Proverbs 12:10

“The righteous know the needs of their animals,
but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”

God is going to create a new earth (Revelation 21:1). He actually liked what He created when He created this one, for Genesis tells us that, after each day of creation, “God saw that it was good.”

I understand what God saw as good. When my husband and I travel, we often go through parts of California that are untouched by humans. There are wonderful trees and plants and animals that inhabit huge areas and these areas all have their own beauty, their own mystique. And yet, we also travel through parts of California that are inhabited by people, people swarming around doing what they are doing . . . children, adults, old folks. And when God created people, He saw that it was very good.

God loves us too! And while animals don’t have souls (and so don’t have eternal life), God loved what He created. He saw that it was good. He created animals for a purpose and that original purpose wasn’t to provide clothing or food for us. (Remember that those purposes came after sin.)

And so, Solomon writes that “the righteous know the needs of their animals.” The righteous. In other words, when one surrenders to God, seeks His will, part of that will is to understand how we are to relate to the other creatures of God’s creation. Not only are we to love the people around us (as being created in God’s image), we are to understand that the animals around us also have needs and we are to meet those needs as best we can.

When God gave dominion of the earth to people (Genesis 1:28), that command of dominion was more than simply a hierarchy of authority. It was a responsibility. As the righteous, we are to be sensitive to the needs of the animals that we have. We are to feed them, to make sure that they are safe, to provide them whatever housing and other needs they have. And while the people around us are certainly of greater worth (because they are made in God’s image), we share creature-hood with animals. And through our interaction with our animals, we can demonstrate God’s love for all of creation.

© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).