When someone reads the Biblical account in Genesis for the first time, he might be surprised to learn that Adam, who was given dominion over the earth by God, never once strutted around the garden of Eden kicking dogs, yanking cow tails, or even teaching parrots bad words. Humor aside, there is a significant reason why cruel behavior against animals, though common in our time, was never recorded in those early days of Creation.
When God, in His divine wisdom, formed man from the dust, He hard-wired Adam and Eve to be connected to Creation in such a profound way that mankind’s call to stewardship was not so much a duty as it was a great honor. Made in the image of God, man was raised up from the virgin earth and established as God’s representative to “work it and keep it” with the same loving care and intelligent order that emanated from their holy Creator (Genesis 2:15).
Thus, God was very deliberate when He gave Adam the task of naming all the living creatures, which not only spoke to the unique status of man over God’s creation but also cemented a special bond with the birds, fish and beasts under his care (Genesis 2:19-20).
As John Gill explains in his Body of Divinity, God’s creation was specifically made for the use and benefit of mankind, with God conceiving the divine idea that the wholesome interaction between man and nature would provide for their mutual happiness, sustenance and profit:
“…All creatures were made for (man’s) sake, to possess, enjoy, and have the dominion over, and therefore he was made last of all: and herein appears the wisdom and goodness of God to him, that all accommodations were ready provided for him when made; the earth for his habitation, all creatures for his use; the fruits of the earth for his profit and pleasure; light, heat, and air for his delight, comfort, and refreshment, with every thing that could be wished for and desired to make his life happy.”
Even after the upheaval of the Fall, and to this day, the righteous desire to nurture and sustain God’s created world is still an inherent impulse of man that descends from the original stock of our first parents and spreads to all human beings. Though we don’t always show it because of sin, deep down in all our souls is the instinct to be a loving caretaker of the teeming life given to us on earth.
In other words, literally and figuratively speaking, we all know better than to kick the dog.
We Know Better Because Of Our Conscience
The mistreatment and abuse of animals is certainly a tragic thing to see in today’s world. Most likely, we have all witnessed this cruel behavior from our earliest childhood days; and for many of us, it shattered our innocence and made us sick to our stomachs to know that such a thing could be considered a trivial matter―or worse, an amusement.
Whether we have listened to Sarah MacLachlan as she sang over pathetic images of emaciated kittens, or read about a government-funded lab that drugged beagles and locked their heads in mesh cages while infected sand flies ate them alive for “scientific” study, we instantly know that this kind of heartlessness is morally wrong and downright evil.
Happily, as a child, I was also shown the better way. During the hot summers of my youth, I had the great honor of helping my grandfather on his farm and saw his kind husbandry in action. On many blessed occasions I would hop into his old Chevy truck and ride along as he visited the various pastures and barns to check on the well-being of his cows and horses, spy out their possible health concerns, and tend to their supply of good food and water.
On one particular tragic occasion (which I did not witness), the horse trailer my grandfather used to transport his prized Hackney ponies broke free from the truck’s hitch, careened and flipped off the road, and crashed. In the subsequent heap of twisted metal, the bloodied animals were wounded beyond any possible help, and my grandfather was forced to put them down to silence their suffering.
Afterwards, I was struck by the teary-eyed anguish on my grandfather’s face as he recounted the incident. To him, those ponies were more than just an investment of time and money. Though he could not articulate it with words, his obvious affection for those animals told you all you needed to know: these beautiful creatures of God had given my grandfather an unspeakable joy as he lovingly raised them, trained then, and cared for them.
My grandfather was not known as a man of professed faith, by the way. And yet, intrinsic to his very being, he was imbued with a God-given conscience that guided his tender care of the noble beasts in his possession. And such it is with every man and woman if they heed the “inner voice” given to them by God.
We Know Better Because Of The Scriptures
The moral caliber of our relationship with animals, however, does not have to rely solely on our imperfect gut instincts. Thankfully, God has revealed in the Holy Scriptures the profound truth about the sacred interaction between God and His creation, and the corresponding commerce between man and the living creatures of earth.
