Job 39:1-30 - Homiletics

Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the examination: 6. Concerning certain wild animals.

I. THE MOUNTAIN GOAT AND THE HIND . (Verses 1-4.)

1 . The creatures intended. It is generally agreed that these are the steinbock, or ibex, and the stag. The former, inhabiting exclusively the more rocky and desolate parts of the country, possesses fore legs considerably shorter than its hinder, which enable it to ascend with more facility than to descend, and lead it, when pursued, to attempt to gain the summits of the mountains. In accordance with this peculiarity, it is interesting to note that Jehovah describes the animals as "rock-climbers."

2 . The circumstance alluded to . This is not so much the secrecy of their gestation as the ease and facility with which they bring forth. "They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows," i.e. those things which cause their labour-pains, viz. their offspring; and these young animals thus easily born, though not without pain, "are in good liking," i.e. grow up lusty and strong, not by feeding upon corn, as the Authorized Version seems to imply, but in the open country, away from their dams, whom they early forsake, going forth and not returning unto them.

3 . The question thereanent. Jehovah asks Job if he knows the time when these mountain goats, or rock-climbers, bear, or can number the months that the hinds fulfil Clearly not designed to test the amount or accuracy of Job's information concerning natural history, this interrogation seems as little meant to affirm that everything connected with the pregnancy of these creatures was a mystery. Its intention rather is to emphasize the fact that the whole process of conception and parturition is carded on with such admirable regularity, ease, and success, as to suggest the thought that it must be owing to the wise guidance and watchful care of some presiding mind. "Well" asks Jehovah, "whose is it? Is it thine, O Job? or is it not rather mine?"

II. THE WILD ASS (Verses 5-8.)

1 . Its swiftness of foot. This characteristic is alluded to in the name pere . Consul Wetstein (quoted by Delitzsch) describes the wild ass as a dirty yellow creature with a white belly, single-hoofed and long-eared, its hornless head somewhat resembling that of a gazelle, though much larger, and its hair having the dryness of the hair of the deer. Like the wild ox, a large soft-eyed creature, horned and double-hoofed, it is remarkable for its swift running, which enables it to out-distance the fleetest rider.

2 . Its love of freedom. This feature is referred to in the second name, 'arod , which denotes its shyness and untamableness, and is further represented by depicting it an scorning the tumult of the city, i.e. as fleeing from the haunts of men, and regarding not the crying of the driver, i.e. refusing to be subjected to the yoke, as scouring the desert in its boundless independence, and finding for itself a home in the barren land or salt places, i.e. uncultivated and uncultivable regions.

3 . Its means of support. The wild ass licks the natron of the desert, as "all wild animals that feed on plants have a partiality for licking salt" (Delitzsch); and in quest of herbage it roams to the uttermost limit of the mountains, "sniffing after every green thing"

4 . Its possession of a Master. This thought is suggested by Jehovah's interrogations. "The wild ass loves liberty; but who made him free? Who loosed his bands? Who sent him forth to scour the plain and range the hills? Was it thou, O Job? or was it I? The wild ass scorns the yoke of the driver; but who inspired him with this indomitable instinct? Who taught him to lick the salt and crop the herb? Are not these my doings, O my censurer? Canst thou bind this ass that I have loosed? Canst thou set a yoke upon him as I do? Art thou able to give him food as I am, or to build for him a stall as I have done in the vast steppe? It is clear, then, that thou art not the master of a wild ass, much less of a world,"

III. THE UNICORN . (Verses 9-12.)

1 . The name of the animal explained. The rem , which our translators have erroneously supposed to be a one-horned beast, was undoubtedly two-horned—a wild, fierce, untamable brute, "resembling an ox as a wild ass resembles an ass" (Gesenius). Regarded by some commentators as the buffalo (Schultens, De Wette, Umbreit, Gesenius), though this animal "only came from India to Western Asia and Europe at a more recent date," and is besides "tamable" (Delitzsch), it is more probably to be identified with the Bos primigenius Tristram affirms that the rem was the urns of Caesar, the aueroch, of which "the nearest extant representative is the bison, which still lingers in the forests of Lithuania and the Caucasus" (Cox).

2 . The strength of the animal described. This, with inimitable irony, Jehovah depicts by asking Job if he thought he could master this prodigious brute—first drive him home like a peaceful ox to be shut up and fed within the narrow precincts of a stall, then take him out, as a farmer now does his horses, or then did his oxen, and yoke him to his wains or carts, setting him to plough his fields or draw home his harvest-sheaves.

