The Meaning of the Wolf and the Lamb

Isaiah’s description of a mountain where wild and domestic animals live together in peace is a favorite proof text for a future rule of Christ on earth. But the literary and historical context plant its fulfillment firmly in the era after Israel’s return from exile in Babylon.

Jesus and the apostles often quoted isolated Old Testament verses and proclaimed their “fulfillment.” But they were never guilty of artlessly ignoring or violating the original contexts. They used these texts because they understood that although those prophecies predicted events that had already come to pass, they now served as types of first-century events (Luke 24:25-27; Acts 3:24).

The passage in question (Isaiah 11:6-9) is part of a sequence that begins in 10:20 and ends with chapter 12. It deliberately recapitulates the primary themes of the Heptateuch, the first seven books of the Bible. But this pattern was also a social expression of the cumulative process of physical creation in Genesis 1. God used Creation as a template for Nation Creation. This means that identification of the steps of the sequence as a whole is crucial if we are to understand the typological significance of the wolf and the lamb within its literary diorama.

In contrast, commentators and apologists cherry-pick verses from the prophets and apply them directly to the first century, the twentieth century, and even to the end of the world, as if these texts were a grab bag of scattershot predictions with no rhyme or reason.

The “peaceable kingdom” passage in Isaiah 11 is a prime example of the victims of such abuse, and its confused “exposition” sheds little light on the author’s intent. The remnant is neither first-century nor modern Israel. The new shoot is not Christ but an earlier Davidic heir. And the wild and domestic animals at rest together are not actual animals at all.

These errors might be understandable if even basic logic did not expose our mishandling of the text. What comfort was it for Israelites facing the armies of Assyria to hear of a Messiah who would “deliver” them half a millennium down the track? Did a nation on death row need to hear of universal peace at the end of time? Similarly, first-century saints facing immediate persecution and the horrors of the Jewish War were not given a vision of a battle at the end of history regarding an entirely different Temple.

In this passage, and others, the symbolism makes perfect sense when the historical context, the covenant structure, and the moral purpose of the prophet for his hearers are all taken into account. Isaiah is alluding to past events in a sequence of “dominion” designed to highlight the faithfulness of the God who would fulfill His promises of covenant succession to Israel in the imminent future.

Overview of the Sequence

The passage in question (Isaiah 11:6-9) is part of a sequence that begins in 10:20 and ends with chapter 12. It deliberately recapitulates the primary themes of the Heptateuch, the first seven books of the Bible. But this pattern was also a social expression of the cumulative process of physical creation in Genesis 1. God used Creation as a template for Nation Creation. This means that dentification of the steps of the sequence as a whole is crucial if we are to understand the typological significance of the wolf and the lamb within its literary diorama.

The first task we face in this process is the identification of the beginning any given structure. The traditional chapter subheadings are some help but can be quite misleading for those who assume that these inferred breaks in the text always herald a substantial change of subject.

This pattern is ubiquitous in the Bible, which makes it a crucial key for understanding how the Scriptures in general communicate their meaning. A typology that is limited in function to isolated “this is that” correlations is the equivalent of studying words without any perception of sentences. Only a comparison of recapitulated sequences—a systematic typology—reveals the internal logic of the literature, pulling back the veil to answer many questions that have engaged theologians for centuries. An important instance is the ironic use of the Heptateuch as the meta-text or deep structure of the Book of Revelation.

As a recapitulation of the Creation Week, each of its steps finds an equivalent in the elements of the Tabernacle of Moses. Beginning with the Ark of the Testimony as the Word of Life, it works via the Veil, the Bronze Altar, the Golden Table, the Lampstand, the Incense Altar, and the Laver, to the glory cloud of Yahweh, who judged the tent as “very good” upon its completion and inhabited it.

The pattern is also found in the list of Israel’s feasts as presented in Leviticus 23. This begins with the Sabbath as the “head” of the pattern, the entire sequence in miniature. Passover obviously corresponds to the Exodus, and Leviticus to Firstfruits. Pentecost brings the holy fire of the Law of Sinai, or the filling of the Spirit. Trumpets musters the hosts of Israel, and Atonement confers holy office upon the animals and Adam as sacrifices and High Priest. The Lord had come to Adam as a mighty wind, but He did not find a suitable habitation within which to “tabernacle.” Here in Isaiah, a purified Israel would have God “with them” after the exile in a deeper way than ever before.

