Proverbs 12:10
There have been a number of stories to hit
the news of people who had dozens of animals in their homes. The animal
protection folks come in and sweep the house of animals, many sick and dying.
Filth everywhere. And the smell!
For many of these people their animal
collecting probably started with a desire to help the animals. They are often
strays or those doomed to death at an animal shelter. They start by giving them
a home. But then things get overwhelming and their small acts end up hurting
the animals rather than helping them.
Our proverb today makes a contrast between
the acts of the righteous and those of the wicked. The righteous take care of
the small things in life. Their animals get care. In this culture these animals
would have been their domesticated livestock, cows, sheep, goats, oxen. It
makes sense to take care of them. They are your 401k. They are working capital.
They are the source of your food. If you don’t care for them, you are hurting yourself
and your families.
The wicked, by contrast, don’t handle the
fundamentals of life. Their priorities are messed up. They don’t know what is
important, so they end up putting their energies in useless things. If they
happen to get around to something important, they don’t give it the attention it
deserves.
I want to say that animals are not to be
equated with people. God has established a hierarchy, and people are above
animals. We have the responsibility to be good stewards of them. They are not
stewards of us. They don’t take care of us. We take care of them.
To carry the animal rights folk’s argument
to its logical conclusion, they would have to be against the killing of
cockroaches and malaria carrying mosquitoes. If the chicken raised for us to
eat needs to be free-range before we eat it, then where do we draw the line on which
lives get protected and which ones don’t. If life is life, then it all needs to
be protected, especially the most vulnerable. And cockroaches are vulnerable!
If the righteous care for their animal’s
needs, they certainly take care of the needs of their family and community.