Isaiah 11:6-9 New International Version (NIV) 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf a...
Isaiah 11:6-9 New International Version (NIV)
6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together; and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,
And
Isaiah 65:25 New International Version (NIV)
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.
Isaiah's vision looks like a poetic picture in the Bible. It is how the writer describes the life with God. The allegory shows the peacefulness where no hostility exists between the living creatures, even between the used-to-be prey and the predator. No hunting and the food looks strange for them, some kind of artificial.
Can this picture be more than an allegory? Can this be seen as a reality of the future? Is a life of this kind possible?
What if this writing teaches us about something, about the life that we may have in the kingdom of God - if there is one? Or maybe we, ourselves need to reach this level? Do we need to develop ourselves in the state according to this vision?
The description is so unnatural that it is why so interesting. Is it just a vision of the writer, a desire for God's world? Life was tough at the age of writing with constant hostility in society. Life was not worth much. Living in those circumstances, it is a natural desire toward a world where no fighting between human beings.
However, the description mentions explicitly the animal world where the human, a child is only a part of the picture. This is not about human society. It is much broader than that. It is about that no hostility between all the living creatures.
What can we decipher from this text if we assume it is a definite description? Let suppose that this text is not a poetic picture of a peaceful life. Then it is a description of a strange, differently working biosphere.
How the writer got this picture? Is it only a personal desire? The wild animals weren't the primary concern for a person even at that time. Another human being was much more dangerous and human rights did not really exist for much of society. Still, the writer's main concern is not human society. Why? Is the description more than a personal desire? Is it a concrete prophecy about another kind of world, about a future, about a world of living with God? Let's consider the last scenario.
The described scene is not unprecedented and unrealistic. We are constantly creating this kind of environment in our household, for our household animals. Not with the domesticated animals, which we are using to avoid hunting. With the animals, which are living with us.
A cat and a dog can live peacefully together if they are not competitors with each other, and we supply food for them. Unnatural, but possible. Their basic instinct can be overridden, and not just in the case of the cat and the dog. As many cases show, different animals at adequate circumstances are able to erase or not to use the ancient and born-with instinct, which defines the prey, the competitor, and the hunter.
According to the description of Isaiah, the basic instinct will not be valid in the imagined God's kingdom. However, the basic instinct is not a sin. It is an important behavioral property. It helps to stay alive in nature. It is an evolutionary developed, imprinted, supporting, and helping function. The basic instinct is not bad or good. It is a necessity.
The basic instinct is a necessity, yet only in a competition-based, and in a dependency-built environment, where the evolution is the driving force to adaptation. As our biological environment, our nature, our biosphere is such a kind.
We developed from, and we are living in an evolution-based environment, where the competition, even if it appears as cooperation is the ultimate driving force. Again, it is not good or bad. It is a necessity in the given circumstances. However, maybe it is not the only way.
Evolution is a method of adaptation to the changing environment. Competition and addiction are the stages for survival and to spread the successful genome.
The function of evolution is the adaptation, and the goal of evolution, if we can say such a thing, is to preserve life in a changing environment. Until it can be done in another way.
A selfless, altruistic, cooperation-without-competition behavior is the other way. However, it is not classical evolution. Classical evolution sometimes uses selflessness, altruism, and cooperation but only if it enhances competitiveness. A new kind of evolution, according to Isaiah, use cooperation fundamentally, probably even for adaptation.
Our cat and dog at home would not survive without the utilization of the existing basic instinct, if we, together, included the human, would not cooperate selflessly, in an altruistic manner. The human makes their sacrifice to enjoy the companionship of the animals. Isaiah's vision is the same.
What is God's kingdom then, if it exists, according to the writing? No pain and suffering just selfless cooperation without competition. This means no classical evolution, but a new kind, a cooperation-based evolution.
Or maybe no evolution at all, because of no change in the environment, or maybe already acquired all the possible knowledge needed to stay alive.
Isaiah's vision led us to a conclusion, to a new kind of evolution. Would it be the goal for us to reach that level of evolution to allow us to be present on God's holy mountain? Does the real God plant that vision? To reach God? Questions, which remain open. We, the human, our society is toward this state, in many aspects toward of the cooperation based evolution, but undoubtedly we are still far from that. We are far, but approaching the holy mountain.
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