Isaiah’s remarkable eloquence is yet again on display in today’s reading, 2 Nephi 21 (= Isaiah 11).
He envisions the coming of a just and kind ruler, whom Christians for centuries have taken to be the millennial Christ, who will judge fairly and not according to mere appearances (verse 3) and who will advocate the cause of the oppressed poor and humble (verse four).
Moreover, with the advent of that ruler, there will be genuine peace, such that the violence, hostility, and bloodshed endemic to this fallen world will be done away:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Whether the change in the nature of the animals is intended literally or, rather, as a memorable symbol of complete peace and harmony with nature and between people, it’s a glorious vision, and prophets and reformers and ordinary men and women have yearned for it over all the intervening centuries.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In