I'm supposed to be teaching a Sunday School series on Isaiah in the Spring, so one reason for starting this blog was to have a place to write out thoughts as I study for it. All these posts will obviously be provisional and of a thinking-out-loud nature, so I would love love interaction in the comments, but I realize that's probably setting my hopes too high.

So, first, the postcard scene in Isaiah 11, where the wolf and lamb are pals. What is it really about? Here's the passage:

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
and their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den."
(Isaiah 11:6-8)

The standard view seems to be that this gives us a preview of conditions after the 'Second Coming' of Christ, a kind of restored Eden, where vegetarianism prevails and all the world is idyllic. It's a very literalistic interpretation, but I'm not sure it's the right direction to go. It's a scene that opens with the appearance of the royal Davidic king ("There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse..." v.1) and description of his endowment with the Spirit (v.2), and his ministry of salvation and judgment (v.3-4), and his character (v.5). Then we hear about the wolf and the lamb.

Now, what then does all this animal imagery refer to? I think it's best understood as a picture of peace between the nations, and specifically of the peaceful union of Israel with the Gentiles. Whether there is a more literal fulfillment to come in the post-resurrection world with regard to animal biology we probably can't even guess, but I think the immediate reference here is to the political (crude word, sorry) effect of the coming king.

I don't think any Christian would deny that ch.11, as it opens, has reference to the first coming of Christ, at least in principle. He is the climactic branch from the root of Jesse on whom the Spirit rested (following lesser branches who would come, like Hezekiah and Josiah). The usual move, though, is to say that the first and second comings of Christ are collapsed here by the prophet into one vision, so that some of it has reference to Jesus' first coming and some (like the animal verses) to his second coming.

Here's why I'm skeptical of that view. First, v.10 says that "In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner for the people - of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious." What day is this? According to Paul, it's a day that he was already seeing in his own time. He quotes the verse in Romans 15:12 to help explain the work that God was doing among the Gentiles through Paul's ministry. So in Isaiah 11, if the verses (6-8) about the animals are surrounded by statements that have a first-century fulfillment, we probably ought to assume that vs.6-8 were also being realized already in Paul's day.

Second, 11:1-10 appears to be a vision of the same thing as 2:2-4. The parallels are many. Both refer to the "holy mountain of God", both have "the word of the Lord going forth", both talk about judging and “deciding disputes” (same verb), and in 11:10 we have the nations "inquiring of Yahweh" as in 2:2-4. Finally, both visions picture a cessation of enmity: in 2:2-4 between nation and nation, and in 11:1-9 between wolfs/lions/bears and lambs/goats/cows. I think that gives us a hint as to what the animal imagery refers to: Peace between the nations, between Israel and the Gentile aggressors.

In Isaiah 5:29-30, the prophet refers to the invading Assyrians as lions roaring over prey (and cf. Jeremiah 5:6 which is even more explicit). The prophets regularly speak of the pagan nations in that way. Think of the vision in Daniel 7 where the successive world empires are pictured as a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a monster. So there is good prophetic precedent to think that if Isaiah 11:6-8 is symbolic, it's symbolic of peace with Gentile aggressors. The lamb and goat and cow are priestly animals, used in the sacrificial system, and represent the people of Israel - God's flock.

For the wolf and the lamb to lie down together when the anointed king comes to reign means that the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile has been broken down, and they can be grafted together into one body in peace. Something like that happened when the King came, right? It says so in Ephesians 2:11-22.

Of course, it begs the question of why there are still so many problems between the nations. If Jesus came to bring about the peace described in Isaiah 11:6-8, where is it? First, I've been suggesting that it refers mainly to peace between the people of God (thought of by Isaiah as Israel, naturally) and its pagan oppressors. To the extent that the newly constituted people of God include Jews and Gentiles together in one body, that goal is realized. But second, and here's where perhaps more sober application comes in, prophetic visions are not magic. They are offered to faith, and an unfaithful church should not expect to see - at least in its own time - the fullest realization of all that passages like Isaiah 11:6-8 might imply. We are to be as faithful as we can, and wait in hope, and trust God that all that the church and the world experience will in the end finally vindicate all of God's words.