Senior Living

Most of us have had pets and considered them part of the family. I, too, am an animal lover with cats and dogs throughout my life. But does the Bible have anything to say about pets?

It may surprise you to find out that it does.

In 2 Samuel 12 we find the account of the prophet Nathan confronting the sinner David who had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed on the battlefield.

To paint a picture that would convict David’s conscience and heart for animals, Nathan compared Bathsheba to a pet lamb and her deceased husband as a poor man, and David as a rich man:

The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.”

There it is. Obviously, it was commonplace and accepted by the prophet of God for use in his analogy to describe an animal as being “like a daughter” to the owner. And that pet lamb in Nathan’s story was raised, fed people-food, loved, played with by children and even slept in its owner’s arms in a precious and treasured relationship like a part of the family.

God understands our need for companionship, to give and receive the love that may sometimes come in the form of a 4-legged fur-baby –or in this case, a wool-baby.

Next week: Independence through dependence