The Cracked Acorn: Dogs

It was during the past week that on one channel was a 2 year old girl singing softly to an old dog, his head was cuddled in her lap, fast asleep.

Did Jesus have a dog?

I know that you dog lovers reading this want to see the answer “YES!”

God has created all things for us and when He finished, He saw that they were good. (Genesis 1:24,25).

As early as I can recall from those very first Sunday school classes, I never saw class materials of Jesus holding a dog or even having one at his feet; it was always the little lamb so helpless and cute.

The Zondervan Expanded Concordance gives 37 scriptures referring to the place of dogs in the Bible.

Dogs were first associated with the Egyptians. Here dogs were used in temple service to the gods of Egypt (Exodus 11:7). Dogs were not allowed in the House of the Lord (Deut. 23:18). There was nothing lower that a dog. This beast was given over to a cleanup of anything thrown over the city wall. They were associated with everything unclean.

Dogs are drawn by the urge to be with a pack and are hunters often after the slow, old and weak. When I was about seven years old, a favorite pet had to be put away. He had strayed and was seen with others killing the neighbor’s goats. I did not understand. I asked why we just didn’t tie the dog to his dog house for a few days. Dad said that was not the cure. (Later in life I learned that dogs have many teeth and strong jaws to rip and tear.)

Paul wrote in Philippians 3:2 – “Watch out for those wicked men,dangerous dogs, I call them,who say you must be circumcised to be saved.”

No one really knows when man domesticated wild dogs to be used as guards for the home or when it happened that someone saw that they could be great companions. We have all seen the movies; Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Old Yeller, and Benji.

“As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs came and licked his open sores. Finally Lazarus died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham in the place of the righteous dead. The rich man died and was buried.” (Luke 16:21,22)

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes them all. Anyone who is among the living has hope-even a live dog is better off that a dead lion! For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward,and even the memory of them is forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 9:4,5)

You can’t buy loyalty, they say
I bought it though, the other day;
You can’t buy friendship, tried and true,
Well just the same, I bought that too.
I made my bid, and on the spot
Bought love and faith and a whole job lot
Of happiness, so all in all
The purchase price was pretty small.
I bought a single trusting heart,
That gave devotion from the start.
If you think these things are not for sale,
Buy a brown-eyed puppy with a stump for a tail.
(from Poems about Dogs)