The Lamb And The Lion

The Holy Bible is filled with prophecies of the coming Kingdom of God (see The Kingdom Of The LORD God and The Church: Mission Accomplished). The God-given writings of the prophet Isaiah (see also The Prophets: Isaiah) include detail on how even animals will learn peace in the Kingdom of Peace ("^9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 KJV): "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 the 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."

"^11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse [see also Jesse The Bethlehemite], and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

^11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; ^11:3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: ^11:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked [see What Is The Day Of The LORD? and What Happens After The Messiah Returns?]. ^11:5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

^11:6 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 the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. ^11:7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ^11:8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. ^11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD [see What Does Word of God Mean To You?], as the waters cover the sea.

^11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

^11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

^11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth [see Israel In History and Prophecy: The New Covenant]." (Isaiah 11:1-10 KJV)

"In the midst of the elders stood a Lamb ... behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah"

Along with the literal lambs and lions described in the verses quoted above, the Word of God also uses them figuratively, in numerous other prophecies. Perhaps the reason that there was to be a "Lamb" of God, and why the Savior was born as an ordinary man, is because sheep symbolized humanity, as in how the "sheep have gone astray" - except the One from among them that would be Sacrificed as a means to bring them back to the fold. As also prophesied by Isaiah:

"^53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. ^53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. ^53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Isaiah 53:5-7 KJV)

The prophets of the later time recognized the "lamb" when He came.

"^1:29 The next day John [see Ahead Of The Prophet] seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29 KJV)

When He had completed His Sacrifice, the "Lamb" delivered the Sacrifice to God, as prophetically portrayed by the Day of Atonement (see the Fact Finder question below).

"^5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof [see The Seals Of Prophecy]. ^5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. ^5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. ^5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; ^5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:5-10 KJV)

Notice also in the verses quoted above that the "Lamb" ("in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain") is also referred to as a "Lion" ("behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda"). Like the "Lamb," the "Lion" was identified long ago (see A Biography Of Jacob: Blessings And Prophecies).

"^49:9 Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? ^49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." (Genesis 49:9-10 KJV)

Lions are used as symbols of kings. In the case of The Messiah, it describes how the "Lamb" is going to rule when He returns.

"^15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark [see What Is The Mark Of The Beast?], and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

^15:3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. ^15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest [see Manifest]." (Revelation 15:2-4 KJV)

"^19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. ^19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. ^19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. ^19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. ^19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. ^19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of kings, and LORD of lords." (Revelation 19:11-16 KJV)

Fact Finder: What happened when the Lamb of God arrived back before the Throne of God?
See What Happened When The Messiah Arrived In Heaven?

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This Day In History, December 14

557: Constantinople was severely damaged by an earthquake.

704: Aldfrith, king of Northumbria 685-704, died.

1287: A Zuider Zee (i.e. sea in Dutch) seawall failure in the Netherlands caused the drowning of over 50,000 people.

1542: Princess Mary Stuart became Mary, Queen of Scots.

1822: The Congress of Verona, a last meeting of the powers of the Holy Alliance and Britain, ended with Britain preventing a possible intervention in revolutionary Spain.

1860: George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, died at age 76. The British statesman and Prime Minister (1852-1855) led a government that involved Britain in the Crimean War against Russia. His government settled disputes over boundaries between Canada the U.S. by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.

1861: Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha died of typhoid at age 42. The German-born husband and first cousin of Queen Victoria (Albert and Victoria were the nephew and niece of King Leopold of Belgium, who promoted their marriage) was the father of King Edward VII. Throughout her almost 40 years of widowhood, Queen Victoria decided important questions on the basis of what she thought "Albert would have done."

1900: Max Planck presented his quantum theory at the Physics Society in Berlin.

1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and three others became the first known humans to reach the South Pole.

1920: The first fatalities on a scheduled passenger flight occurred when an aircraft crashed into a house, killing the two-person crew and two passengers at Cricklewood, London.

1927: Britain signed a treaty allowing for Iraqi independence. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, numerous Middle East nations, including Israel, regained their independence by means of the British Mandate (see A History Of Jerusalem: The British Mandate).

1946: Primarily because Europe was still then in ruins at the end of the Second World War, the United Nations voted to make its headquarters in New York.

1977: Representatives from Israel and Egypt met in Cairo for the first peace conference between the two nations.

1981: Israel annexed the Golan Heights. It had been captured from Syria during the 1967 War.

2004: Cuba and Venezuela founded the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.