Mercy Rule
Deuteronomy 22:6-7
“If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall let the mother go …”
On the face of it, what makes this mercy rule of Deuteronomy 22:6-7 so peculiar is just how particular it is, that in a chapter where God decries abominations like transvestitism and adultery and child sacrifice, He gives provisions for the sparrows too. But there’s a wonderful principle here that stretches beyond the realm of momma birds in their nests, which we could put this way: let mercy rule over your appetites.
We need to eat, right? Yes, And God has given us an array of meats and a botanical garden of garnishes for our nourishment according to Genesis 2, correct? Okay. But animals aren’t merely here for our appetites either. God didn’t create the multivalent species of birds, from cardinals with their fiery red hues to peacocks with their coat-of-many colors to parrots with their imitative voices, just so we could have a wider variety of dishes for our palette. They struggle to survive in this world and fight to feed and protect their young just as we do, which is a testament to God’s creative handiwork.
Effectively, Moses tells the people that when they encounter a mother bird nesting on her young, they shouldn’t look and say, “Aha, jackpot!” But, as stewards of the earth, they have an obligation to show compassion, as do we. In other words, there’s something more vital to our wellbeing than mere survival. Sometimes the fleshly part of our humanity must go hungry to preserve the spiritual part of our humanity—the part that most bears the image of God.
You may shudder to read this, but a few minutes ago, I just helped a neighbor get a black rat snake out of the corn bucket in her chicken coop right before coming down to the creek to write. Although it took me a while, I was finally able to carry the snake far enough away from the chicken coop to preserve its life along with the chicken eggs. The point: all life is a gift from God. Let’s preserve life where we can in honor of Him.