“Wolves and Lambs”

Sunday, August 29, 2021

          The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

                        and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

        and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

                        and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze;

                        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.

They shall not hurt or destroy

                        in all my holy mountain;

        for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

                        as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11.6-9)

As with so much in the book of Isaiah, while this prophecy has some minor relation to the coming judgement from God on the enemies of his people such as Babylon, it has a lot more to do with the coming—700 years later—of the Messiah.  Earlier in the chapter, God predicted a descendant from the then-failing line of David, who would reign on his ancestor’s throne with God’s approval and help.  This Branch of David would rule over a kingdom centered, as we saw in verse 9, on God’s “holy mountain”—Zion, on which the city of Jerusalem was built.  But it wouldn’t be limited to that city, or even to the region of Judea.  The whole earth would “be full of the knowledge of the Lord,” and the rest of the chapter lists Gentile nations round about, from which God says he will “recover the remnant that remains of his people” (v11).

The Jews who first heard and read these words would have generally assumed that “his people” referred exclusively to their ethnic group—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  But in the very same passage, God made it clear the Branch would offer hope to others outside that family tree:

In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11.10)

This was always planned as a worldwide kingdom, ruled from David’s throne by the Chosen one of God.

And what kind of rule would it be?  This audience was used to regime changes—they’d seen both their brothers to the north and several other nearby nations conquered by the Assyrians, and finally the Assyrians themselves waning in power.  Most of these rulers treated each conquered populace brutally, establishing dominance through the exercise of power and punishment.  They executed enemies simply as examples to scare the rest; they took captives and made them march hundreds of miles “naked and barefoot” (Is 20.4) to serve masters far from their homes.  A rising nation was a great threat to every other nation around it, and it went without saying that violence would decide the course of each person’s life.

What would the Messiah bring?  “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb” (Is 11.6).  Each of the details shared in the verses that followed is another demonstration that in the Kingdom of Heaven, there is no cause for fear.  God didn’t say wolves, leopards, lions, bears, cobras, and adders would be exterminated; nor did he say that there would be no more weakness or vulnerability—the lamb, kid, calf, cow, ox, and children of all ages remain, too.  But they’re no longer threatened by violence from the strong.  They get along, and the strong allow themselves to be led by a child—who couldn’t have forced his will on any of them.

Jesus had much to say about this topic as well.  As he went around Galilee and Judea preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4.17), he also told his disciples, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9.35).  He told them, “let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves” (Lk 22.26), and followed that up by using himself, the king, as an example: “I am among you as the one who serves” (v27). 

But as we saw in Isaiah 11, his purpose is not simply to declaw everyone and establish a society of frail weaklings.  He expects his followers to be strong, and to put up with adversity.  “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mt 10.34).  In fact, he instructed them, “let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one” (Lk 22.36), and permitted Simon and another unnamed disciple to carry their swords with them to the Mount of Olives on the night he was betrayed and arrested by armed men.  His predecessor, also heralding the ever-nearing Kingdom of Heaven, didn’t tell soldiers to get out of that line of work, but to refrain from using force to secure unjust gain and be satisfied with their pay (Lk 3.14).

But the kingdom of heaven isn’t to be a violent affair, either.  Jesus tells his followers to be strong, but also to serve the weak.  He tells them to behave peaceably, even among those who are hostile.  “Beware of men,” he says (Mt 10.17), but “have no fear of them” (v26).  We could sum all of this up in one instruction: “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (v16).  The world contains many powerful people.  By and large, they use their power for their own ends, which are usually aimed at collecting more power.  How should the Christian behave?  Shun all power and become passive and docile?  No, far from it!  But use your strength to serve those in the kingdom who are weak in comparison.  That’s what Jesus—the most powerful man ever to live—did for us.  “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Ro 5.6).

Daniel Latini

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