In the face of warring nations and warring nature, Isaiah continues to set our hope on a miraculous birth. Well, as ever, Isaiah answers by pointing us to the Messiah. How absurd to think that nature itself could be tamed! What could possibly bring about such a cosmic reversal? Nature, as Tennyson reminded us, is red in tooth and claw. Isaiah has painted a deliberately provocative scene. “The lion will lay down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep.” (Woody Allen) “No absolute is going to make the lion lie down with the lamb unless the lamb is inside.” (D.H. “Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn” (Martin Amis) It’s a vision that has drawn mockery from many quarters: Yet, as with a phrase like “ Pride goeth before a fall“, it’s the abbreviation that has survived the test of time: the lion shall lie down with the lamb.īut however it’s phrased, what could sound more unnatural than a wolf or lion lying down with a lamb? Isaiah wrote about “the wolf dwelling with the lamb while the leopard lies down with the kid… and the young lion” (Isaiah 11:6). Here’s a phrase that has morphed from it’s biblical origins.
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