Isaiah 11:6

It is the world, the habitable earth to come, "of which we are speaking" (Heb. 2:5) — not heaven, but earth, and especially the land of Israel under Him whose right it is. What ground is there to doubt its plain and exact fulfilment? … Why should anyone think it impossible that God, in honour of the reign of Jesus, will change more than the face of nature? He will change the habits and instincts of every living creature, freeing creation from the bondage of corruption under which it now groans.

Missionaries would tell us, we believe, that killing and eating a young goat holds a special attraction for the leopard, just as the wolf preys on lambs by nature. All creation will be at peace and all fierceness gone — even the poisonous serpent stripped of its venom and its desire to bite.

The wolf, the leopard and the lion are shown as still existing, set against the lamb, the young goat, the calf and the more general "fatling" — but with their instincts for prey completely gone. Taken as a picture of the soul, how strange to sort people into such classes, when the gospel declares that all are lost and ungodly on one side, and that all believers are equally saved and children of God on the other! … Until then, faith counts on the power God gives against a state of disorder, as when David saved the lamb and killed both the lion and the bear.

The wolf, the leopard and the young lion will stop killing, of course. But there is more in the passage than that. These fierce beasts represent the lust for blood and power in men, the cause of all the strife … But all that will be changed. … God's power will do this. Men will be born again.

Because the sin of Adam had effects far beyond his own race: all that was put under his dominion got into ruin and disorder. And this is not a mere imaginative notion of ruin, nor a fanciful reading of Old Testament prophecy. It is the doctrine plainly and positively laid down in Rom. 8. It says there that "the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it" — a clear reference to the fall of the one who was set over creation. He fell; and creation, being under the headship of Adam, fell along with him.

Man boasts of his efforts, and they often fail. In this remarkable passage of Isaiah 11, God shows how He accomplishes His purposes and removes every trace of the power of evil — through a "little child." The word in the original could be translated "little finger." Before this tiny symbol the whole power and ferocity described in the earlier verses collapses. God fills the whole earth with His glory, blesses the people, and secures a resting place of glory.