What About Fido and Bambi?

As we have seen in previous posts, biblical shalom involves wholeness, delight, and a sense of meaning and purpose for all of God’s creation. Shalom is the way things are supposed to be.

Another way of thinking about shalom is to see it as a beautiful four-faceted diamond – peace with nature, peace in society, peace with ourselves, and peace with God. Let’s take a second look at peace with nature.

Chapters 3-6 of Genesis record the destructive impact of evil on the world because of the sin of Adam and Eve. The first recorded murder in the Bible occurs because of envy between brothers in Adam and Eve’s family. It was not long before “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence” (6:11). Yet, despite God’s anger, his righteous judgment included arrangements with Noah for preserving all forms of animal life.

The special concern of God for “all living creatures” offers us a remarkable insight into God’s heart. The Lord instructed Noah to bring into the ark a male and female “of every kind of bird, of very kind of animal, and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground.” God brought these creatures to Noah for their protection. Noah was told to store food not only for his family, but for the animals as well. When the flood waters receded, God repeated the original mandate given in the Garden of Eden that the animals should be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

The Bible provides us with a beautiful testimony of God’s special love for his creation – for birds, for fish, for land animals. The Lord of creation, the one who designed a world of nature that experienced shalom in the Garden of Eden, continues to care even about the sparrows (Matthew 10:29). Jesus often referred to animals in his teaching and portrayed himself as a shepherd who cares for his flock, especially the lost sheep.

A second biblical story confirms God’s special care for animals. In the book of Jonah, God and the prophet Jonah have an intense exchange about God’s loving concern for Nineveh, a major city of Israel’s enemy. In the last verse in this short book of the Bible, God’s deep love and compassion is recorded for the people of this city – the compassion of a father for his lost son. But then it notes that God cared about “many cattle as well.” The Lord of history, the Creator God, had compassion on the great city of Nineveh because of its people and its animals.

As with Noah and the ark, this story of Jonah and Nineveh shows us the heart of God. He created a world rich in fish, birds and animals, a world of shalom in nature, a world where animals flourished and men and women were instructed to care for them as stewards and trustees of God.