Gold Nugget
Verse 10: “A
righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the
wicked are cruel.”
Commentary
It seems as if
today’s devotion is veering from its usual focus, but in reality this scripture
was not just thrown in the bible by the Humane Society. The behavior of a
person is a symptom of an inner issue from his character. Today’s “gold nugget”
says, “A righteous man regards the life
of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” Recently I
was having some discussion with some family members about veal. For those of
you that may not be aware, veal is, by definition, is the meat of young calves.
It is served in most restaurants and is known as tender and tasty. I have eaten
it on several occasions. Depending on the farm and state in which it was “raised”,
the calf may have never moved more than 1 foot in any direction in its entire
life. Often raised in crates, these
calves are put through horrible
conditions. After discussing this recently, I determined that I wouldn’t eat
veal anymore. Although there are some free roaming calves that are used for
veal, the practice of raising claves in crates is still legal in most states. I’m
not a vegetarian (as I am from Texas and don’t believe I am permitted to be),
but this scripture reminds me that cruelty is an inner condition that can be exercised
on either man or beast. I used to think that it was not a big issue to God and
that He was only concerned about the state of mankind. I still don’t think that
He is all that concerned about the animals so much as He is concerned about our
behavior and how it reflects our inner condition. I’m not an animal rights activist.
I believe they do have the right to be eaten, worked and used as company. God
created them for us and not us for them. Many “animal rights activist” are more
concerned with the lives of animals and yet support abortion and would perform
or have one without any regard for the life within. This is more disgusting and
intolerable than any form of cruelty I can imagine. The objective of today’s
devotion is to demonstrate the need for us to be generous, tender and sensitive
people. This is the character that Jesus demonstrated and is expecting from us.
Prayer
Lord, help us to demonstrate tender and
mercy in how we treat each other and even possibly some of your lesser creation
– animals. Cruelty is not a character trait that we want anyone to consider
normal or acceptable for a Christian. Amen
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