ANIMALS AND THE BIBLE
By Ryan Hicks
In this treatise I am not setting out to give the details of all the animals mentioned in the Bible, rather to give general examples of how animals think, feel, and act; and how the righteous should treat them..
Like every being with a body, animals have spirits and souls. That animals have spirits is seen in Ecclesiastes 3:21, which says, "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" That animals have souls is seen in Job 12:7-10, which says, "But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." Also, Numbers 31:28 says, "And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep."
The very word "animal" is from the Latin word animalis, meaning "living" or anima, meaning "soul."
We can see examples of various animal's soul and spirit activities in pets; in their personalities, memories, ability to communicate their needs and wants, anger, love, knowledge, and other attributes of the soul and spirit. In Numbers 22 the prophet Balaam was going against the Lord's word and "God's anger was kindled" against Balaam (Numbers 22:22). The Lord stood in the way of Balaam's path with a sword in hand, ready to slay Balaam (Numbers 22:23). Balaam's ass refused to go any further because she saw the Lord standing there poised to slay Balaam should he go forward in his rebellion from the word of the Lord (Numbers 22:23-27). Balaam had struck the ass three times because she refused to move, and then the Lord allowed the ass to speak "with a man's voice" (2 Peter 2:16).
Let us start the story from there:
Numbers 22:28-30
28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
29 And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
30 And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
The Lord opened Balaam's eyes to see the Lord standing there with "his sword drawn in his hand" (Numbers 22:31). The Lord said, "And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive" (Numbers 22:33). We see many things about animals here:
1. Desire to protect their masters (Numbers 22:25-27).
2. Real feelings of concern and questioning (Numbers 22:28).
3. Understanding of punishment and unjust punishment (Numbers 22:28).
4. Personal knowledge of their place in life (Numbers 22:30).
5. Memory of events in the past (Numbers 22:30).
6. Loyalty to their masters (Numbers 22:30).
This story is one of the few in the Bible that shows the many soul and spirit attributes of an animal. They have souls that feel and have emotions, and they have spirits that know and understand. The Lord allowed the ass to say what it was thinking, and it revealed many sensible and dedicated thoughts. The text does not say that the Lord spoke through the ass, for it was clearly the ass speaking of things relating to herself and to her master. The ass showed soul faculties by expressing emotion such as anger and confusion as to why she had been struck three times (v.28), and loyalty to her master (v.30). The ass showed spirit faculties by deciding not to go forward toward the Lord in order to protect her master (v.23), by questioning Balaam (v.28, 30), and by reasoning with Balaam (v.30). All of these actions of the ass prove that animals have souls and spirits by which they feel and know.
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21
19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
This is all we know about the eternal state of animals. Both man and animal are alike in the sense that both die and their bodies go to the dust from whence they came, but man's spirit "goeth upward" and "the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth." While there are spirit animals and the like in Heaven (2 Kings 2:11; 6:17; Zechariah 1:8, 10; 6:1-5; Revelation 5:13; 19:11, 14, 21), nothing is said of an afterlife or eternal abode for animals. While many children question where animals go when they die, we have no authority to say they go to heaven when the Bible never says such a thing.
HOW THE RIGHTEOUS SHOULD TREAT ANIMALS
Proverbs 12:10
10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
The righteous regard the life of their beasts. They are not cruel, rather they are merciful and compassionate on the least of God's creation. They never take their higher place in the creation as a reason to be cruel or abusive to animals. Such is sin and is the actions of the wicked.
Animals are a beautiful creation of the Lord that serve many purposes for mankind. They should be treated as well as possible, as in the case with Balaam the Lord said, "And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive" (Numbers 22:33). The Lord would have slain Balaam and yet saved the ass. He would not have killed her for no reason or even hurt her in the least. She was faithful to her master and the Lord saw fit to protect her should He need to slay Balaam.
As stewards of animals and others creations of God that He has placed under our stewardship (Genesis 1:28), we should not abuse them or misuse them. Some are created for food (Genesis 9:3; 1 Timothy 4:3), some for companionship as pets, others for service like the example of Ox and Ass (Deuteronomy 22:10; Numbers 22; etc.), and others unknown to or unused by man serve God's pleasure (Revelation 4:11). Let us always honor the creation God has placed us as stewards over and never abuse our stewardship in the Lord.
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