The Bible, in fact, has made this point crystal clear: God does not look kindly on those who are destroyers of the earth (Revelation 11:18), and nor should we. A person’s kind and thoughtful relationship with God’s creation is a thing of spiritual beauty because it aligns with, and reflects, the same righteous benevolence His Creator has shown to all the life of earth, including mankind.
Placing Adam and Eve in a garden was no trivial matter. In doing so, God established the ideal setting in which mankind could “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). It was, by God’s design, a lush organic world perfectly fit for their visceral use as tillers of the soil and keepers of livestock. The pursuit of money, which came later, was never the original standard of wealth, nor were the cities to which the sons of Cain fled ever an abode that could fully realize their potential as stewards of the earth.
Time and time again, the Bible connects our agrarian sensibilities with wisdom and righteousness. Even King Solomon, a man of great temporal wealth, saw the exceeding worth of a pastoral existence where farmers and shepherds could build a more godly character and find a deeper satisfaction that comes with this kind of hands-on labor.
“Know well the condition of your flocks,” Solomon’s inspired proverb encourages us, “and give attention to your herds” (Proverbs 27:23). And for what purpose should we do so? Because, this Biblical precept tell us, it comes down to a matter of godly character: “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel” (Proverbs 12:10).
This “regard for the life of his beast” is no mere formality. According to English theologian Charles J. Ellicott, having “regard” means “knowing their feelings,” so that we can “feel for them.” Or as Albert Barnes explains it, we must seek to understand the feelings of the animals in our care because “all true sympathy and care grows out of this knowledge.” This is an issue, then, of a regard for their carnal well-being.
Indeed Jacob, the great patriarch, practiced this kind of compassion, as recorded in Genesis 33:13-14, when he sought to ease the hardship that might come to his sheep and cattle while traveling too quickly. He knew that his animals could not possibly keep pace with Esau and his horsemen without taking physical harm and he made sure that this didn’t happen.
And is this not the righteous standard most exemplified by God Himself? The omniscient care of God’s brute creation is noted throughout the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, for example, we see His concern for the cattle of Nineveh (Jonah 4:11), His merciful provision in the Law, by which cattle shared the Sabbath rest (Exodus 20:10), and were given their portion of the corn as it was being trodden out (Deuteronomy 25:4).
In the Psalms, we find the inspired contemplation of God’s kind regard for even the smallest of His creatures. In many worshipful meditations, the psalmist praises God because He actively “preserves” the beast, just as he does man (Psalm 36:6). The Lord accomplishes this great task because He “knows” all the beasts of the forest, the flocks of the fields and the birds of the hills, so that even the young crying raven is never forgotten before almighty God (Psalm 50:10-11; 147:9).
As Albert Barnes remarked on these poetic passages of praise:
“The psalmist was struck with God’s greatness, and with the incomprehensible nature of His power and agency, in the fact that He kept alive continually so many myriads of creatures upon the earth ― so many hundred millions of human beings ― so many thousand millions of wild beasts, reptiles, fish, birds, and insects ― all dependent upon Him; that He provided for their needs, and that He protected them in the dangers to which they were exposed. And who can comprehend the extent of His law, and the wonderfulness of His Providence, in thus watching over and providing for the multitudes of animated beings that swarm in the waters, in the air, and on the earth?”
Indeed, we could dwell for a lifetime on these early Biblical evidences of God’s boundless oversight and provision without ever exhausting our praise. And yet, glory be to God, the best was yet to come.
We Know Better Because Of Our Great Shepherd
Considering the constant theme of earthly stewardship throughout the Bible, it should come as no surprise that when the Son of God came to redeem His people, He did so as the prophetic archetype of the Good Shepherd who lovingly looks after His flock (John 10:11-14).
“He will tend His flock like a shepherd,” the prophet Isaiah declared as he described the redemptive mercy of God that would soon be embodied by the Savior. “He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those mothers that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11).
Right on cue, Jesus Christ appeared in the flesh as the second Adam, doing the will of His Father, and perfectly discharging His duty as the great Shepherd of the eternal covenant, even to the point of laying down His life for the salvation of His sheep (Hebrews 13:20).
“I know My sheep,” Jesus pronounced, “and My sheep know Me” (John 10:14). In saying this, He revealed Himself to be the ultimate fulfillment of the righteous shepherd who has a deep, abiding compassion and regard for his flock, just as it was described in Proverbs 12:10, 27:23.
