And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field. (Hosea 2:18)
The lions ravage us, the sparrows flee us, and the scorpions bite us. All these things are against us. Fear and hostility pervade the whole creation. How different from Genesis 1:28: “And God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” What a contrast to Genesis 1:31: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Lions, sparrows, scorpions, man, and woman—the whole creation and every creature—lived in perfect “matrimonial” harmony.
What happened? One sin. One sin divorced us from the creation, from one another, and from God. Hatred, fear, suspicion, and hostility fill the air and every heart. We run after one another and from one another. Every barking dog, every roaring lion, every hissing serpent on this earthly realm reminds us of the discord, division, and divorce that exist in the spiritual realm. Does this grieve you? Do you hate the sin that has caused it all, and groan with the whole creation for deliverance (Rom. 8:19–23)?
Exiled Israel longed to return home. But the people were deterred by the frightening wild animals and warring nomads that had filled the land in their absence. So, here God reassures them, “And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and I will make them to lie down safely.” God covenants to create conditions of peace and safety.
All this is but a pale shadow of what God will ultimately and climactically do in the final “new heavens and the new earth, in which dwells righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:13). God has made an unbreakable covenant to reverse the estranging and acrimonious effects of sin. And when God covenants to do something, it will be done. He cannot lie or break His promise. Fellow creature of God, will you be among those who He “will make to lie down safely?” Or will you know enmity-filled eternal separation and division?