Wolves and Lambs

To be honest, I have lived my whole Christian life confused about the Prophetic books of the Bible. I never really understood this type of literature: the symbolism, the hyperbole, the nuanced language. This was the case until I faced grief. As often happens with God, His Word meets us where we are and takes us where we need to go. Now I find that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophets comfort my heart with the anticipation of future Heavenly realities. It is to these writings that I now turn when I am in distress and in need of hope.

Isaiah contains numerous passages that are good examples of this new experience. There are so many gems here for those of us who mourn. While the Bible is sprinkled with hints of Heaven, Isaiah seems to abound with verses that cannot be interpreted in any other way than as explicit images of Heaven.

For instance, Isaiah 11:
“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.” (v. 6-9)

Or Isaiah 25:
“He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.” (v. 8)

How else can we explain these verses except that they are very clear promises of what is to come for God’s people? There seems to be now no earthly possibility that wolves will dwell peacefully with lambs, that it would ever be safe for babies to play near cobras, or that death will die in our present lifetime.

But God will give us this and much more in Heaven. It helps those of us struggling with grief to read these passages, to consider, to dream, and to believe.