This, then, is the pivotal moment in history when God appears to man in His fullness as loving caretaker and informs us of our need to conform to the express image of God as found in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 1:3). The disobedience of Adam, the first caretaker, brought sin and death into the world, but through the righteous obedience and stewardship of Jesus Christ we can receive God’s abundant provision of grace that brings eternal life (Romans 5:17).
As professing Christians, therefore, we rejoice in hearing Jesus’ loving voice (John 10:27), and thus we join with David in saying, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” (Psalm 23).
We Know Better Because Of God’s Grace Towards Us
So what does all this Biblical truth have to do with knowing better than to kick a dog? As it turns out, there is plenty of significance for the sinner who has been blessed by the grace and mercy of God.
Dogs in Biblical times, though certainly used by man for their particular instincts and intelligence, were often portrayed as undesirables and scavengers. Yet it is very telling how Jesus appeared to view these oft-maligned creatures in two specific incidents.
In His encounter with the Canaanite woman, for example, Jesus was greatly moved by her humility when she gladly admitted to being like a dog hoping to feed on the crumbs from her Master’s table (Matthew 15:27). Considering the negative view of dogs at the time, Jesus’ commendation of the woman’s meek, doglike faith was a stunning assertion to those witnesses who thought she should have been ignored by Him.
Likewise, in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus filled our hearts with compassion when He told of a poor beggar outside a rich man’s gate who, like a dog, “longed to eat whatever fell from the rich man’s table” (Luke 16:21). Here, too, a lesson was to be learned when Jesus placed the ailing Lazarus among the street dogs who licked his sores. Truly, those humble creatures showed more kindness in nursing the beggar’s wounds than the rich man who did nothing but ignore him.
So what is the spiritual lesson behind Jesus drawing a comparison between lowly dogs and people in abject humility? In both of these instances, Jesus flipped the world’s preconception on its head and gave us fresh eyes to see that the human condition, in some ways, is not so very different from the situation of every beast, fish and fowl that depends upon God’s grace and mercy for survival.
Professing Christians, above all people, should especially take this to heart (Exodus 23:9). They should be well aware that they, too, were once like hungry mongrels in search of table scraps. Indeed all the redeemed of God were once, by nature, children of wrath, enemies of God, separated from Christ, and without hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:3,12; Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21).
And yet, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8)!
In fact, throughout all of His earthly ministry, Jesus made it quite clear: If God graciously provides for His creation, feeds the sparrows, clothes the lilies of the field, and sees value in rescuing a lost sheep or an ox stuck in a pit, then how much more would He attend to mankind’s needs because of their greater value to Him as those made in God’s image (Matthew 6:26, 28; Luke 14:5).
Once again we find that our great Shepherd has displayed the attitude of the righteous caretaker in showing compassion not only to a starving dog, but even more so to the meek, the merciful, the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, those who mourn, and those spiritual “beggars” who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:1-12).
We Know Better Because We Are Followers Of Christ
So herein lies our sacred duty as Christians of active faith. Just as Jesus, our great Shepherd, went to His death to save His flock, we have been given the similar task to reach out to our fellow man and call them to repent and place their faith in Christ and His gracious work of salvation. Like our Lord, we gladly preach “good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, and to release the oppressed” (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1).
This proclamation is thus voiced because we know that people burdened by their sins and seeking redemption, like dogs searching for morsels of food, are a fertile ground in which to plant the seeds of the Gospel (Matthew 13:23). For this reason, Christians must proclaim the “good news” to the world in the hope that God would show mercy and grace to those who are searching for the spiritual provisions of eternal life as sovereignly bestowed by Him.
Thus, as representatives of God on this earth, we are not only called to care for the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, but we must care even more so for our neighbor who is of greater value (Mark 12:31; Luke 12:6-7; 15:3-7). And this, as it turns out, is the ultimate lesson of our sacred duty as the designated stewards of Creation.
Yes, for so many reasons, we should all know better than to kick the dog. But how much more should we have regard for our fellow man when they are found begging for the crumbs from Christ’s bountiful table. Surely, as Christians who have been saved by God’s grace, we can show them the righteous care of our great Shepherd and refuse to kick them when they are down.
