The prophet Isaiah famously saw a day coming when, "the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all" (Isaiah 11:6). This very prophecy has morphed in the memory of many to simply read...  

"The lion will lay down with the lamb."  

Now I know some of you, even now, are desperately swiping the tattered pages of your Bibles to find evidence of the truncated version of Isaiah's prophetic vision.

But you won't find it. Of course, it's not unusual for readers to mistakenly assume that long-held nuggets of wisdom have their origins in scripture. You might be surprised to learn, for example, that the Bible nowhere says, "God moves in a mysterious way"; neither does scripture declare--to my profound disappointment--that, "Life begins on Opening Day."

There is, however, a sense in which the lion will peaceably share--and, in fact has shared--space with the lamb. It's in the person of Jesus. For "the lion of the tribe of Judah," improbably, is one and the same as he who was, "led like a lamb to the slaughter" (Revelation 5:5-6; cf. Isaiah 53:7).

A lamb silent before the shearers, he was crucified:

My servant grew up in the Lord's presence  

like a tender green shoot,

like a root in dry ground.

There was  

nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,

nothing to attract us to him.

He was despised and rejected--

a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him  

and looked the other way.

He was despised,  

and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;

it was our sorrows that weighed him down

(Isaiah 53:2-4).

He was risen, a lion ferociously protecting those for whom he died:

I saw a gold menorah

with seven branches,

And in the center, the Son of Man,

in a robe and gold breastplate,

hair a blizzard of white,

Eyes pouring fire-blaze,

both feet furnace-fired bronze,

His voice a rushing water,

right hand holding the Seven Stars,

His mouth a sharp-biting sword,

his face a perigee sun

(Revelation 1:12-17).

The lion will lay down with the lamb. In the person of Jesus.  

John witnessed the dichotomy in his vision of Heaven's throne, in the moments following the resurrection: "'Look--the Lion from Tribe Judah, the Root of David's Tree, has conquered'...So I looked, and there, surrounded by Throne, Animals, and Elders, was a Lamb, slaughtered but standing tall" (Revelation 5:5-6).

The lion is the lamb.   

What's the learning--the relevance for you--around the reality that the lion is the lamb?

Do you find John's vision of Jesus--certainly unlike the ubiquitous image of Malibu Jesus--comforting or frightening? What was John's intention? 

With regard to the image of the lion walking among the churches, watching, defending, what is there, who is there, to fear?