Job 39:1-30 - Homilies By R. Green

The creatures not dependent upon man.

We truly know that of man it is written, "Thou hast put all things under his feet;" and "We see not yet all things put under him." The creatures over whom dominion was given to man are not wholly submissive. And man must learn his littleness in presence of the great creatures of God whom he fails to subdue. "The wild goats" and "the hinds" and "the wild ass," "the unicorn," even "the ostrich," "the horse" and the birds of the air, "the hawk" and "the eagle," are all alike independent of man. They have neither their beauty nor their strength, their flight nor their instinct, from him. With all his knowledge, his skill, his inventiveness, his cunning, still the creatures are independent of him, though he is not independent of them. They can do without him, but not he without them. It is another step in the course of the humiliation through which the Lord is leading Job. Man may sling with the stone, or shoot with the arrow, or entrap with his skill, or train and conquer by his superior wisdom, yet is he miserably impotent in their presence. And most certainly they derive neither their life nor any of their powers from him. Shall vain man, then, contend with the Creator of all? Shall he whose are all things find him to whom none belong entering the lists with him? Shall he contend? shall he instruct? shall he reprove? and answer? Nay, verily. His place is tire dust, and to the dust God will humble him; and in doing so, he brings man into the presence of his many and beautiful and powerful creatures, and shows him how independent they are of him. This is the teaching of the entire chapter. Humility, therefore, is due—

I. BECAUSE MAN CANNOT CREATE ANY ONE OF THEM .

II. BECAUSE THEY ARE INDEPENDENT OF MAN FOR THEIR CONTINUANCE AND SUSTENANCE .

III. BECAUSE IN MANY OF THEIR POWERS THEY EXCEED THE MIGHT OF MAN , who cannot give them their speed, their strength, or their great beauty. How little is man amidst the wonders of the Divine hands! and how truly wise is be who, in presence of the divinely wrought creatures, bows down confessing, "How wonderful are all thy works, O Lord!"—R.G.