A Peaceable Kingdom

I’ve been thinking over words I could offer this Advent, but am finding that pictures might be more telling! These past weeks at church we’ve been reading bracing and beautiful passages pointing to Jesus’ second coming, as we anticipate His first. One of them was Isaiah 11, foretelling the shoot from Jesse on whom God's Spirit will rest. This coincides with the earth filled with knowledge of God, like water covering the sea (v. 9). I expect I'm not alone in delighting in the imagery of this kind of earth, especially its creatures living peacefully together. A couple years back I discovered an artist who shared my enthusiasm when I saw this painting attributed to a Quaker preacher, Edward Hicks.

Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom, ca. 1833-1834, Brooklyn Museum

Hicks' made over sixty versions of this scene, and I’ve attempted a few of my own for my niece. (My sister coined them 'unexpected animal friendships,' which is pretty apt!) I appreciate Hicks' literal yet imaginative reading of this biblical passage superimposed with his context. He collages God's peaceable kingdom with a scene of a treaty with the indigenous Lenape people. While I share in some of the optimism of this vignette, it also seems there is a significant distance to span between the painting's foreground and background, between the realization of peace and our current state. Perhaps that's why the artist depicts a river and what looks like a chasm dividing the two scenes. I think none of us needs to look too far to see social or relational rifts. Although we do see beginnings of Christ's reign, we are not yet living in the fullness of the peace illustrated to us in Isaiah.

And so, I'm thankful that Christmas approaches, reminding us Jesus has come and will come. That by God's tender mercy, dawn has broken to bring light into darkness, “to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78-79). The anticipation of Jesus' return provides words of comfort according to 1 Thessalonians 4:18, and also seems to carry with it images of hope, as God’s word to Isaiah winsomely shows.

Leopard and Kid

Wolf and Lamb

Calf and Lion

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Sources:

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/610?gclid=CjwKCAiA-9uNBhBTEiwAN3IlNOTqWeMP9XW81HIpi8VlS0bwijwv1C9ZB4dfLplIkIMqdyGo2zs_NRoCOZwQAvD_BwE

Andrew Newman, 'Treaty of Shackamaxon," The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/treaty-of-shackamaxon-2/