God, man and the animal kingdom

Everything that lives and moves will be food for you (Genesis 9:3).

Animals and other living creatures are an important part of our lives.  Many lonely people find the companionship they need in a loving dog or cat. Many nursing homes feature an aquarium stocked with colorful fish or an aviary with birds that fill the air with song.  Children learn responsibility from caring for the family pet or raising small animals to compete at the fair.  Horses need more space, but they offer the joyous freedom of riding with the wind. Living creatures also play a large role in our food supply.  Cows and chickens give us milk and eggs; hogs and fish join them in providing us meat for the plate.  People have differing views on using living creatures this way; some feel outraged at how animals are raised in confinement, while others object to the notion of eating them in the first place.  This leaves the Christian to wonder: what does God have to say about the way we treat animals and other living things?

In the book of Genesis, we are told how God made the universe and everything in it.  The Lord created three kinds of living beings—spirits without bodies, living creatures without souls, and one special being comprised of soul and body joined as one.  The spirits that have no bodies are angels; the living creatures without souls include birds, animals and fish.  The one type being that has both a soul and a body is humankind. 

When God created the birds, animals and fish, there is nothing said about eating them.  God tells the first couple, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; regarding the rest, God said Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground (Genesis chapters one and two). But this changed after the Great Flood; when the waters receded and Noah stepped on dry ground for the first time in months, God told him Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.  Some people feel that killing to eat is wrong. We are to be responsible caretakers of God’s green earth and all that lives on it. Certainly the Lord did not give us this charge so we can waste valuable resources or take sinful pleasure in mistreating anything that can feel pain or fear. But Jesus Himself blessed two dinners where fish were on the menu, both times feeding crowds numbering in the thousands.  There is nothing wrong with eating meat.  Jesus did not suffer on the cross to save creatures without souls, He died for men and women and children, gave His own life so that we might live with Him forever.