God's Creatures

The other day I heard a radio pastor share some facets of God’s creation and creatures. Although I don’t remember the pastor’s name, the Bible points some sterling examples of obedience by His creatures.

Probably my favorite animal that clearly was obedient to God’s direction was a donkey. The donkey was owned by Balaam found in Numbers 22:21-39. Balaam was in disobedience with the Lord’s plan and was riding his donkey into the enemy’s camp. The angel of the Lord stands in the path and the donkey sees it, but Balaam doesn’t. The donkey quickly gets off the path and Balaam beats the donkey back on the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path, so the donkey squeezes against the wall to get around the angel which crushes Balaam’s foot. Again, Balaam beats his donkey to get it back on the road. Yet another time, the angel of the Lord moved to an area where the donkey could not get around him, so the donkey lay down under Balaam. Again, Balaam beat his donkey. Then the most amazing thing happened, the donkey talked. “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” Rather than stopping in his tracks realizing this is supernatural, Balaam talked back and forth to the donkey just as if it were an everyday occurrence. Yes, the donkey was obedient to God although his rider was not.

In 1 Kings 17:2-16 we have the creatures responding to their Creator. Elijah, the prophet, had made the declaration that there would be a severe drought and then he went and hid himself by a brook. The Lord told Elijah I have commanded ravens to feed you bread and meat morning and night and that is exactly what they did. Pretty amazing that ravens were involved in Uber Eats or Door Dash, before we ever heard of it. But these ravens, against their nature, were giving bread and meat on schedule everyday as instructed by their Creator.

How about the waters responding from its residents? Jonah 1:17 tell of a great fish that had a special mission from its Creator. Just on cue, God had provided a great fish to swallow a disobedient Jonah that was thrown overboard in waters that he could not have navigated. This great fish was the perfect place to provide a reality check of what Jonah’s disobedience had cost him. In three days, Jonah was ready to submit to the Lord and the great fish released him to his mission.

Matthew 17:27 is for sure a fisherman’s story. Peter told Jesus that it was tax time, and he didn’t have the money. Jesus said we don’t want to cause offense so Peter you need to go fishing. Take the first fish you catch, and you will find exactly the amount of money in the mouth of the fish that will pay yours and my tax. How many fish carry tax money around?

There were many other fish stories that even the fishing disciples were blown away by. Such as being obedient to casting nets to the other side of their boat and catching fish that had not been there previously. Or fishing all night with nothing, but in obedience to the master following his instructions and the fish came to the place He said they would.

All the above creatures the Creator had spoken into existence, and they responded instantly to His command. Yet, mankind is more than a spoken word. Adam and Eve were handcrafted by the Creator. Adam’s first breath was from the breath of God. We are created in the image of God. How much more should we want to respond to the Creators plan for us?

Pastor Ruth Kaunley