Commentary on
The Book of Job

Chapter Thirty-nine: God Speaks

God's Care

God's Care

Job: chapter 39
¹ Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
² Canst thou number the months that they fulfill? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
³ They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.
⁴ Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.
⁵ Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
⁶ Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.
⁷ He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
⁸ The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.
⁹ Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
¹⁰ Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
¹¹ Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him?
¹² Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?
¹³ Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
¹⁴ Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
¹⁵ And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.
¹⁶ She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her's: her lab our is in vain without fear;
¹⁷ Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
¹⁸ What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.
¹⁹ Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
²⁰ Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
²¹ He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
²² He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
²³ The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.
²⁴ He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.
²⁵ He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
²⁶ Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?
²⁷ Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?
²⁸ She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.
²⁹ From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.
³⁰ Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.

While God's questions continue unabated, the questions are softer in tone and purpose. God's power and Job's relative insignificance still rest behind these questions, but these questions point directly to the care with which God watches over the least significant creature.

Their Babies Thrive

While Job may carefully watch over his domestic herds, can he watch over the mountain goat or the deer when they are ready to give birth (39:1-4)? And who watches over the wild donkey (39:5-8), or the wild ox (39:9-12)? Job cannot domesticate them, yet, “Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them” (39:4). It is God who watches over them. More than that, some animals don't watch over their own young at all. The ostrich abandons her eggs and is unconcerned (39:13-16, for a more complete discussion of Ostriches as they relate to this passage see: Barnes, note to 39:14-16), for God has made her that way (39:17). Again, God is watching over them.

Can you give strength to the horse (39:19), or take it away (39:20)? God makes the horse full of power and fearless (39:20-25). The hawk and the eagle soar because God made them that way (39:26-27). These questions are meant to slap Job to his senses. They are not, as some commentators suppose, meant to humble Job with his relative insignificance. Job has become self-absorbed and self-focused. Often people who have been involved in a lot of psychotherapy or who read self-help continually become as Job is now, focused entirely on their personal situation. This is God trying to jar Job awake. Open your eyes and see, God has woven a rich tapestry of life and He watches over each tiny aspect.

God is not simply passing Job a note, reminding him, God is in Job's face with question after question confronting Job so that he cannot escape. Each question penetrates to a deeper level until the core is exposed. Another vivid example of this is Jesus question to Peter after the resurrection: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?” (John 21:15). Peter answers, ‘you know I do.’ Jesus asks again, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” (John 21:16). And Peter answers in the same manner. Jesus repeats the question again, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” (John 21:17). Now he has achieved his effect, lanced the wound of Peter's three denials: “Peter was grieved” (John 21:17). Here God is trying to “open the doors of his face” (41:14). As we will see, Job is still not moving.

You Are Not Forgotten

God is spelling it out. Job: everything is in my hands. “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God” (Luke 12:6)? If God is being oblique here, it is because Job must get it down in his gut (his loins): Job you are not forgotten!

Satan has been constantly pushing the message that Job is forgotten of God: through his wife's discouragement (2:9), Eliphaz's vision (4:17-21), the incessant condemnations, and finally Elihu (35:6-7). Bildad states Satan's case very well: “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm” (25:4-6)? Given Job's miserable condition and his limited theology, his spirit is being crushed. In fact, Bildad's statement is not incorrect. But given the circumstances, it adds to the general sense that God has turned His back on Job. Gently, God is trying to pry open Job's discouraged eyes: ‘Job, see how I care for all living things.’

Poor Job. God is leading Job like a little child through God's special garden. Look Job, see there and there. One by one God points out all the things he is caring for. Job is intractable. All he can see is the might and power of God. Job feels he is wronged but he can do nothing to achieve justice. He is at the mercy of the Most High. While it is easy to appreciate mercy and it is easy to celebrate justice, it is hard for Job who must wait in faith for he is not seeing mercy or justice. The subtle message of God's care is not penetrating.

At the root of it is Job's mighty fortress: himself, his own righteousness. Having done all things in perfect accord with God's law, Job believes that he is entitled to a rich and comfortable life according to his own standards. Job keeps falling back on his rights. In the United States we have a “Bill of Rights” which are stated as “inalienable”. Or look at this from the Declaration of Independance: “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them”. We have entitlements which cannot be taken away, so our founding fathers presumed. Job is functioning under this same delusion, I am righteous so I am entitled.

The War Horse

Chapter thirty-nine ends with an odd transition from the ostrich's wild distain, to the horse, specifically the war horse. This section is telegraphing something about Job's nature, which will be more fully outlined in chapter forty-one's allegory of Leviathan. “He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword” (39:22). He is alert to the task he is trained for, “He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha” (39:25). And the war horse is eager, “he does not stand still at the voice of the trumpet” (39:24, NASB). We see this in Zechariah's apocalyptic vision, “When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, ‘Go, patrol the earth.’ So they patrolled the earth” (Zech. 6:7). In religion, we call this character zeal. Os Guinness notes, “A sure mark of Christian vision is a godly impatience and holy restlessness” (Guinness 1976, 292).

Zeal is an important characteristic of God's faithful, but as Jonathan Edwards notes, “There is nothing that belongs to Christian experience more liable to a corrupt mixture than zeal” (Edwards 1829, 407). Barnes suggests that “neither believeth” (39:24) is a poor translation. “This translation by no means conveys the meaning of the original. The true sense is probably expressed by Umbreit. ‘He standeth not still when the trumpet soundeth; that is, he becomes impatient; he no longer confides in the voice of the rider and remains submissive, but he becomes excited by the martial clangor, and rushes into the midst of the battle’ The Hebrew word which is employed (ya'âmìyn) means properly ‘to prop, stay, support’; then ‘to believe, to be firm, stable’; and is that which is commonly used to denote an act of ‘faith,’ or as meaning ‘believing.’ But the original sense of the word is here to be retained, and then it refers to the fact that the impatient horse no longer stands still when the trumpet begins to sound for battle” (Barnes, note to 39:24). “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness” (Rom. 10:2-3).

Interestingly enough, I witnessed just such a situation. I went to watch a reenactment of the Civil War Battle of Carthage, Missouri. When the cannonades began to explode, one horse threw his rider and plunged over the fence into the viewing area, sending spectators into a panic. The horse wasn't captured until he wedged himself between two trailers. “Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the LORD” (Jer. 8:6-7).

The birds of prey hover above the battlefield. “Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she” (39:30). Unfortunately, Job understands none of these allusions. What God is trying to show Job is that He has Job's best interest at heart if Job would but believe it. Job has lost all faith in God's compassion towards him. God is gently trying to persuade Job that under all the misery, God's love and care are still active. As we will see, it is not working and stronger medicine is needed.

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*All Bible quotes are from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated.

Commentary onThe Book of Job