If you’ve ever wondered if heaven will be populated by animals as well as people, the Bible says that it will.
The heavens and the earth are God’s creation, and He called them good. Once sin entered the world, death came with it. Nature became a scary place, where animals eat each other and dangers are found under every rock. Just as humans learned to fear wild animals, animals were instructed to fear us too. "The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands" (Genesis 9:2).
This is the only world we’ve ever known, where cheetahs kill antelope and spiders feast on insects. But a new world will be given to us, in which there will be no more bloodshed or savagery. A time will come when animals will live at peace with one another and with man. God intends to make the heavens and the earth just like they were before leaves ever withered. Isaiah 11 contains a beautiful depiction of what that place will be like:
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)
If in Eden, animals and people lived together in harmony, and God called it good, we can surmise that He will restore that perfection on the New Earth.
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. (Genesis 9:1-2)
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)