This week my wife and I, for the second time in two years, laid a dog to rest. This time it was a female. Everyone should, at least once in their life, dig a grave for a loved one. Death has a whole different sting as you’re digging the whole within which you will bury them. This scriptures tell us,
“It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2)
In this case it was a dog. I do not compare animals to people because people are made in the image of God. Make no mistake, my heart has been torn by the loss of five different pets now, which has caused me no little suffering.
To love something more than God is idolatry; to bury someone or something that has died without empathy is insensitive and cruel.
If you read my blog you know my trust is in the scriptures, for only there can truth be found without error of any kind. In the vet’s office there was a plaque on the wall. It was one of the saddest saying that I have ever read.
The plaque in no uncertain terms says that it is better to be a dog than a man, and not only better but better in character. I am animal lover and a person that has been hurt deeply by the loss of my beloved pets. This past week tears have come to my eyes repeatedly, nevertheless, there is a vast difference between any animal and man of whom it is written, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26) Man was placed in a ruling position over all the animal kingdom, because He alone was made in the image of God.
Concerning all creation the Bible clearly records that by God’s spoken word He brought all things into being. The method is impersonal. Only concerning man does the Bible depict the personal intervention by God in making man, “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7) The life spoken of in the creation of man is not biological, that is, the life contained within every biological machine, but this life is the life of God.
For this reason man became a living soul. In fact the Bible speaks plainly to the fact that man is a living soul and he possesses a living spirit, by which he can communicate with God. That is, when it is working properly. For this reason, we told by the writer to the Hebrews, the extent of God’s word to discern the heart of man. ” For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) God’s word can even differentiate between the soul and the spirit, something than men cannot do.
Animals allow men to become part of their pack. They are pack animals. There instinctive behavior can be understood as emotional, caring, and affectionate. In reality, they behave by instinct and apart from human reason. Both Jude and the Apostle Peter understood that animals cannot reason, but live by God given instinct.
“But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. ” Jude 1:10
In this verse animals are compared to false teachers who twist the Gospel of Christ, His death and sufferings, and turn them into a means of sordid gain.
“For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1:4)
It is easy to ridicule someone. In reality any person who does not acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ and thereby allow Him complete rule of his life is likened to a fool who does not recognize the significance of God presence in the universe and sustaining power over His creation. Isaiah understood this reality thousands of years before modern science.
“Is the ax to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it, or like a rod lifting him who is not wood.” (Isaiah 10:15)
On the other hand, “If you shall confess Jesus Christ as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)