We live in a culture where pets abound in homes, and often in bed with their masters. Given that the dog industry is entirely dominated by the pagan, we as Christians should wonder: is this practice something that honors God? If not, we should correct it, and also identify the detriments of such a practice. We will begin in the Old Testament and work into the New. This will help us to bring the weight of the whole counsel of God to bear upon this issue.
First, let us begin in the Old Testament to see what God says about marriage, specifically the practices that were unlike what the people of God were to do:
“You shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.” (Leviticus 18:23)
At first glance we obviously recognize God is forbidding sexual intercourse between mankind and animal kind, but let us go further. Verse 24 says,
“…for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean”
and a verse later we see the land is vomiting out its inhabitants…because of these perversions. The animal issue wasn’t the single problem, but it was the last to be listed. It’s as if, in a sexually perverted culture, the last culturally acceptable step is to get in bed with the animals. A natural spiraling down the barrel that begins with perversion between your fellow man and woman, and ends with animals at the bottom. Verse 30 I think is key. It says,
“So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never make yourselves unclean by them.” (Emphasis added)
Everyone is a sinner by nature, but sin can be nurtured and grow into perverse and abominable sins. Sure, all sin is damnable, but some are categorized by God as worse, and having worse consequences. If you practice sin, you will become a skilled master at it. It all starts at the first step. Whether we like it or not, bestiality isn’t just something occurring in 3rd world countries. It happens here in America, and God hates it. God teaches His people here that marriage, and the marital bed, is not the place where you have perverse and abominable practices. They lead to destruction. These practices, and others, are categorized under the sin of “Sexual Immorality.” See also what the Lord says here,
“If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (Leviticus 20:15-16)
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” (Deuteronomy 27:21 emphasis added)
But, what are these curses? The ones I want you to consider are these, because they most definitely affect your relationship to your dog:
“The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do…the LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind…you shall not prosper in your ways.” (Deuteronomy 28:20, 28-29)
It’s important to note that our enemies that we will be given unto are our passions that are dominated by sin. You will be angry. You will not understand why your dog will not listen to you. You will get all the training and still have problems with the animal respecting you. Your animal will come between you and your spouse. Your intimacy will decline, and bitterness and resentment will take root. The authority structure in your household will be chipped away at until the animal sits on top, just as it happened in Eden at the fall. Some in the pagan world have recognized that there is a problem with animals being in the same room as their masters, but I’m telling you the why from the Scriptures.
Secondly, let us look at the reinforcement of these passages in the New Covenant: Jesus affirms that God gave Adam one wife, and this is to be the regularity in mankind. (See Matthew 18) He further states that the Law and the Prophets find their fulfillment in Him, which isn’t a doing away, but that the substance of these things remains. Christ, speaking through the Apostle Paul, doubles down here by saying,
“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Hebrews 13:4 emphasis added)
An undefiled and reverenced marriage is indeed a sacrifice worthy unto God, but the opposite will be judged by Him.
Some objections: you might say, “Well Jesus slept as a baby among the animals in a stable!” While His parents were escaping mass murdering of children, that’s not an argument to be sleeping with your animals. Not only this, but it wasn’t their first pick. It wasn’t ideal, “Because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7) In other words, they wouldn’t have done it. There’s also plenty of evidence that Jesus wasn’t among animals. If that’s not your objection, perhaps this is, “But Nathan the prophet confronted David and spoke of a man raising a lamb as if it were one of his daughters!” This is true, and apart from giving animals scraps from the table (see also Matt. 15), letting them be around the house, laying on his lap, and playing with them, nothing suggests the animal was in bed with the man and his wife, nor his children. What we do see is that animals lie down together. (see Isaiah 11) We don’t see animals being in bed with people as a norm or something acceptable. To balance this further, this lamb of the poor man wasn’t like that of the flock, but more that of a household pet. Having the lamb up with his children doesn’t insinuate the animal was in bed with them, nor that it had its own human bed. It likely slept inside in a designated area away from the rest of the family. It ate scraps from the table, and spent time around the family as they went about their daily activities in the home. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is wrong to use this passage to argue for sleeping with your animals, putting them in baby strollers, having them sit at the dinner table, and all other manner of absurd behavior. Treasure your pets, but not above your family and neighbor. Treasure your pets, but not above God. Treasure your pets, but have clear distinctions in your household between man and beast.
May Christ advance His kingdom even here in the dog industry. To God all praise and glory.
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