The Eschatalogical Significance of the Snake-and-Hamster Story

Jonathon appropriately notes that the recent story of the snake who has befriended its would-be dinner, a hamster, is reminiscent of the prophet Isaiah's vision of God's peaceable kingdom:

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hold of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

—Isaiah 11:6-9 (NRSV)