Hosea 2:16, 18 (ESV), 16 “And in that day (during Christ’s 1,000 year reign on earth), declares the LORD, you (Israel) will call me ‘My Husband,’ … 18 And I will make for them (Israel extending to all mankind) a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.”
This is a beautiful promise that all the animals on earth with honor and recognize man as their wise, loving ruler. This is part of the restoration Christ will accomplish at His second advent. Acts 3:20-21 (ESV), “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
Christ will restore to mankind all that Adam lost when he sinned. At Adam’s creation, God said, “…have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 (ESV) The animals will see man as their loving provider and protector through the covenant God will make with them.
It was after the flood that God put the fear of mankind into the animals. Genesis 9:2 (ESV), “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered.” God did this to protect the animals from extinction due to man’s hunting, violence, and wickedness. The now-extinct Dodo was a animal exterminated by man. The Dodo was a gentle, flightless bird of the island of Mauritius, off East Africa. Europeans first discovered the Dodo in 1507. By 1681, it was extinct.
So, we look forward to the covenant God will make between man and animals! Isaiah 11:6 (NKJV), “The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.”
