We will look at some things God did in putting animals on Earth, and then we will look for indications that these purposes might have value in the next world—If we can find clues that our pets would have a role to fill in Heaven, then this adds support to the idea that God will take them there.
But first we will start with this Spoiler!
"The Peaceable Kingdom" is a popular topic for painters, especially those who paint in either the Folkart or Renaissance styles. (The one on the left is by Edward Hicks, one of over 60 that he painted.)These paintings are based on prophetic verses found in Isaiah.
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.
This is Isaiah 65:25, and most probably refers to the new heavens and the new earth from the context of the previous verse 17.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
That passage is from Isaiah 11:6-9 and specifically mentions earth, not heaven. Because the phrase, "in that day" is in subsequent verses, many scholars believe that this refers to the Millennial Kingdom on the current Earth.
This blog is not the time or place for the debate over these passages not really being about heaven; I want to stay on-topic and there is a lot to cover today. For our purposes, I will remind you that Earth is patterned after Heaven, and Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven," Matthew 6:10. Just accept this: When the world runs according to God's will, Heaven and Earth are using the same blueprints.
Purposeful Provision for Animals
Back when the Internet was young and Boolean searches still held a fascination for me, I had this idea of writing a Bible Bestiary. The plan was to go through the Bible and write about every animal mentioned in a manner that would be instructive for middle-school students. I was tutoring several hyper-active boys at the time, and such a book would have been a good fit into the curriculum. It was a fairly ambitious project, and so when real life started making demands, it fell by the wayside. But I did get far enough to discover that animals were designed to have real, functional roles in human lives.
Today, we are going to take a quick look at the Book of Job. Job, you may remember, was the guy who lost his main business, his reserve source of income, and all ten of his children through Sabaean raiders, some sort of electro-maggnetic phenomena, and tornadic activity all on the same day. Next, he develops a smelly, itchy skin disease. Then the real assault begins when three of his fairly clueless friends try to comfort him with explanations that were little more than faith-destroying, doubt-filled platitudes. His wife was a little more blunt: Curse God and die! The final attack comes in the form of an upstart theologian named Elihu¹ who tells Job that this is all Job's own fault because of his pride. The reader, however, knows from chapter 1 that the "pride" in this case was the Lord's as He was the one bragging on His servant Job. Eventually, from chapter 38 through 40, we get 123 verses of God talking non-stop. This is the longest running quote of God in the entire Bible and most all of it is calling attention to His attribute of Creator by asking an extended series of rhetorical questions.
Because these are written as questions, we have to do some basic deduction to convert them to facts, but it is not that hard. So here are a few things God says to Job about animals:
• God provides for young ravens when they cry out, even though they are nasty birds and were thought of as being evil omens; God is a provider. 38:41
• God is aware of and watches over animals giving birth in the wild. At a time when a doe is most at risk both internally in the physical and therefore incapacitated to defend externally against predators, God is there; God attends life. 39:1-3
• God placed the wild donkey in the wilderness, implying that every animal has it's unique place to belong and for some animals, that place is our home; God matches habitats to an animal's nature and needs. 39:5-7
• God makes a distinction between wild oxen and domesticated ones with this line of questioning; we can deduce that God's character will also recognize the "trust factor" in a pet and owner relationship. 39: 10-12.
• Job 39:13-18 are about the ostrich. This passage is commentary, not the rhetorical question format, so I am mostly skipping it for now, except to say that it marks a turning point in God's instruction to Job.
• God asks multiple questions about the horse which show its design and purpose in war. If we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we will notice another layer that the Lord adds to His teaching in this last set of animals: He is now using these final animal-examples (39:19-30; and chapters 40 and 41) to more directly address the scene at the beginning of the book.
Here is a flashback to the opening scene in Job 1:6— "Now there was a day when the members of the heavenly court (divine council) came to present themselves before Jehovah, and the Accuser (Satan) came with them."The Book of Job opens with a glimpse into the spiritual realm where Jehovah-God is holding a council meeting. Now, toward the end of the book, the final sets of animals, our domesticated horse and the hawks/falcons, along with two monster-types, behemoth and leviathan, all have a spirit-realm component in their descriptions, but that is a rabbit trail that I will have to pursue later. For our "Pets in Heaven" blog, we will just leave it at this: Animals can have a role and purpose in the Spirit realm.
• Last, but certainly not least, we revisit a scripture that was introduced in #2 of this series where young girls were playing with a tethered pet bird. This scripture was presented as a contrast and it is actually a very strong indication that the Lord wants us to enjoy pets! As great, and as strong, and as evil as the juxtaposed leviathan is, the inspired scriptures count a small pet bird as a suitable balance of goodness. 41:5
This is not the last time that I will be talking about the Lord wanting us to enjoy pets. Part of His purpose for animals as simple as wanting to delight us. If you have a hard time believing that now, don't worry; there will be more scriptural proofs in the blogging ahead.
To review, here is what Job showed us today:
God is a provider who values the life of animals by tending to their needs and supplying them with a habitat perfectly matched to their needs. He recognizes (of course He does, He designed it this way!) that humans and animals can build trusting relationships, and that some of these relationships could extend into the spiritual realm. He had a purpose in doing this.
Nothing that the Lord revealed about Himself in his discourse with Job indicates that He considers these animals to be generic filler on this planet. They were treated as individual animals.
Footnote
¹ Elihu - When translated into English, there are five men by this name in the Bible. But this one, Elihu, son of Barachel, has an extra Hebrew character in his name... One of the sources that I looked up speculated that this could be because he came from the greater Levant, outside of Israel in both time period and geography. The elements of his name could carry a particle of negation (not, no, neither); or they could mean to swear or to wail.
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