When He reigns over the world, the entire creation will be restored to an Eden-like state. Just as in the days right after the Lord created the first humans, humans will not prey on animals. Animals will not prey on humans or on each other.
"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them." (Isaiah 11:6) Animals will be so docile that they will calmly follow a small toddler around. Animals will return to eating a vegetarian diet, as they did before the fall of man, and the leopard and the lion and the wolf will lie down in green pastures with goats, sheep, and cattle.
Wild animals and domestic animals will be friends, not enemies. "The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox." (Isaiah 11:7)
It's not only the mammals that will become harmless to each other and to humans. Reptiles will become harmless as well. "The infant will play near the cobra's den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper's nest." (Isaiah 11:8)
These are the faithful and true words of the living God, who says of the eternal era in which peace will reign on earth: "They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:9) The entire creation will co-exist in peace, not only in Jerusalem (referenced here by the Lord as "My holy mountain") but all over the world. Carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores will be friends with each other. Animals and humans will be friends with each other just as they were in the Garden of Eden when all the living creatures came to Adam to be named, and just as the animals came to Noah to board the ark. Humans will be friends with each other; no war will ever be made again.
After man fell from grace, and after man continued to fall farther and farther from the Lord, the Lord sent a flood upon the earth. After the flood waters receded, something about the soil or the earth's atmosphere must have changed because the Lord gave man permission to eat certain creatures which He referred to as "clean". This was presumably done because man could no longer obtain enough iron or protein from crops grown on the earth or from fruits harvested from trees and shrubs. At least, this is the theory of a number of Bible scholars and people of the scientific and medical community. If man could have obtained everything he needed from a vegetarian diet after the flood, and if all the animals could obtain everything they needed from a vegetarian diet, we would have to wonder why the Lord suddenly told humans they could eat meat and why He instilled a predator instinct into certain animals to prey on other animals. At the same time the Lord gave man permission to eat meat, He placed a fear of man into the animal kingdom in order to give the animal kingdom a fighting chance against humans who were now predators. If He had not done this, no doubt we would have driven far more species to extinction than we have already. If He had not at the same time given prey animals a fear of predator animals, they would not have known to be on guard; many species would have been driven to extinction by other animals.
But a day is coming when the current situation will be reversed. The creation itself will be redeemed by the righteous King. The Apostle Paul spoke of that glorious day in Romans 8:19-21: "For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."
We who have been saved by faith are looking forward to a day when we will inhabit our resurrected, immortal bodies and live under the leadership of the Lord Jesus Christ as He rules over the world from David's throne. In this same way, the creatures of the earth look forward to their redemption as well. They did not need to be redeemed from sin, as we needed to be redeemed, but they need to be redeemed from the effects our sin had on them. Our sin polluted the earth, its atmosphere, and its creatures. Because man fell from grace and became subject to death, the creatures also became subject to death. But when the Lord Jesus Christ liberates the creation from bondage to decay, the creatures themselves will share in the glorious destiny the Lord has in store for those who have placed their trust in Him.
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