“Bible animals: Lions and tigers and bears”
Genesis 1:24
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” So wrote author Frank Baum a little over a hundred years ago in his classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
And he’s not the only one who had something to say about animals. In fact, if you think about it, you can find quite a lot of animals in literature!
Think, for example, of the nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock, first published in 1744. You know how it goes: “Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one, the mouse ran down, hickory dickory dock. Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck two, the mouse said ‘Boo!’ hickory dickory dock.”
And speaking of mice, how about another nursery rhyme called Three Blind Mice. It goes like this (most of you could even sing along!): “Three blind mice. Three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all ran after the farmer’s wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife. Did you ever see such a sight in your life as three blind mice?”
And that’s not all! When C.S. Lewis wanted to portray characters that were strong, noble, and courageous in his Chronicles of Narnia, he chose a lion named Aslan, a faun named Mr. Tumnus, and a unicorn named Jewel. When Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book, he gave us Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the mongoose, and Shere Khan the evil king of tigers. J.K. Rowling told us of Hedwig, Harry Potter’s pet snowy owl, “the only friend he had at number four, Privet Drive.” Roald Dahl wrote of a Fantastic Mr. Fox who lived underground with his wife and children. Black Beauty was a horse. Peter Cottontail was a rabbit. Curious George was a monkey. Wilbur was a pig and Charlotte was a spider.
And let’s not forget about our favorite bears like Yogi and Boo Boo, the Berenstain Bears, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Fozzie Bear, Smokey the Bear, Paddington Bear, as well as everyone’s favorite bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.
And when God chose to reveal His word and His will to us in the Bible, He told of quite a lot of animals too. In fact, from the beginning to the end, the Bible is full of animals!
Think of Jeremiah chapter 8: “Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift, and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But My people do not know the requirements of the Lord” (Jeremiah 8:7). Or Psalm 104: “The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God” (Psalm 104:21). Or Proverbs chapter 6: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest” (Proverbs 6:6-8).
And Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12: “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you lift it out?” (Matthew 12:11). And He said: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26).
And think of the hymns we sing! At Christmas, we sing in Away in a Manger, “The cattle are lowing, the poor Baby wakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying He makes.” We sing “This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise, the morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.” And we sing “All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing, ‘Alleluia! Alleluia!’”
Even our hymns are full of animals!
And it all started in the Bible’s very first book and its very first chapter, in Genesis chapter 1. I’ll start at verse 20: “And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.’ So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:20-21).
Then verse 24: “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds--livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.’ And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:24-25).
It’s amazing if you think about it. Just as soon as God created the earth and its atmosphere, the plants and trees, the sun, the moon, and the stars, and even before He formed Adam and Eve from the dust of the ground, He created the animals. As He said, “Let the waters swarm…let birds fly…and let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds.” And it was so.
And when He was done, what does the Bible say? Verse 31: “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).
So there’s that question--why did God even create animals? I mean, He could have simply left us with plants and trees and Adam and Eve. And He could have simply made just a few kinds of fish and a few kinds of animals. Instead, He took time to not only make them, but to make many of them. So why?
Before Adam would build a house, plant a garden, or worship God, before he would eat or drink or even meet his mate, before everything else, his first responsibility was to care for the animals, in communion and community.
As one author put it, “He was like their mother and father all rolled into one, giving them their names as they emerged from the womb of the earth in this bright and beautiful new world.” And he said, “It wasn’t just a dog who was man’s best friend. Dung beetles and alligators, sparrows and giraffes--they all looked Adam in the eye and saw in him their loving king and father.”
Even more, whether it’s the majesty of birds or fish or the metamorphosis of a butterfly--all of it’s intended to communicate God’s incredible creativity, and His brilliance in intelligent design.
Did you know that you could spend your entire life studying just one kind of insect, and yet you’d never discover everything there is to know about that insect? Just look at the world around you and you’ll begin to realize just how great and wonderful our God is--far greater than we could ever imagine or fully understand.
When five different scientists were asked what was their favorite creature in all of God’s creation, each one gave a different answer.