IV. THE OSTRICH . (Verses 13-18.)

1 . The description of the bird. In this are noted three points:

2 . The reason of its introduction. Job's attention appears to be directed to the ostrich to suggest the thought that here, too, in the world of birds, there are mysteries and seeming anomalies which he cannot understand. Why should the ostrich be so differently constituted from the stork? Why should it be devoid of intelligence and parental affection, while excelling most birds in speed of foot and beauty of wing? When Job can answer that, he will have a title to challenge God for making enigmas in human life, and dark problems in the moral history of earth.

V. THE WAR - HORSE . (Verses 19-25.)

1 . The poetical representation. The oldest description of the war-horse, it is also the most beautiful, the most brilliant, the most impressive that has in any language been penned. As Carlyle says, "Such a living likeness has never since been drawn," "It deserves the praise of majestic simplicity, which is the first feature of classic superiority" (Delitzsch). Ancient authors supply occasional touches which remind one of the language here employed ( vide Exposition). In respect of fulness and accuracy of details, the present sketch stands unrivalled. So intensely vivid is the picturing, that the splendid beast appears to the imagination as a living, breathing reality, a richly caparisoned steed, a perfect model of physical strength and beauty, curveting and caracoling in the very exuberance of its animal spirits, pawing the ground in its impatience, snorting through its dilated nostrils, sniffing the battle from afar, bounding as with conscious exultation when the trumpet soundeth, at every blast thereof making known by a joyous neigh, as if it cried, "Ha, ha!" the fierceness of its lust for battle, advancing without a fear to meet an armed host, dashing in among the glancing spears, and shaking from its sides the rattling quiver.

2 . The Divine meaning. It is easy enough to find sermonic uses for this piece of brilliant word-painting about the war-horse, as e.g. to derive from it lessons of courage in confronting difficulties, and enthusiasm in defying opposition; but the first question needing answer is—For what specific object is it here introduced? and this was obviously to impress the mind of Job with a sense of his (and also man's) weakness in comparison with God. Whence had such a noble creature as this war-horse sprung 9 Job had not produced its resistless strength, its heroic beauty, its visible terror, its indomitable courage, its fierce enthusiasm? Nay, what could Job or any other man do as against such a powerful animal? Well, if Job cannot contend with the war-horse, how unreasonable it must be to suppose that he can strive with him whose handiwork the war-horse is!

VI. THE HAWK . (Verse 26.)

1 . Its power of flight. The name netz denotes "the soaring one," the high-flyer, and "includes, besides the hawk proper, all raptorial birds" (Cox), "which, even including the shortest-winged, have great powers of flight, are remarkably enterprising, live to a great age, are migratory, or followers upon birds of passage" (Kitto's 'Cyclopaedia,' art. "Netz"). "The rapidity with which the hawk and many other birds fly is probably not less than at the rate of a hundred and fifty miles an hour" (Robinson). The adaptation of a bird's wing for flying is a singular instance of the Creator's skill.

2 . Its instinct of migration. Moved by a secret impulse, not received from or understood by man, the hawk stretches her wing, and seeks a sunny clime at every approach of winter. This also a striking evidence of creative intelligence.

VII. THE EAGLE . (Verses 27-30.)

1 . Its lofty flight. The king of birds, which closes the Divine picture-gallery of animals, as the king of quadrupeds opened it, "soareth aloft," its great strength of body and breadth of wing giving it power to sustain itself at a high elevation in the air.

2 . Its inaccessible eyrie. Mounting upwards, "she buildeth her nest in the height, upon the crag or tooth of the rock" and fastness, and there, by reason of its remoteness, "she dwelleth and abideth" securely.

3 . Its keen vision . From the cliff's edge she can scan the depths below, looking far across the plain in search of food for herself and young ones (cf. Job 28:7 , Job 28:21 ).

4 . Its sanguinary appetite. "Her young ones also suck up blood; and where the slain are, there is she." In the East eagles follow armies in order to feed upon the corpses of the slain (cf. Matthew 24:28 ).

Learn:

1 . That he can best describe the creatures who knows all about them, because he made them.

2 . That every creature on the face of the earth has its peculiar nature, instincts, habitat, by Divine appointment.

3 . That wherever God assigns dwelling to a creature, there also he provides means of subsistence.

4 . That a large portion of the world's beauty consists in the variety of animal-life which it supports.

5 . That the study of zoology is fitted to convey important lessons concerning the power, wisdom, goodness, and sovereignty of God.