When God created our planet, He made everything perfect. There was no death. Animals and humans lived in peaceful coexistence. The Bible records the diet of both man and animal in the Garden of Eden:
Genesis 1:29-31 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
The animals, and the humans, were vegetarian. Nothing killed, or was killed, for food or any other reason. But, sadly, the entrance of sin into our world changed all of that, for with sin, came death. Now there was fear between animals and humans.
Genesis 9:1,2 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them… the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
And the results of sin are seen in nature today – in death and decay, in pain and suffering, in weeds and thorns. Indeed the Bible records that the whole of creation is now in pain.
Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
But this is not how God planned it to be. And in Heaven, and when God remakes our earth after sin, animals and man will again be in harmony. The prophet Isaiah was shown a vision of what it will be like, and he repeats the beautiful scene twice for emphasis:
Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
Isaiah 11:6,7 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The child leading the lion, the wolf and lamb happily feeding on grass together. The calf and the bear cub lying down peacefully beside each other. What a wonderful picture! And like there will be no pain in nature, our pain will be gone as well.
Revelation 21:4,5 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
For a beautiful description of our earth made new, read pages 675-678 of the Great Controversy
