Does God want us to be vegetarians?

Does the Bible say we are not to kill animals?
Does God want us to be vegetarians?

Q. Does the Bible say we are not to kill animals? Are we permitted to eat meat or should we all become vegetarians?

A. The Bible never commands vegetarianism at any point in a clear manner in mankind's history since the creation. We know that Jesus, when He was on earth, after His resurrection, was willing to eat fish:

"He said to them, 'Have you any food here?' So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And he took it and at in their presence." (Luke 24:41-43)

We know that under the law of Moses, an enormous number of animals were ritualistically slaughtered and offered to God by various burnt sacrifices. See, for example, Leviticus chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The priests were allowed to eat from what they offered to God for others under certain limitations (Leviticus 7:31-35). So it can't be a sin to kill an animal intrinsically, for God had the priests kill thousands of animals over the centuries for these animal sacrifices. They represented the sacrifice of Jesus for humanity's sins in advance symbolically. The most direct case of this comes from the Passover. Each Israelite family (maybe with the neighbors included) was to take a lamb or goat, kill it, and (in the first Passover before Egypt) put its blood on the door posts and lintel overhead the threshold of the door. They were to eat it by morning, and burn the leftovers before daybreak. This is described in Exodus 12. Many centuries later, John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus was the lamb of God offered to take away the world's sins (John 1:29; see also verse 36).

Abraham and Noah also had to kill animals in order to make sacrifices to God, which was long before the time of Moses and the establishment of the Levitical priesthood (See Genesis 8:20; 22:7-8, 13). Under the law of clean and unclean, Israelites were allowed to eat cows, sheep, and goats, but weren't allowed to eat pigs, camels, and rabbits (see Numbers 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3-21). These general rules are the greatest proof God doesn't require vegetarianism of his people.

Although God didn't like how Israel in the Wilderness demanded meat to eat when they had a bad attitude, and punished them for it, He was still willing to provide them with a huge number of quail to eat in one special situation (Numbers 11:4, 13, 31-33). Obviously, it can't be said that eating meat is deliberately sinful, or God wouldn't have sent them all these quail.

Now, there is one interesting counter argument worth examining: Adam and Eve, at the creation, weren't directly told they could eat meat, although Scripture does say they were over the animals in authority (Genesis 1:28-30). But after the great flood, humanity was explicitly given permission to eat meat:

"Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." (Genesis 9:3-4)

We know that animals will not eat each other during the millennium, that lions will not eat calves, for example (Isaiah 11:6-9). But since there will animal sacrifices in the millennium (Ezekiel 40:39; 42:13; 45:15-25), after Jesus' return, we can't say those restrictions will apply to people also.

Animals shouldn't be abused, however. Balaam was criticized by his (miraculously) talking donkey and by the Angel/Messenger for beating his donkey when he (the animal) saw the Angel/Messenger of God with a drawn sword before him, and wouldn't walk up to Him (Numbers 22:22-35).

So it's clear from the Bible that eating meat is OK intrinsically:

"You say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires." (Deuteronomy 12:20)