CAN ALL CREATION RESPOND TO GOD?

Our pastor recently gave a sermon on our charge to take care of earth and all that is in it. As part of his talk he brought up a few scriptures that seemed to indicate that even non-human earthly beings can respond to God. So I decided to delve a little further into that contention and see what other biblical passages might indicate the same thing.

One caveat before I enumerate them: most of the references below appear in the poetic passages and therefore they tend to consist of non-literal language such as anthropomorphisms (ascribing human characteristics to something or someone that is not human), apostrophe (addressing something that is unable to answer back), and hyperbole (poetic exaggeration). Nonetheless, the overwhelming number of these passages certainly should make one think a little more carefully before pronouncing that none carries some degree of literal truth.

Right in the first chapter of Genesis we run into two clear-cut examples. Whereas in most cases, God simply speaks and something comes into existence, there are three places where God actually commands some areas of creation to “bring forth” additional forms of creation to populate them. Thus, in Genesis 1:11-12 He commands the earth to bring forth vegetation; in v. 20 it is the seas that are to bring forth the sea creatures; and in v. 24 the earth is told to bring forth living creatures. Obviously, these realms of creation obeyed God because all of those things were brought forth. Proceeding further into Genesis, we learn in 4:10-11 that the ground opened up to receive Abel's blood and that the blood itself cried out to God from the earth.

In Numbers 20:8 we are told that Moses was instructed by God to command the rock to give forth water. A few chapters later (Genesis 22) we find the famous story of Balaam and his donkey. The donkey has more spiritual discernment than his master and can see the angel of God in the pathway. At last, in order to get Balaam's attention, God “opened the mouth of the donkey” and it spoke. This does not to appear at all like a case of ventriloquism with God doing the actual speaking. Instead, the donkey is given the vocal chords that enable it for the first time to say what was on its mind. Since this passage is not in one of the poetic sections of the Bible, it should give us pause to consider the ability of animals to respond to spiritual forces around it. And it may shed some light on the question of whether there will be any animals in heaven (see the post “Pets in Heaven”).

Three times in Deuteronomy, God calls heaven and earth to serve as witnesses in His heavenly lawsuit against the people (4:26; 30:19; and 31:28). In Deuteronomy 32:1, heaven and earth are asked to listen to God's words.

Joshua 10:12-13 relates the story of “Joshua's long day” caused by God commanding the sun and moon to stand still, followed by their obedience. Various interpretations of this event are given in my post aptly entitled “Joshua's Long Day: Joshua 10:12-13.” Other examples of creation's obedience during a time of war are found in Judges 5 where “the earth trembled, and the heavens poured, the clouds poured out rain, and the mountains trembled” at the appearance of God (vv. 4-5) and “the stars fought from heaven” against God's enemies (v. 20).

From the Book of Job we learn that God commanded the sun not to rise (9:7); the morning stars all sang during the Creation (38:7); God commanded the sea to go no further than the boundary He established for them (38:8-11); He commanded the morning (38:12); and commands the eagle to fly up and make its nest on high (40:27).

The Psalms provide a rich trove of references to various non-human entities being told to sing to, praise, fear, thank or show gladness to God. These include the heavens (Ps. 19), heaven, earth, seas and all its inhabitants (Ps. 69), the waters (Ps. 77), the floods (Ps. 93), heavens, earth, sea, fields and trees (Ps. 96), coastlands (Ps. 97), sea, world, floods and hills (Ps. 98), all His works (Pss. 103 and 145), the earth (Ps. 114), sun, moon, heavens, waters above the heavens (Ps. 148:3-4), sea monsters, the deeps, fire, hail, snow, and frost (148:7-8) and mountains, hills wild and domesticated animals, things that creep, and things that fly (Ps. 148:9-10). Since people are also asked to do these various things in relation to God, it is not that easy to dismiss as mere figurative language the many occasions when non-humans are told to do the same.

In Psalm 106:9, the psalmist says that God “rebuked the Red Sea and it became dry.” Of course, we have very similar events described in the NT gospels when Jesus rebukes the fever of Peter's mother-in-law and it leaves her (4:39) and Jesus rebukes the wind and sea and they calm down in obedience to him (Matthew 8:26-27; Luke 8:25).

Isaiah 1:2 has God commanding heaven and earth to listen to His words. In Isaiah 44:23, heaven, earth, mountain and forests are commanded to sing and shout to God. Moving to the Judgment Day, we learn in Isaiah 24:23 that the moon and sun will become ashamed in the glory of God's light.

Turning next to the Minor Prophets, Hosea 4:1-3 describes God's accusation against his people for their evil behavior. As a result, He says that “all the land mourns and everything in it languishes, including the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea.”

Joel describes a locust plague in terms that presage the Final Judgment. During that time, the wild animals cry out to God for help (1:20) and we learn that God Himself is the commander of the host of insects and they obey Him (2:11). Later the land will be restored, and God tells the soil and the animals not to be afraid (2:21-22). However, God will turn His wrath toward the other nations, and it says in 3:16 that the heavens and earth will shake when they hear His voice.

The Book of Jonah is different from the other prophetic literature in a number of ways, but it shares the same message that non-human life can respond to God. In Jonah 3:8 we are treated to the amusing scene in which the animals wear the same sackcloth of repentance that the people of Nineveh are putting on. And the text actually says: “Men and animals shall put on sackcloth, and they shall cry out to God.” Of course that command was given by the King of Nineveh, not God. But whether or not the cattle are really repenting, it is quite clear that everyone and everything else in the story (including the wind and sea, sea monster, vine, and ravenous insect) have obeyed God's commands, all except Jonah himself.

In Habakkuk 3:10-11 it says that at the Lord's coming “the deep cried, the sun raised his hands, and the moon stopped moving.” And even more interestingly, evil-doers are warned in 2:11that even their house would turn against them: “The very stones will cry out from the wall, and the plaster will respond from the woodwork (NRSV).” This should immediately remind you of Jesus' statement in Luke 19:40 that if the people had not welcomed him as he entered Jerusalem, the very stones would have cried out. In addition, we have Jesus' words to his opponents in Matthew 3:8 that God could raise up His children from stones if He wanted to.

There was a popular Christian writer of the previous century, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He was a Catholic priest and paleontologist who wrote a series of somewhat controversial books in which he proposed, among other things, that all creation had the capability to one extent or another to respond to God. As an extreme case, he cited the fact that rocks respond back to the warmth of God's sun by radiating that heat back to Him in the cooler part of the day. It seemed at the time as being a little bit too much “New Age” for my taste. But now I wonder if de Chardin might not have been correct after all.

In Luke 17:5, Jesus even tells the apostles that if they had the faith of a mustard seed they could tell a tree to move to the sea and it would uproot itself and obey them. Paul, in Romans 8:19-22, informs us that all of creation is eagerly longing for the renewal of the earth and has been groaning in the meantime.

And in the final book of the Bible we see that among those surrounding God's throne in Revelation 4 are the four living creatures who represent the highest of all God's creation. Besides one who resembles mankind are a lion (king of the wild beasts), ox (strongest of the domesticated animals) and eagle (grandest of the birds). In v. 8 we learn that they continually sing glory to God, and in v. 9 it is said that they give glory, honor, and thanks to God.