152. Bible Questions: What does the Bible say about animals?

E152:  Bible Questions:  What does the Bible say about animals?

00:00:04

You dont have to see too many Instagram videos to realize there's a clear bond between people and animals. My students pose this question. What does the Bible say about animals? Our relationship with animals and the future of our pets? Well, the Bible has a lot to say, actually in episode 14, looking at creation, we learned that God was the creator of these creatures. And we learned the order in which he made them first, the egg layers, fish, birds, and presumably reptiles, and then the live birth mammals. And over it, God said, this is good, which we learned meant drop the mic.

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00:00:45

Perfect. I couldn't add anything to that. Animals are a great part of God's creation. We also learn later in scripture that God is the God of the living death had no part in creation. So we have to presume God created animals to live forever. Further. We learn all animals were vegans at the beginning, including the mammal man, obviously with no death of animals, they were all planters. We saw the death of the first animal in Genesis chapter three. We'll actually we read between the lines and surprisingly God caused that death.

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00:01:26

We'll get to that in a future Bible question, trust me. We were told in episode 15, God put an order in the mammals. He made the mammal man, male and female in his image. He also gave them an assignment to name the animals and together to be co caretakers of them. Dr. And Mrs. Doolittle, as it were in creation, there was no fear between man and animals. Episode 23 will tell you that came after the flood. I speculated it was to give animals a fighting chance against man who had gone gross in Genesis 49.

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00:02:06

We get more information about how God views animals. Two of Jacob's sons are being quote blessed unquote by Jacob. Instead, he puts a curse on their heads. He curses them for their cruelty, not just the people, but to animals citing that they lamed oxen for sport. In episode 35, the plagues hitting Egypt, we find God instructing his people bring your animals inside. So the plague of hail won't harm them in episode 38 God's family rules for how we should deal with each other with justice, mercy, and humility.

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00:02:46

God closes that section with this. Don't boil a goat in its mother's milk. It's hard to read anything other than don't be cruel and heartless when it comes to creatures and you deal with them, don't take the milk intended to nurse a kid goat and use it as the broth to cook it. That just shows something's gone really wrong in your heart. In Deuteronomy, Moses repeating the family rules to the next generation says don't muzzle an ox when he's treading out your grain. That one means feed your working animals. In episode 58, we were told Solomon the wisest man who ever lived wrote Proverbs to his children.

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00:03:31

One of those Proverbs is this. A righteous man takes care of his animals, but cruelty to them comes out of the heart of the wicked. In episode 68, God sends his prophet Jonah to the capital of Assyria to warn them of coming judgment. At the end of Jonah, this prophet is on a city overlook, hoping God will change his mind and nuke them. And God rebukes them this way, dude, don't you think it's right for me to show mercy on those precious people down there and their cattle. God cares about cattle indeed. And speaking of the profits, several of the profits talk about a time a Messiah king will come and it describes that time with images like this.

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00:04:19

He will cause the lion to lie down with the lamb and adders and children will play together. My students inevitably ask what happens to pets? Do they have souls? Will my dog be in heaven while I can't answer that with chapter and verse, I'm pretty sure that the creator will have all of his creatures in some manner in the future. One writer, CS Lewis suggested specifically our pets will be a part of eternity since they're a part of our story. If I gave that answer to my students in class, a hand would shoot up and there would be a yeah, but Mr. Nelson, what about the flood?

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00:05:01

He wiped out all the non aquatic creatures of the planet. You know, those billions of fossils. We find everywhere roadkill from the flood. And oh, what about those millions of old Testament sacrifices of animals commanded by God? What do you say about all that? How does a creator who loves his creation and commands us to be good caretakers of animals and not be cruel? How do you explain him killing or allowing the death of all these creatures? I get that Bible question to a lot. So I think we better try and answer that one in our next WordPictures, Bible Questions.