Animals

Genesis 1:30

"'And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food.'  And it was so."

Ok - this is the first time I've ever heard of this.  I even missed it the first couple times that I read through the creation story.  But God not only gave things to man in this section, he also gave to all animals "every green plant for food".  I've seen where people use God saying man was to rule over every plant and animal as an excuse for man ruining the environment.  You don't have to read the Bible to know that man rules over plants and animals in ways that no other creature on earth even comes close.  There is, however, the fact that ruling over does not mean you have license to destroy.  In fact, rulers are supposed to be taking care of that which they rule over.  But then here we also have God gifting green plants to every thing that breaths, which tells me that at least as far as green plants go we definitely need to take care since they weren't given to just us, but to all living creatures.

Also - I wonder if this indicates that there were no flesh eating animals at this time?  Or is that too much reading into it?   


Genesis 3

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman..."

I've heard it said that the serpent was Satan - but it doesn't look like that here.  The serpent clearly seems to be an animal - not a supernatural being.   Especially since God then curses it by saying "Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals, you will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel."  (and the serpent is cursed first, I note)  This sounds much more like a snake than like Satan. 



Genesis 7:2-3 -- God has Noah save the animals -- but very odd -- I note that he has Noah save 7 pairs of every clean animal, 7 pairs of every bird, and 1 pair of every unclean animal.  I can get my mind around the clean versus unclean animals - the clean are to be eaten and also sacrificed to God.  But why 7 of each bird?  I also can't quite reconcile the 7 pairs of this section with the 1 pair in the proceeding Genesis 6:19-20.
(I've since seen at least one other Bible with a slightly different translation - where my Bible has it as one pair at one place, and 7 pairs in another, the other translation has it as 7 pairs - but then the animals board the arc as couples - so no real conflict there)

Genesis 9:8-17
Although the publishers of the book give this chapter a title of "God's covenant with Noah" - remember chapter titles come from the publisher - they are not in the original - it should more accurately include God's covenant with every living creature.  Repeatedly from line 8 through line 17 God again and again says he has a covenant with not only Noah and his descendants, but also with all living creatures.

So - God first gifts green plants to all living creatures, then after the flood he has a covenant with all living creatures.  Clearly he isn't only interacting with us - he seems to be interacting with all living creatures - and in ways that I've never heard anyone discuss before (especially as to entering into a covenant with them - which is another way of saying God has self imposed limits to his options with regard to how he will interact with animals - not just with humans)

  
---

I haven't seen much on this subject - but in this morning's reading of Exodus 20:8-11 I note that in the verse about not working on the Sabbath it lists everyone who should not work - to include "neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns."   Interesting that it includes animals!  I never knew that they get a day of rest - (and a day to remember the Sabbath?)


---

Again, yesterday morning, Exodus 23:12, "Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed."  So this is reinforcing Exodus 20:8-11.

But we also have something new - Exodus 23:11 - "but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused.  Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left.  Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove."  Nice support for the poor, but notice also for the wild animals.  At first I was thinking the wild animals might be helping with the process of the fields fallowing - in other words that God was saying let them come in and eat the plants and they'll help fertilize the fields.  But then I realized this could just as easily be done with farm animals - so it must be something more.  When coupled with creating the wild animals in the creation stories, then saving the wild animals in the Noah story, I think this might be another bit of environmentalism - showing God's respect for his creation - so don't try to chase the wild animals off - let them eat what they may. 


(work in progress - but please feel free to comment at anytime)