The fundamental message of Isaiah’s use of this pattern here is that Israel’s return will be a “new creation” in social terms, like that of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and conquest of Canaan. This helps us to identify the historical referents of the types he has used, especially the animals.

The Peaceable Kingdom

Isaiah 11:6-9 is the Day 4 step of the greater pattern, so the subject of the sequence is the rulers of the land. Identifying the structure of the whole is the only way to discern this.

Zooming in on the passage reveals the same pattern in use, like finding the pattern of the branches of the tree replicated in the clusters of twigs.

Adding the classification labels of the Bible’s legal covenant pattern in its sevenfold form enhances the resolution of the prophet’s thinking in the choice of imagery and the order of its presentation. The annual feasts are still there as a thread in the fabric, but in a more subtle form that allows the imagery of the primary referent to shine. What is that referent? Noah’s ark.

Because the text is a fractal, each of these steps corresponds to its equivalent in the great pattern. And the same goes for all of the steps in each of the cycles within the greater pattern. In this regard, the first thing we might notice is that the serpent is once again at the center of the sequence.

But what is actually going here? What is the prophet describing, or rather, signifying, to his audience, a people who have heard his denunciations of their prosperity as a cloak for their spiritual sickness? It is a reversal of the curse of the Law, described as a reversal of the curse upon Adam.

This sequence is also the Numbers step in the greater pattern. But instead of wild beasts and serpents “in the wilderness” (the Hebrew name for the Book of Numbers), there are beasts at peace on God’s mountain.

Under the “olive branch” ruler in Isaiah 10:33-11:5, the “beasts” (human kings) would submit as they did to Noah. The rising tides of Gentile armies would cause massive upheavals, but eventually the wicked would be cut off and the righteous vindicated. The meek (those who submitted to heaven) would inherit the “new earth.”

This “new heaven and earth” was the old social order slain and transformed. After the Great Flood, heaven’s glory (the stars) was revealed in a greater way, God established a new foundation for the land, and He restrained the wild sea (Job 38:4-11). In that case, the Noahic priest-kings (“the Sons of God”—the “stars” of earth) received the inheritance while the seed of the serpent were cut off.

Although the Land and Sea here are the Jews and the Gentiles, the revelation of the “Sons of God” mentioned in Romans 8:19 applied in the Flood as much as it did to AD70, and also applies to the final judgment. Apocalypse is about vindication. The curtain is drawn back to reveal the true sons and to expose the fakes. That principle applies here to the purification of Israel under Babylon.

The Noahic allusion also explains why the coming restoration is expressed here in terms of the clean (priestly) and unclean (kingly) animals that rested together in the ark. The created order will be restored after the final judgment, but the curse that is removed here was that suffered by Israel under the Law of Moses in which animals represented the classes, offices, and moral states of people.

The wild and domestic animals will be at peace (11:6a)

The Sabbath step promises Edenic rest. The local context is revealed in the fact that the wolf, leopard, lion, and bear were the only ferocious animals in Palestine, the four blood-drawing horns at the corners of the Altar-Land (Zechariah 1:18-21). Three of these animals were reprised in the four cherub guardians of the Empire-Land in Daniel 7, an image of the four beasts around the throne of God in heaven. Similarly, the creation of the land animals on Day 6 served as a “throne” for Adam.

The Lord promised to drive the Canaanites out of the Land gradually, that the wild beasts might not multiply against His people (Exodus 23:29-30; Deuteronomy 7:22). He promised to give peace in the Land if Israel obeyed Him, removing the wild beasts that the people might lie down without fear (Deuteronomy 26:6). But if they disobeyed, the beasts would return and devour their offspring (Deuteronomy 26:22), a curse fulfilled by Elisha (2 Kings 2:23-25).

The image is striking because the wild beasts are not driven out of this peaceable kingdom (Ezekiel 34:25, 28) but instead they are now domesticated. They submit to a Son of God on earth who represents his Father in heaven. The culmination of this was the reign of Mordecai, whom the rulers of the nations came to fear, and to whom they submitted (Esther 9:3-4).

