Discipleship and the Zoo

I just ended a thread on discipleship and things found at Walmart. In my next posts I am starting an all new thread on discipleship and the zoo.

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

The verses above talk about animals living together. They seem to describe a picture of a zoo. Picture a lamb, leopard, goat, baby cow and a lion living together. Better yet with a child leading them.

The only way that picture will work is in a zoo where animals are caged. Such a picture is simply not possible in real life, the lamb, goat and yearling will immediately be devoured by the leopard and the lion. The child will cease to exist.

Yet this was the picture that the prophet Isaiah saw. As the verses continue Isaiah adds the cow, bear, cobra and others. Yet he closes with the verse that says they will not harm or destroy each other.

The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.

They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:7-9

The vision that Isaiah saw was a prophetic picture of the church. Imagine people of differing economic and social backgrounds, political affiliations and temperaments living together in harmony without bars and fences to separate them.

This is only possible as people are transformed into the image of the Lord Jesus. This happens when people learn to live in discipleship relationships. Relationships where Jesus Christ is center of all of life. What it takes to make discipls of men and women to be full of the knowledge of the Lord just as the waters cover the sea.

See also: Prayer and Aerobics