The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Isaiah 65:25
This passage is one that has morphed over the years into "the lion shall lie down with the lamb." It's an image of a new era of peace after the Jews returned from Babylonian exile. It's an image that has given people hope for nearly 3,000 years. In the world that is imagined by the prophet, all the alienation of the world that is the result of sin shall be ended. There will no longer be natural enemies, such as the wolf and the lamb, and the serpent who brought sin into the world shall be starved out of existence.
We still live in a world where the weak are afraid of the strong, and where some are like the lion who preys on those further down the food chain. But in faith we can still work to overcome this strife and fear. And in faith we can live with an active hope to bring the peaceable kingdom about.
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