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“For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD” (Isa 11:9)

The passage of Isa. 11:1-10 is one of the most beautiful passages in the entire bible. The passage speaks about the coming of the Messiah with most idyllic language:
7 The cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like the ox. 8 The infant will play over the den of the adder; the baby will put his hand into the viper's lair. 9 No hurt, no harm will be done on all my holy mountain, for the country will be full of knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea. (Isa. 11:7-9 NJB)
The scenes described are unmistakable. They are those of the garden of Eden, where there was no hurt and no harm. The Messiah is filled with knowledge (Isa. 11:2), the same gift that was lost through the misadventure of Adam and Eve.

What then is the way of return to Eden? The way of return is the way of conversion. John the Baptist in the Gospel invites us to return to the wilderness. The wilderness symbolizes Sinai, the place where Israel as a nation was born. It is the place where God revealed himself and his word to Moses and where Israel promised to do whatever He said (Exo. 20:19). It is to the wilderness that John invites us, not to meet Moses, but this time, to encounter the Word made flesh himself.


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