God’s Inscrutable Ways – Job 39

It happened first in the garden of Eden. Humans decided they knew better than God and could make it as their own gods, determining good and evil. Paul corrects our foolishness, saying, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33). But as one preacher has said, “So many of us struggle with pride at this very point. Somehow we feel we deserve to know and comprehend to the same degree God knows and comprehends.  As though he owes us an explanation for His actions!” That’s what Job is struggling with.

“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young? Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open; they go out and do not return to them.

“Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver. He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.

“Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor? Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?

“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them. She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear, because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding. When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.

“Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrifying. He paws in the valley and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons. He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword. Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin. With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold. From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away. His young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is he.” (Job 39, ESV)

God’s next questions for Job are of a different character than the previous chapter. There is still implicit in them that Job lacks the ability and knowledge to accomplish what God accomplishes, but the examples God chooses to question Job about reveal something about God’s unsearchable ways.

Why this initial lesson about mountain goats and their children not returning to them?  God had to establish all the gestation periods of all creatures and how their offspring would react upon maturity. And some of them, like the mountain goats, have very strange ways.

The wild donkey lives in isolation from mankind.  God created this unique creature, too.  There is no use by mankind for the wild donkey because he will not be tamed. So what is his purpose?

It is the same with the wild ox which has tremendous power, but you cannot rely upon him for plowing your fields.

The ostrich is even stranger, seeming to have no regard for her young, yet equipped with such tremendous speed. What is her purpose?

The horse, on the other hand, is marvelously useful to mankind, carrying the warrior into battle, demonstrating his bravery and readiness to enter the fray.

The hawk has a strange abode, high in his aerie, but equipped with tremendous eyesight to spy his prey.  Why these great differences?

All these creatures have unique characteristics that, perhaps, make no sense to humans but give them tremendous opportunities to show the glory of God. This is what God wants Job to understand. God’s ways are not always explainable to humans.

Discussion Questions

1. What is the strangest nature fact that you are aware of?
2. Has science eradicated all the mystery about the purpose of all the creatures in our biosphere?
3. Do you sense anything other than pride in God’s perspective on the creatures He has made?
4. What experience have you had that made you question in your heart why God was doing it that way?
5. Does God’s questioning of Job give you any help concerning what you questioned God about?
6. Do you feel more or less trust in God as a result of what He says to Job?