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Alternative Daily Text for Monday, April 28, 2014
“The lion will eat straw like the bull.” (Isaiah 11:7)
As is known, “the Bible says that in the garden of Eden the diet of the animals was vegetation.” (Happiness – How to Find It, page 188) “None of the animals in the garden of Eden were killers,” rather they “had a vegetarian diet in Eden, as did humans.” Only after Adam and Eve sinned, “the animals … began to live off one another.” (Awake!, October 8, 1982, pages 10, 11) “Further, during the Flood of Noah’s day, eight humans and ‘flying creatures and all moving animals of the ground’ were obliged to live on vegetable matter exclusively for more than a year,” proving “that animals and humans were meant to be vegetation eaters.” – Awake!, January 8, 1983, page 28.
Also in the future paradise “animals will be at peace with one another, able to be around one another without risk.” (The Watchtower, December 15, 1991, page 30) Lions “will eat straw” or other vegetarian diet, just like all other animals. Even the polar bears at the North Pole and the penguins at the South Pole will eat grass which will grow there in abundance. Spiders will create “intricate webs” in order to catch leaves flying around. (Awake!, July 8, 1972, page 5) “The cheetah finds the open grasslands ideal footing for its lightning-quick sprints. Its lean body blurs as it races across the plains in pursuit of prey” consisting of grass blades and other plants. (Awake!, February 22, 2003, page 16) Even crocodiles will eat vegetables growing underwater or in the proximity of the shore; fish will no longer eat other fish or shellfishes. Carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap and carnivorous mushrooms like the lawyer’s wig will change their dietary habits and live on vegetarian diet.
Granted, “the earth [will] cause grass to sprout, seed-bearing plants and fruit trees,” but it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to feed all humans and animals. (Genesis 1:11) Antelopes will no longer be eaten by lions, but maybe they will starve because lions have eaten up all the grass. However, the dietary change will have more far-reaching effects. The human population is growing above average in times of peace, and the same will apply to the animal population when there is “peace among animals.” (The Watchtower, February 15, 1996, page 18) Some animals reproduce rapidly, for example, “the common brown rat … the black rat … and the house mouse” – a single female of these “can produce 2000 descendants in one year.” (Stopest) Mice and rats have many natural predators in our day, but once these have become vegetarians, a single mouse can have roughly 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 descendants within only ten years. Thus the “abundance of grain on the earth” will not persist because mice and other animals will eat it up in a minimum of time. “On the top of the mountains it will overflow,” not of food, but of mice, rats, hares, birds, and many other fast reproducing animals. (Psalm 72:16) The oxygen content of the air will also be reduced, since “phytoplankton account for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth … [and are] responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth’s atmosphere,” but it will be the exclusive source of food for all sea dwellers in paradise. – Wikipedia.
In summary: “God’s restoration of Paradise on earth through Christ” will cause an extreme shortage of grass, grain, and other vegetables. (The Watchtower, September 15, 2007, page 12) Animals will reproduce without hindrance. If there would not be food shortage and lack of oxygen, earth would be covered with a meters thick layer of mice, rats, worms, and other animals after few years. Then the survivors will rightly proclaim: “The former things” – lush meadows, biodiverse forests, full pantries – “have passed away.” – Revelation 21:4.
