Animal suffering and the Bible
Animals, although they did not bring sin to earth, have been affected by suffering just as much as humans. Why must they endure so much evil, even though they are not guilty of sin. For an example, let's look at the following verses:
Jeremiah 7.20 "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched."
Jeremiah 12.4 "How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end."
Jeremiah 14.5-6 "Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. "
Genesis 7.21-23 "And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. "
As we read above, God also sent suffering and death to animals. Simply offering animal sacrifices on the altar to the Lord resulted in the killing of large numbers of animals. Why were animal sacrifices made and not plant sacrifices?
In a word, animals suffer because of the sin of man, just as little innocent children suffer because of the sin that prevails in this world. Let's go to the very beginning of Scripture, where we read.
Genesis 1.28-30 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so."
God, when creating man, placed him above the animals that graced the beautiful landscape of Eden. It is very clear that the only food in force at that time was plants, even all animals fed on plants. One could not eat meat, because at that time the earth was not contaminated with sin, and therefore there was no death, people and animals were immortal. From the above verses, we can see that animals before the fall of man, were completely safe.
Adam and Eve's fall contributes to animal suffering
Read Chapter 3, from the First Book of Genesis, and see what consequences the disobedience of the first humans to God had on the earth and all its inhabitants. With the fall of Adam and Eve, sin, suffering and death came into the world. We do not know whether today's so-called carnivorous animals immediately became carnivorous, or whether this occurred gradually. However, it is worth noting that in the beginning, death certainly affected animals first (e.g., Abel's sacrifice), and only then did man.
Sometimes you may hear that since man has sinned, let only man suffer and the animals live in peace. Unfortunately, but this is not possible, Satan, who reigns over the earth, suffers everything that lives. Imagine the present times, in which animals on earth, live safely next to humans. As of today, this is utopia, unrealistic, for something like this to happen, animals would have to have their own planet. We are so evil that we destroy everything around us with our actions. We also don't know how Satan influences the mind/instinct of animals. Since he tempted man, who is definitely smarter than animals, what influence does he have on them?
Sacrificing animals on the altar, was a symbolic payment for sin, it taught that the consequence of sin is death and suffering. Blood is life, shedding the blood of an animal on the altar indicated that sin is so bad that it cannot be left without any reaction. Killing innocent animals and shedding their blood, was also a foreshadowing of Jesus' sacrifice. The blood and death of God's Son Jesus Christ, who by offering his life for our sins, caused the need for blood sacrifices to no longer exist.
In summary: animals suffer because of humans, our free will, which we have used for evil purposes, through which we have given Satan and his demons access to this world.
