Does the Bible mention treating animals with kindness?

When I solicited questions to be addressed in this series, a member of the congregation wrote this to me: “Animals are mentioned in the Bible as beasts of burden and sacrificial animals.  Is there any mention of treating animals with kindness?”

The short answer to that question is: yes. However, it is important to note that what the Bible says about caring for animals comes in the midst of a great narrative. It is a narrative of Creation, Fall, and Redemption. Let’s look at these three great acts in the narrative play of world history one by one. First, let’s look at creation.

Creation

At the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26 through 28, we read this:

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

²⁷ So God created humankind in his image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Psalm 8:4-8 reiterates the role of human beings in relation to God’s creation. David asks,

What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
    mortalsthat you care for them?

⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under their feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

Isn’t it interesting how these two passages of Scripture highlight our position as human beings in relation to God’s creation? Genesis emphasizes that human beings are made on the sixth day, just like the animals. That should keep us humble. Scripture even instructs us to learn from the animals. Proverbs 6:6-8 says, 

Go to the ant, you lazybones;
    consider its ways, and be wise.
⁷ Without having any chief
    or officer or ruler,
⁸ it prepares its food in summer,
    and gathers its sustenance in harvest.

Genesis emphasizes our animal nature, but the Psalms emphasize how we are made just a little bit lower than God. There is something in us human beings that is of the earth, of the animals, but also something of the divine.

A key word in both Genesis and the Psalms is “dominion”. What does it mean for human beings to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth?

I suppose that some people have interpreted the phrase “have dominion” to mean that human beings can do whatever they want with God’s creation. I do not interpret the phrase in that way. Rather, with the majority of responsible biblical scholars I would say that this phrase means that human beings are supposed to be good stewards of all of God’s creation, including the animals.

The word “steward” is very important. God has set us as stewards of his creation, caretakers if you will, just as Adam and Eve were caretakers of the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:15) We are stewards, not owners. God still retains ownership of his creation. As the Lord says, in Psalm 50:10-11, “For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.”

There are other points throughout Scripture where our role as good stewards is referenced and encouraged.  Proverbs 12:10 says, “The righteous know the needs of their animals.” Proverbs 27:23 says, “Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds.”

One of the Ten Commandments concerns the Sabbath. The day of rest is not simply for humans, it is for animals as well. Exodus 23:12 says, “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.” (See also Deuteronomy 5:14.) The year of Jubilee has a similar purpose, to provide rest for human beings, and also for the land and its animals. (Exodus 23:11)

Further along in the Torah, in Deuteronomy 22:4, Moses instructs the people of Israel, “You shall not see your neighbor’s donkey or ox fallen on the road and ignore it; you shall help to lift it up.” Not only are the Israelites to do this for their neighbor, but Moses instructs them in Exodus 23:4-5, “When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.”

Our care for the animals and for all of creation, is to be modeled after God’s own care for his creation. God says in Genesis 1:30, “And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” In Genesis 8:11, God remembers not only Noah in the ark but all the beasts and livestock that are with him. After the flood, God makes not only a covenant with Noah and his offspring but also “with every living creature that is with you”. (Genesis 9:9-10) Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.”Psalm 147:9 says that God“gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry.”Isaiah 40:11 says that God, “will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” In the book of Jonah, God not only pities the human beings in the great city of Nineveh, 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, but he pities the cattle as well (Jonah 4:11). And Jesus talks about “the birds of the air” who “neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matthew 6:26; see also Luke 12:6-7,24)

Fall

Thus, we see that God has set us human beings the task of being good stewards of his creation. However, as we all know, we have failed at that task. Between us and the story of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 stands the story of the fall in Genesis 3. The fall of human beings into sin has resulted in a curse being on all of creation. Ever since the fall, human beings have been abusing God’s creation, including the animals.

There is one somewhat humorous story in the Hebrew Scriptures that reveals how the fallenness, the sinfulness, of human beings affects the animal creation. I am thinking of the story of Balaam and his donkey in Numbers 22.

The story goes like this… The King of Moab calls on Balaam, who is apparently a man with special, magical powers, to curse the people of Israel. The king sends his messengers to Balaam with payment for Balaam’s work of divination, but God instructs Balaam that he is not to curse the people of Israel. Thus, the messengers go back to the king. Then the king sends a second group of messengers to Balaam. This group is more numerous and more distinguished than the first group. Balaam asks God what he should do. God tells Balaam to go with the men but only say what he tells him to say.

Thus, Balaam gets up the next morning and saddles his donkey to depart with the kings’ men. But apparently God does not like Balaam’s attitude. Perhaps Balaam is too anxious to please the king rather than God. Thus, God sends an angel to stand in Balaam’s way on the road. Balaam does not see the angel, but his donkey does and thus turns off the road into a field. Thus, Balaam strikes the donkey and makes him go back on to the road. 

Next, the angel of the Lord positions himself in Balaam’s way, in the middle of the narrow road, between two walls attached to two vineyards. When the donkey sees the angel of the Lord, it scrapes against the wall, and scrapes Balaam’s foot in the process. Thus, Balaam strikes the donkey again. 

