Current Message - Animals in the Bible 1/11/10
TKC Ministries - Leon Hagins
I have always been an animal lover. Whether it’s domestic cats or dogs , or animals from the wild kingdom, I simple adore them and am fascinated as to how God fitted them all with special characteristics which enables them to survive in their environment.
With this in mind I decided to go through the scriptures and make note of some of the animals found in scripture.
Genesis 2:19-20 - And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field , and every fowl of the air ; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field;
I often wondered how wonderful a scene this must have been. Can you imagine God almighty bringing all of the animals to you and letting you name them! As exciting as this must have been when we get to chapter 3 , we encounter an animal that causes a catastrophic situation for Adam and his companion.
Genesis 3:1-5 - Now the serpent was more subtil (cunning or crafty usually in a bad sense) than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Yea (question) hath God said Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ( he knew exactly what God had said, but misquotes it anyhow). And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (lies, lies, lies, nothing but lies) L . These lies set off the fall of man. Thank God for Jesus!
In the book of Genesis, God gives Noah specific instructions concerning loading animals into the ark. Genesis 6:18-22 - But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife , and thy son’s wives with thee. And every living thing of all
Moses and the serpent - Exodus 4:1-5 - And Moses answered and said, but behold , they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say , the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him , what is that in thine hand? And he said, a rod. And he said, cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail, and he he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. That they may believe that the Lord God of their father’s, the God of Abraham, the God of Issac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
Exodus 7:8-12 - And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you saying, Shew a miracle for you : then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh , and it shall become a serpent.
And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
Exodus 8:1-7 and the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with
Leviticus Chapter 11 - The entire chapter deals with clean and unclean meats. God gives his people specific instructions concerning which animals are OK to eat, and those that he didn’t want them eating.In the book of Numbers Chapter22 , there is one of many of my favorite stories in the bible, where God uses an ass (the ass saves the prophets life) to get his point across to a renegade Prophet named Balaam. There was a Moabite King named Balak who was very troubled by large company of Israelites that had set up camp in plains of Moab. He wants the Israelites gone ASAP, and he seeks help from the man of God , Balaam. He wants Balaam to curse God’s people. Balaam inquires of the Lord, and God tells him not to go with these folks, and also not to curse the Israelites because they are a blessed people.
My dear friends, just for the record, when God tells you to do something, or not to do something, you had better listen to what he tells you, because if you disobey the consequences could be tragic, as we will see with Balaam.
Job 38:39-41 & Job chapter 39 - God asks Job a series of 23 questions concerning the animal kingdom.
In the book of Job chapter 41 - We find a most interesting creature , that God asks Job twenty questions about. The name of this creature is Leviathan. As you read the text it sounds like God is describing a fire breathing dragon, or dinosaur.
II Kings 2:11 - Elijah the prophet gets taken away to heaven in a chariot of fire, being pulled by horse of fire……….wow! What a way to go!
II Kings 2:24 - On route to Bethel, the prophet Elisha is jeered at , for his baldness, by a group of boys. The prophet turns and curses them in the name of the Lord. Suddenly two she bears came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys.
Daniel 6 - Daniel in the lions den.
Mark 11 - Jesus and the colt
Zechariah 1:8 - The prophet sees a man riding a red horse, and behind this rider were red horses speckled and white.
Zechariah 6:1 - Zechariah sees some more horses. This time they are pulling chariots. There are red horse, black horses, white horses, grisled and bay horses.
The Book of Revelation - is a book full of animals, and interesting creatures.
Rev. 4:6-8 -
Rev. Chapter 5 -
The Lamb of God , fascinating stuff! Please read the entire chapter. Please note how all of heaven acknowledges worthiness to God and the Lamb. In this text we find ourselves in God’s throne room, and all the activity going on around the throne. There are four beasts round about the throne. One looks like a lion, the other a like a calf, the other a man, and the fourth was like an eagle. They all have six wings full of eyes.
Rev. chapter 6 - The four horsemen of the Apocalypse. A white horse, a red horse, a black horse, the fourth a pale horse (in the Greek it’s chloros or green)
Rev. 19:11-21 -
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The Coming of the Lord. Christ and the armies of heaven all riding white horses. The battle of Armageddon.
Numbers 22:21-33 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
But the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: and he smote her again. And the angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass, because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said , Nay. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, wherefore hast thou smitten Hine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me. And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
Deuteronomy 14 - The entire chapter has some more dietary laws concerning which animals are not to be eaten, along with those that can be.
Judges 6:1-6 - The Midianites and the Amalekites, and the children of the east , had history’s first camel cavalry, and they stomped all over Israel and the Israelites had to serve Midian for seven years because they did evil in the sight of the Lord.
1Samuel chapter 6 - here we find the Philistines in disarray and panic. They have been one of a few group of people who made the terrible mistake of taking the ark of the covenant back to their homeland. God plagues the Philistines, and they come to the conclusion that they should get this art out from the midst of them. They consult some priests concerning their dilemma. The priests suggest they take two cows, that have calves shut up at home, tie them to a cart then let the choose which they wanted to go. If they pulled the cart to Israel , then the Philistines would know the plagues are from God. The cows pulled the ark to Israel.
frogs: And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs: And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
flesh two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God Commanded him, so he did.
Genesis 7:1-5 -and the Lord said unto Noah come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and the female: and of beasts that are not by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. And Noah did according unto all the Lord commanded him.
