This morning, I was awoken by the sound of the clickety-clack of paws slinking across the floor. As I opened my eyes, I noticed there were two green eyes staring back at me. She meowed and walked away. The cat was like my furry alarm clock this morning.
Forget what people say about dogs being man’s best friend – cats are. My cat is loyal to me! She comes to find me and sits with me and stuff like that. I would choose her over a dog any day.
Earlier on today, I was reading my Bible In One Year passages for the day, like you do, and the cat came up to my room to find me. I gave her a quick little stroke before she burrowed under the duvet and completely disappeared. That is to say, she disappeared, but there was this big purring lump in the duvet, so I still knew she was there. She sat there purring whilst I read my bible.
Then, I went to re-string my guitar. I was playing ‘Jesus Saves’ by Tim Hughes on it yesterday and one of the strings snapped. I hadn’t even finished the intro! And forget what James Morrison or whoever it was sang; playing broken strings is not a feasible feat! Thankfully, I had a spare string lying around the house. How fiddly is it changing guitar strings?!?!? I’m always surprised at how fiddly it is every time I have to change one. I don’t know why I’m always so surprised, but it gets me every time! Perhaps theres a secret guitar string changing method I haven’t discovered yet, or that has to be taught in a top secret guitar dojo or something. I changed it myself though, because if you want it done in town, I heard it costs a tenner! R.I.P. O.F.F! The strings don’t even cost that much!
After I tackled the immensely fiddly task of re-stringing a guitar, I got to playing some worship songs out of ‘The Worship Songbook’ (Formerly known as the soul survivor songbook.) The cat had now re-emerged from the depths of the duvet and was looking up at me. I decided to play some of the songs off Matt Redman’s latest album “10,000 Reasons”. It is a lovely album, you simply must have a listen : http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/we-are-the-free/id441687303?i=441687312 . I played ‘endless hallelujah’ and a few others.
The point is not in what I played, but the cat’s reaction to it. Whenever I was playing these worship songs, she started purring and occasionally tried to meow along. Its not really anything I’d ever seen her do before. I mean, I know certain music has an effect on her, (‘Neapolitan Dreams’ by Lisa Mitchell sends her to sleep, whilst ‘Baby Elephant Walk’ by Henry Mancini makes her go wild and crazy!), but I’ve never seen her seemingly engage in worship. As most things do, this got me thinking. Can animals worship?
I know it might sound silly, but can they? God created them too! We were created by God and we have the choice to worship Him, and I wonder if the animals do? They can be used by God, I know that! And they can acknowledge His existence. One clear example of this is when Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem. Another is this:
Numbers 22:23-30
New International Version (NIV)
21 Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. 22But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road.
24 Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. 25 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again.
26 Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. 28 Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
29 Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”
30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”
“No,” he said.
31 Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.
32 The angel of the LORD asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”
34 Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.”
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica
If you thought donkey in the shrek movies was a bit farfetched, a donkey has actually talked in history! In this passage, Baalam’s donkey knew that God was not happy with Baalam for going against Him, and so the donkey tries to stop Baalam from being killed by an angel of the Lord. The donkey knows God’s power, and it tries to protect its rider. However, Baalam does not see the angel of the Lord standing before them and he is having none of it, so he starts beating the donkey. AND THEN IT TALKS TO HIM! It asks him why he was beating it. The donkey has seen the power of God here, and by the power of God it has been given the chance to talk in a language comprehensible to humans. God uses the donkey (and an angel) to talk to Baalam here.
Although we’ve seen that animals can be used by God, I wonder if they can praise Him, in their own unique ways.
The psalmist writes:
Psalm 150
New International Version (NIV)
Psalm 150
1 Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.
New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica
Praise the Lord seems to be the message here. But hold up, whats that last verse? Let EVERYTHING that has breath praise the Lord. Everything, you say?
Does this include animals and insects and fish and birds? They all have breath! Logically, this statement would include them! Perhaps they do already praise the Lord, and we just can’t see it!
If you think about it, perhaps animals could talk our language originally. Looking back to Genesis, God created all the animals and Adam gave them names. How would they know what they were if they could not at least understand our language? Furthermore, the serpent in the garden of eden TALKS to Eve, persuading her to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge, thus spurring the fall of man. The snake could talk, but what about the other animals?
Maybe, and just maybe, the human race and the animals could talk to each other freely before the incident at the tower of babel. Genesis 11:1 says that the whole world had one language and a common speech at this time. This must have included animals, otherwise it wouldn’t have said the whole world, right? After the people tried to build a tower to reach heaven and make themselves famous in the process, God confused their languages. It would make sense that this included animals.
People say that animals such as dogs can understand a few words, and parrots and other birds can learn to speak a few words. Studies have shown that cats reserve most of their ‘meow’ noises for when they are in human company. Interesting huh? I read somewhere that if you consistently say something to a cat over and over again, it will eventually try to mimic you. I’m sure my cat can say ‘hello’! Can the animals understand us? Did we originally have the chance to talk to them, and have conversations? Do they talk to God in their own ways? Do they worship Him?
Lets look at this passage from Philippians:
Philippians 2
New International Version (NIV)
Philippians 2
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica
This passage talks about Jesus and how He sacrificed Himself to save the world. Lets focus here on verses 10 and 11.
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
It says every knee will bow. Every knee MUST include animal knees, right? There are some creatures without knees though. But every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. EVERY tongue. Thinking logically, this means that alongside humans, animals will confess that Jesus is Lord. That would be awesome! A sight to behold!
Moving onwards, lets look at revelation briefly. If you read the book of Revelation, it is a vision revealed to John by God. John was able to write this down. It is a prophecy of what will happen in the end times. Which, judging by the state of the world, will be happening fairly soon.
First, I will give the introduction, then, I will skip straight to chapter 4. I strongly advise reading this book. It is wonderful!
Revelation 1
Prologue
1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
Revelation 4
The Throne in Heaven
1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. 6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.”
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica
Here, we see a glimpse of heaven, and four living creatures worshipping God. “The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.” I’m not sure if these creatures are like what they are listed as, or if they are fully what they are listed as, but one thing is for certain – they are all worshipping God. And from this point in revelation onwards, they continue to worship God.
So we know that animals can be used by God. We know some creatures that have worshipped Him. I wonder if the animals are worshipping Him right now. If they can be loyal and loving to a human, how much more loving and loyal must they be to their creator? Perhaps my cat purring along with me whilst I was worshipping God was her way of joining in.
Did they originally talk with us? Do they worship God as well? When we worship God, do they join in? Perhaps this is not for us to know right now.
This I do know:
All will be revealed in heaven, when EVERY knee will bow before Him, and EVERY tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
) and I had to miss some other events too. On the subject of lemons, i’ve found Lemsip to be a good aid at a time like this. And catarrh pastilles.
