God Speaks Through Animals: Spiritual Lessons from Animals

God Speaks Through Animals: Spiritual Lessons from Animals by Sandeep Poonen

Numbers 22 tells us the fascinating story of Balaam and his now-famous donkey. Balaam was on his way to help King Balak curse the Israelites, even though this displeased God. So God sent an angel to stand in Balaam’s way. Balaam didn’t see the angel, but the donkey did, and so did the smart thing: Refused to move. Balaam proceeded to beat the donkey thinking that she was just being stubborn, when finally, “the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?'” (Numbers 22:28)

If only there were cameras back then, so that the expression on Balaam’s face could have been recorded for us to see! This is the only time recorded in the Bible after the Garden of Eden (when the serpent spoke to Eve) where an animal spoke in a human language.

But I think animals continue to speak silently! I find animals often speaking to us through their behaviour and actions – sometimes pointing us to our common Creator, and sometimes showing us characteristics that they share with us as fellow created beings!

Many times I catch myself thinking that only humans were affected by the fall in the Garden of Eden. But that’s not true – so was the rest of creation. Paul says in Romans 8:20-22 ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

All of creation is eagerly “groaning” for freedom from lives of futility. But sadly in the world today, it seems like all the “groanings” of humans have been conveniently anesthetized – by pop psychology and fanciful concepts of relativism and New Age spirituality. In such a world, maybe it will take the “groanings” of the rest of creation to remind us of our basic yearning to be free.

And no matter what the proponents of evolution might say about our advanced brains, our naïve blindness to God reveals a severely backward state of mind in the things that count. We, as humans, are often blind to things that the animals seem to see so easily.Isaiah 1:2-3 says this so well

(The Message):

² Heaven and earth, you’re the jury. Listen to God’s case:

I had children and raised them well, and they turned on me.

³ The ox knows who’s boss, the mule knows the hand that feeds him,

But not Israel. My people don’t know up from down.

I think Isaiah would be as shocked at the blindness of God’s people today as he was 3000 years ago. We truly need God to open our eyes again, so that we can see what the animals see – Who our “boss” really is, Whose Hand it is “that feeds” us, and the only One Who can help us make sense of “up (heavenly priorities) from down (earthly priorities).”

So I thought we could take a look at various animals and their behaviour. I think it is amazing what we could discover about our God and about ourselves from them. I also hope this series will inspire you to look for the Creator in the world around you – in the way an insect moves, in the way a tree grows, in the way the crows look for food, etc.

This was the basis of Jesus’ teaching through the parables. The multitudes saw the birds, the fish, the sheep, the trees, and the figs every day. All they saw were things to eat and things to make money with. Jesus saw these same things, but saw God revealing facets about Himself and about our rightful place with Him – because He was caught up and absorbed in God. So I think WE ALL have the opportunity to discover and personalize God’s Word to us – as we look and interact with His creation as a means to know our Creator.

In Balaam’s case, we read a few verses later, in Numbers 22:31 – “Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed all the way to the ground.”

God used the donkey to help Balaam see a heavenly reality, which he had been previously blind to. So also, I hope that we too might learn to rediscover heavenly values from the animals and their behaviours. I hope that these stories can build up our own faith as we learn about God’s faithfulness and our own broken tendencies. Our eyes could be opened to see sides of God that we had never previously seen.

May these studies be a blessing and an inspiration to all of you.

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