Isaiah 11:7
7 And the cow [parah] and the bear
[dob] shall feed; [ra`ah] their young ones [yeled]
shall lie down [rabats] together: [yachad] and the lion ['ariy] shall
eat ['akal] straw [teben] like the ox. [baqar]KJV-Interlinear
7 Also the cow
and the bear will graze; Their young will lie down together; And the lion will
eat straw like the ox. NASB
In the previous verse we
saw how the predatory behavior of wild animals will cease to exist.
Here we see that even the
diet and habit of otherwise wild animals will change dramatically.
The bear, normally the
predator will be domestic and tame and will move about and graze alongside
cattle in the field. Even their young will
live, play, and frolic together without the typical interference or
protectiveness of the mother. There is
no further need for guarded protectiveness, because there is no danger.
The lion whose appetite
is for meat from the kill, will have dramatic changes in its diet. From meat to grass is quite a change. That even implies that the nature of the
teeth will change so as to be able to eat grass as opposed to the teeth that
are needed to tear apart flesh and meat. Even the digestive system would need
to undergo changes for the change in diet.
Now note something that should
be obvious, but needs to be mentioned anyway.
These changes are not man made. They are not changes that will occur
naturally in nature. There is no
evolution operation going on here.
When Jesus Christ returns
at the Second Advent, the world will undergo phenomenal changes in weather, in
nature, in all of creation.
As for people, their lifespan
will be extended dramatically. A child
will be a hundred years old, which means that old people will live for the most
part of the Millennium, which is a thousand years. That also indicates a healthier population,
less disease, less illness and so forth.
The weather will be
perfect for their entire duration of the millennium.
And as we have seen in
these two verses, the animal kingdom is going to have dramatic changes within
it as well.
The ferociousness of the
wild will disappear, and the diet of the wild will no longer be carnivorous.
These are not symbolisms,
but real changes.
If these were symbolisms
then other references would have been brought into the context, such as some
comparison to human behavior. But such
is not the case here. These are actual
animal changes that reach to the very core of their animal design.
Only God can accomplish
that. Only God can accomplish that is a
short space of time. At the Second
Advent, changes will be virtually instant with but one exception, wherein the
bird scavengers of the world will be there to have their last great feast on
the human dead that will be scattered across the planet. This is the last great cleanup and when
completed, one could assume that even the scavengers will undergo certain
changes.
In any case, the dramatic
changes are Gods design, and Gods assignment for life during the Millennium.
They will follow Gods command with immediate effect following the Second
Advent.