Then the angel repositions himself in such a way that Balaam and his donkey cannot get by at all. Thus, when the donkey sees the angel again, it lies down under Balaam. Balaam is hopping mad by this time and so he strikes the donkey yet again. 

At this point, the Lord opens the mouth of the donkey and the donkey speaks to Balaam. “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”

Balaam, apparently not thinking there is anything unusual about a talking donkey, responds and says: “Because you have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I would kill you right now!”

But the donkey says to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way?” 

Balaam says, “No.”

Then the Lord opens the eyes of Balaam, and he sees the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with his drawn sword in his hand; and Balaam bows down, falling on his face. The angel of the Lord says to Balaam, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? I have come out as an adversary, because your way is perversebefore me.The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let it live.”Then Balaam says to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now therefore, if it is displeasing to you, I will return home.”The angel of the Lord says to Balaam, “Go with the men; but speak only what I tell you to speak.” Thus, Balaam continues on with the officials of the king, and in the end, Balaam blesses the people of Israel rather than cursing them.

I share this story because I think it makes a point about how we as human beings, in our fallenness and sinfulness end up treating the animals who are part of God’s creation. Clearly, God is not happy with the way we abuse our fellow creatures.

Redemption

But that is certainly not the end of the big picture narrative in Scripture. The big message of the Bible is that God is in the business of redeeming his fallen creation.

Thus, throughout Scripture, we get these idyllic pictures of the animals dwelling in peace with human beings. One of those pictures is in Isaiah 11:6-9. It is a Scripture that we read this past Advent. It is a Scripture that undoubtedly refers to the day of the Lord at the end of time when God will create a new heaven and a new earth. Isaiah says,

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.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze,
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
⁹ 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.

We get this same picture again, in Hosea 2:18, where God says, “I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.”

Then, when we get to the New Testament, Mark 1:13 adds this unusual note to the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Mark says, “He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” Again, we have the picture of a human being dwelling in peace and safety among wild animals, but importantly, the human being at the center of this picture is the Messiah. The suggestion is that where the Messiah goes there will be peace between human beings and the animal kingdom.

The Apostle Paul is perhaps the one Scriptural writer who gives us a clearer picture than any other of God redeeming the whole of creation. In Romans 8:19-21, Paul says,

 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; ²⁰ for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Thus, God is going to redeem, not just human beings, but all of creation, and that includes the animal kingdom.

And what is the purpose of this redemption? The purpose is that every living creature will praise the Lord. We heard this invitation for all creation to praise the Lord in the Psalm we read this morning. We see the same invitation reiterated in Psalm 150:6, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” And John says in Revelation 5:13, 

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,

“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!”

Conclusion

Thus, we see the big picture in the Bible of creation, fall, and redemption. Human beings were originally intended by God to be good stewards, good caretakers, of his creation. But we have fallen from our original purpose and tend to abuse creation rather than caring for it. Nonetheless, God is in the business of redeeming his creation, and in the end, he is going to complete that work.

But what are we, as his fallen yet redeemed creatures, to do in the meantime? Maybe we can’t change the whole world, but we can, by God’s grace, begin to take better care of the world that is right in front of us…

One of God’s people down through history, who has been most revered for his caring attitude toward creation, is St. Francis of Assisi. Mark Galli tells the following story about Francis…

The Assisi countryside in Italy, like much of Europe in the 1200s, was dotted with chapels, churches, and abbeys, each dedicated to one saint or another. Some were well endowed, but many were neglected, and most had a priest who depended on the generosity of locals to sustain him and the church. 

San Damiano, a little less than a mile below Assisi, was such a church. It was guarded by olive trees and had a sweeping view of the wheat fields on the plain below. The church itself was in general disrepair; the walls crumbled all about it, and the priest eked out an existence. He didn’t even have enough money to buy oil, let alone a lamp, to burn continually in the church.

On one of his country walks, Francis of Assisi decided to step into the chapel. In scattered light, he made his way to the front to pray. 

How long he prayed and what exactly he said is unclear. But sometime in the middle of his prayer, Francis heard Christ speak to him: “Francis, go and repair my house, which, you can see, is all being destroyed.”

Francis, up to this point in his life, had never experienced such a direct spiritual communication. He was “more than a little stunned,” one of his biographers notes, “trembling and stuttering like a man out of his senses.”

He pulled himself up from prayer and then pulled himself together. He vowed to carry out the command as quickly and as literally as he knew how: he found masonry, mortar, trowels, and other supplies, and began repairing the church he had been praying in.

Francis later became the key figure in the 13th-century revival of the church, a church that was racked with moral corruption from the pope to the local priest. Francis, at least for a time, was able to stem the tide of immorality. But it is interesting to note how he began repairing the medieval church as a whole: he started with the little chapel in front of him.

A lot of times we wish we could change the world, and who knows, maybe we are called to that eventually. But we are wiser to follow the example of Francis of Assisi: to do the little thing, the simple thing right in front of us, and let God take care of the world.

As Jesus put it, those faithful in small things will be faithful in large things.

Therefore, let us also take care of the little bit of God’s creation right in front of us. Think globally, act locally. It is a very Franciscan, in fact, a very Christian thing to do.