All God’s Creatures

Introduction

Last year I presented a series on the trees of the Bible which ran all through the season of Trinity or Ordinary Time. This year we will engage with the members of the animal kingdom that appear in the Bible.

In this occasional series I may suggest that you to do some additional reading and investigation for yourself and I may not use the most obvious texts.

The list of animals in the account of Creation in Genesis chapter 1 is very familiar but there are other descriptions of creation in different books of the Bible and many more animals appear throughout the text. I will take a very broad approach including living creatures from smallest to largest; virus and gnat to elephant and whale; vertebrates and invertebrates; and various borderline cases. Texts are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicized Edition, with the Apocrypha and Deutero Canonical Books. The collection of animals included in this series is not exhaustive and the names for some creatures may differ in other translations.

Do take some time to look at our creation window: the great west rose window in St George’s.

Consider the variety and beauty of the creatures depicted there.

In the song of praise sung by the three young men, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, who were thrown into the burning fiery furnace we find:

The three with one voice praised and glorified and blessed God in the furnace:
“Blessed are you, O Lord, God of our ancestors,
and to be praised and highly exalted for ever.
…
Bless the Lord, you whales and all that swim in the waters;
sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, all birds of the air;
sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, all wild animals and cattle;
sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever.
…
All who worship the Lord, bless the God of gods,
Sing praise to him and give thanks to him,
For his mercy endures for ever.

                                           [Prayer of Azariah. 28, 29, 57 – 59, 68 (Apocrypha)]

Conclusion

“What about the phoenix?” [Job 29. 18], you may ask.

As we have progressed through this series it has been difficult to identify accurately some creatures because of language problems or because they have disappeared from the earth. Others may have been omitted for various other reasons. With Job, although in different circumstances, we may be asking the wrong question or we may not be capable of receiving an answer [Job 38 – 41].

Another of God’s creatures that we have omitted to examine is the human creature, but to do that we would need another series of reflections.

When we affirm our faith we say:
‘We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen’.
(The Nicene Creed)
We must then ask about unseen, or usually unseen, creatures,
including the angels. Again this would need another separate series of reflections.

In this series of reflections we began by examining descriptions of Creation which affirmed the truth that God created all things, including all the creatures that live now or have lived in the past. ‘God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good’ [Gen 1. 33]. Human beings have had to find their place in the animal world, interact with other creatures and now, most importantly, take responsibility for their actions.

We have found that some animals became known as unclean, dangerous or to be avoided. But, in prophecy, we heard that there will be peaceful coexistence [Isaiah 11. 6 – 9] in the coming Kingdom.

Peter, having been brought up in the teachings on purity was well aware of the “unclean” animals but he knew that the Gentiles did not have such scruples. This caused a dilemma when Gentiles were converted to faith in Jesus and joined the community of believers. They extended hospitality to Peter [Acts 11. 1 – 3] and he had to decide how to show them love and behave in an inclusive way. To solve the problem, God sends Peter a vision of a large sheet coming down from heaven, filled with all kinds of animals [Acts 11. 4 – 8]. The message to him and to us is: ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane’ [Acts 11. 9].

Here we come full circle in our exploration of the animals of creation, all God’s creatures, which were made ‘very good’. Every creature has its place and contributes to the fulfilment of God’s purpose for creation.

If you would like to delve further into the topics that have been addressed through this Trinity season, The Natural History of the Bible, by H B Tristram, is a nineteenth century book with a wealth of information. In the online text you can turn through the pages to find material that gives an insight into the land and the conditions as well as the plants and animals of the Bible lands.

Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
Maker of all living creatures:
fish in the sea, birds in the air,
and animals on the land.
May we always praise you
for all your beauty in creation.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
in all your creatures.
Amen