

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‘The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them’ (Isa. 11:6). The Holy Spirit through Isaiah wrote this some seven hundred years before Christ. It is a picture of future peace on earth, the words of which tend to be condensed into ‘The lion will lie down with the lamb.’ Is this to be taken literally or metaphorically?

God got my attention in the basement of my Manitoba home in late 1988. The closest I had ever come to the lion and the lamb dwelling together was the vague reference to the Bible in the 1974 Genesis song and album of the same name: ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.’ It was upon reading the Bible that I encountered the Lamb of God in His words, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’ (John 14:6). I remember my total hostility towards the Lamb, thinking that He was so arrogant by being so exclusive. I had been crying out to God and this Jesus had kept on intruding into my thoughts with those ‘No one comes to the Father except through Me' words. ‘Who does Jesus think He is? God?’ If I had been a lion, I would not have lain down with Him. I would have devoured Him! Yet, He gently persevered with me as I sat in my armchair deep in thought. My dilemma was philosophical. It had to do with reality. How could I prove that I wasn’t lying in a coma somewhere dreaming all of this was real. Or worse, that I was not part of someone else’s dream. God, please help me! ‘No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ Jesus brought God to me. How? Because He is God! God is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Son of God who has become also human. No wonder He could change water into wine, heal the sick, raise the dead, and forgive sins, my sins. I stopped fighting and embraced Jesus. The Lamb and this lion lay down together. ‘I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest; lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon My breast.”’ (Horatius Bonar).

Jesus is the Lion and the Lamb lying down together. He is God and man fully reconciled and at peace. He is fully God and fully Man, the divine nature and the human nature, in one Person forever. ‘Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah’ (Rev. 5:5). ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’ (John 1:36). How can the Good Shepherd be a lion and a lamb at the same time? Sometimes He kicks over tables (Mark 11:15) and other times He blesses little children (Mark 10:16). John Calvin offers this answer, ‘Where is that spirit of meekness and gentleness with which the Scripture elsewhere informs us He shall be endued? I answer, that, as a shepherd is gentle towards his flock, but fierce and formidable towards wolves and thieves; in like manner, Christ is kind and gentle towards those who commit themselves to His care, while they who willfully and obstinately reject His yoke, shall feel with what awful and terrible power He is armed.’ We see the same thing going on here, ‘The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him’ (John 3:35-36).

The lion lying down with the lamb is certainly metaphorical. However, this is not to say that, as there will be a growing peace among humans with each other and with God, there will not be an expanding peace among animals. For regarding the Prince of Peace, ‘Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end’ (Isa. 9:7a).