The domestic animals, the lamb and the goat, allude to the clean Passover animals as the sons of Israel (Exodus 12:5).

Priestly and kingly animals will submit to a youth (11:6b)

The Passover step replaces the bad Pharaoh of Moses with the good Pharaoh of Joseph. The companionship of domestic and wild beasts continues, but with a focus on the young—the offspring. Israel, the “firstborn” of God (Exodus 4:22), is now, like Joseph, the unexpected heir (Psalm 89:19-29). He leads faithful Jew and Gentile together—as priestly shepherds who guard the earth and royal wise men who watch the heavens—in a spiritual exodus from Babylon.

Carnivorous animals will return to an Edenic diet (11:7)

The Firstfruits step takes the beastly “horns” of the Bronze Altar and invites them to commune humbly with God at the Golden Table as if it were a manger in a stable.

Teeth and horns are instruments of judgment. The throne of the “all-seeing” Solomon was covered in ivory, transforming the “eye and tooth” of the Law into vision and prophecy.

The bloodthirsty hunters—like Nimrod and Esau—would submit like priestly Jacob. Like the food law in Eden, and the food laws of Israel, this diet was only temporary and not a permanent state. The meaning is that they will eat priestly food like the Tree of Life, or the manna in the wilderness, or the “seeds” requested by Daniel, until they are humbled enough to receive their thrones anew from God and dine upon delicacies once again. This is precisely what God did to Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:25). As priestly kings who communed with God in the Garden, they would no longer bite and devour one another in the Land and the World (Galatians 5:15). Fellow believers, whether Jew or Gentile, would feast together as Sons of God (Acts 10:34-35).

The nursing infant will play over the empty cobra’s hole (11:8a)

The Pentecost step alludes to Adam’s offering of his unborn offspring (Hebrews 7:9-10) to his chosen Baal in the Garden of Eden. The serpent is judged more strictly than the beasts (Genesis 3:14; James 3:1), and is not pacified here but instead rendered barren. The cobra’s nest is safe because it is empty. If this sounds strange, notice that Dan, the serpent (Genesis 49:17), is missing from the tribes in Revelation 7:5-8. The cutting off of rebellious Ephraim and Judah culminated in the cutting off of wicked Haman (from Esau) and his sons.

and the child will be safe near the barren serpent’s den (11:8b)

Trumpets concerns multiplication, both positively (plunder) and negatively (plagues). Here it relates to fertility and growth to fruitful maturity. The nursing child is now weaned but the serpent still has no seed. This is his punishment for continually trying to steal the Woman and corrupt her seed.

No beasts will hurt or destroy in God’s holy mountain (11:9a)

Atonement lifts the curse put upon Jericho/Jerusalem and redeems the harlot. The “gate rape” of Jerusalem attempted by Sennacherib was achieved by Nebuchadnezzar. Miraculously, the harlot was burned with fire and rendered barren, but the bridal city on the true mountain of God remained pure and fertile (Leviticus 21:9; Matthew 1:5; Galatians 4:24-27; Revelation 17:16; 18:8-9; 19:6-8; 20:9-14). Under Babylon, and then under Rome, the purifying curses of the Law made possible the keeping of the promise concerning royal heirs.

The Land will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the Sea (11:9b)

In the Booths step, Jew and Gentile are united in true worship under God’s Word (Ezra 3:4). Israel would be scattered among the nations as seed (Land) but drawn again as a great net (Sea), fulfilling the Feast of Ingathering in preparation for the Gospel era.

The Leaves of the Tree

If we take this final step and zoom in once again, we can observe the same pattern imprinted in an even more subtle way, graven upon every one of the leaves. Of course, for this we must refer to the word order in the Hebrew.

The Lord’s glory descends from heaven like a cloud upon a new earth. As it does, it works subtly through the Creation/Tabernacle pattern: God establishes a “new land-Altar” with wise Joseph as the Table; Yahweh is the Lampstand (burning bush), the true Tree of Knowledge at the center; the “waters” are Gentile hosts, the Sea is the Laver of their worship, and God Himself is their covering.

This article is adapted from The Shape of Isaiah (1-12). Available in print soon, and currently available to read free online.

Art: Wolf and Lamb by Saverio Polloni

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