For Deborah Haarsma, her favorite creation is the Mantis Shrimp, which is neither a mantis nor a shrimp, but a relative of crabs and lobsters. She said, “While its hunting prowess is impressive, what I marvel at most is its vision. The human retina contains three types of cone cells, which detect wavelengths of light that we perceive as red, blue, and green. But some mantis shrimps have sixteen types of color-receptive cones, allowing them to see ultraviolet wavelengths invisible to us. Also amazing,” she said, “is that each compound eye is divided into three parts allowing for trinocular vision, and they’re mounted on stalks that can move independently!”
Rick Lindbroth from the University of Wisconsin--Madison said his favorite creation is the “stunningly beautiful, yet virtually invisible, boldly aggressive and lightning fast, exceedingly secretive and uniquely sensitive” Brook Trout. He said, “Their backs are patterned with wormlike markings that, in rippling water, make them nearly imperceptible to predators above.” And he said, “On occasion, I am treated to a completely inordinate amount of pleasure by winning a battle of wits with a creature whose brain is the size of a pea.”
Sarah Bodbyl Roels claims that hummingbirds--all three hundred species of them(!)--are her favorite creation, birds that live anywhere from dry tropical islands to the peaks of the Andes, over fourteen thousand feet above sea level. And while some are so small they live only one tiny island off the coast of Chile, others fly thousands of miles from Mexico to Alaska and back every year. Not bad for a bird that lives on nectar and weighs about as much as a marshmallow!
Dave Buller says that while he’d have a hard time picking his favorite creation, when it comes to surviving winter, his hat’s off to the lowly Wood Frog. He writes, “For upwards of eight months of the year, their blood, skin, and muscles turn to ice. Their heart stops. They do not breathe. And when the warmer weather finally comes, the frogcicles thaw out and begin hopping around.”
And last, but not least, in honor of her Texas roots, Kathryn Applegate likes the armadillo best of all. For one, their name means “little armored one.” For another, they can hold their breath underwater for six minutes, and can jump three-to four feet high in the air. They can range anywhere from the pink fairy armadillo, weighing in at three ounces, all the way up to the giant armadillo, weighing one hundred pounds. She said, “They may be a pain to golf course owners in the Southwest, and they may not fit our standard definitions of loveliness. But I’m glad God made armadillos--the world is made more interesting by their very presence. They are part of His very good creation.”
And if that’s not enough for you, how about this--did you know that the blue whale, the largest animal on earth, has a tongue that weighs as much as an elephant and a heart that’s as large as a car? Did you know that an octopus has three hearts and not one, not two, but nine brains? Did you know that butterflies taste with their feet, or that cheetahs can run seventy-five miles an hour, or that polar bears have black skin beneath their white fur, or that archerfish can spit water up to five feet away, or that sheep can recognize human faces, or that kangaroos can hop forward, but can’t walk backwards, that the pistol shrimp can snaps its claw louder than a sonic boom, that a horned lizard can shoot blood out of its eyes, that a rooster’s crow is as loud as a chainsaw, that koalas sleep as much as twenty-two hours a day, that a snail has fourteen thousand teeth, that an ostrich can kick so hard he can kill a lion, that anteaters can eat thirty-five thousand ants in a day, that a great white shark can smell blood from three miles away, that an electric eel can knock out a horse, that bees have five eyes and caterpillars have twelve eyes, that dolphins sleep with one eye open, that an ostrich’s eyes are bigger than its brain, that a grizzly bear’s bite can crush a bowling ball, that an eagle can dive a hundred miles an hour, that a chameleon’s tongue is as long as its body, that no two tigers have the same stripes, that spider silk is stronger than steel, but thinner than a human hair, that dragonflies can see in all directions at the same time, that sharks lay the largest, and dare I say, the strangest eggs in the world, that camels can hold fifty gallons of water and have three eyelids to protect them from blowing sand, and that an elephant has forty thousand muscles in its trunk, and a cat has thirty-two muscles in each ear?
No wonder the Bible says in Genesis chapter 1: “And God saw everything that He has made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).
So what does all this mean for us? It means that, even though we’re surrounded by such a wonderful and incredible creation, a creation that God made and God loved, He loved us even more, so much more that He came into this sinful world--the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the spotless Lamb of God. And out of His great love for us, He died for us.
As Paul wrote to the Romans: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
And so, with all of creation, we give Him our thanks and praise.
We thank You, Father, for the many ways You have blessed us, especially with Your incredible creation that surrounds us. Help us to live lives full of thanksgiving and praise, for Jesus’ sake. Amen