Without fear her labour is in vain; For God hath caused her to forget wisdom, And hath not given her a portion in understanding; She laugheth at the horse, and at his rider. Dost thou give to the horse might? Dost thou clothe his neck with quivering mane? strength; He goeth forth to meet the armour. He laugheth at fear, and trembleth not, Nor turneth back from the face of the sword. Against him rattleth the quiver, the blade of spear and lance. With rush and rage he swalloweth the ground, And stayeth not fixed when the trumpet soundeth. And from afar he scenteth the battle, The thunder of the chieftains, and the shouting. And spread his pinions to the south? He inhabiteth a rock, and lodgeth On the tooth of a rock, and a fastness. And where the slain [are], there [is] he. If the king of wild beasts is first named, it is not without purpose that the raven follows. The contrast is marked; but Jehovah cared for both. He is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Was Job the one to hunt prey for the lioness, and fill the craving of her young, themselves soon enough learning to catch the prey, and springing from the thickets where they couched ? Was it for Job to provide the raven with meat? Did not the cry of its young enter the ear of God, as they wandered, voracious, without food? Again, was it Job that looked after the mountain goat, or kept watch over the hinds at a time most critical for themselves and their offspring? Assuredly there is not one whose months El does not count, whose time of bearing He does not know. He that reckons the hairs of our heads, sees every sparrow that falls, and has His part in all, as the Saviour let the trembling disciples know for their encouragement, as they went forth at His word. So here Jehovah shews that, if man boasts His scanty knowledge of beasts and birds, and counts their classification science, it is His province, not man's, to enter into and watch over the need of every one, the most removed from human habitation, no less than those whose croakings disturb man's ease, it may be, but are ever before God, who has made them all, and provides for each as a faithful Creator. Think of the blindness of rationalism, which, in so magnificent a disproof of human presumption and complaint of God, sees no more than Job's ignorance of the time a hind, or other animal named, takes in gestation! Clearly it is a question here, not of zoological lore, but of that beneficent care which accompanies perfect knowledge of every creature. If God exercised such vigilant oversight, according to the goodness and wisdom which made them, over young or old, beast or bird, even the least familiar or most inaccessible, was it not for Job to listen and learn, instead of darkening counsel by words without knowledge? And certainly His ways with saints are incomparably deeper than His dealings with the mere animal realm. Yet there we see everywhere His sovereign disposal. He, not man, has made them what they are, and ordered their habits and their habitations. If He has given some to be the burden-bearers of man, He has given others immunity from any such servitude, as the wild ass, with its house in the desert, and its dwelling-place in the steppe, where a city's tumult, and a driver's cries are unknown, and the mountain range he can reconnoitre at will, as he searches out every green thing. Nor can Job, or any other, pretend, whatever their thoughts or talk, that they can reduce the wild ox to the purposes of man in ordinary labour, or to submit quietly to his control or care. His strength might be invaluable; but He who made all, and gave Adam dominion over fish and fowl, cattle, every reptile, and all the earth did not bind the wild ox to the furrow of his cord, nor to harrow after Job; nor did He ask Job to leave labours of the field to his responsibility, whether at the beginning, or at the end. And as to the ostrich, let its wing speed ever so joyously, still God is sovereign here, let man reason as he may, and makes it to differ as widely as one can conceive, from the pinion and plumage of the stork, whose care for its offspring is proverbially familiar. No bird is, on the contrary, so stolid as she, where natural instincts are usually strongest, none less cautious. But this is N not without God, who takes in more than man can grasp, and is pleased, of His own will and wisdom, to deprive the ostrich of wisdom, though He has also endowed her with a swiftness which mocks the swiftest horse with its rider. Let man then mark, learn, and worship, and not set up to judge God or to murmur. This were folly more guilty than the racer's of the desert, as well as irreverence and rebellion. From this Jehovah turns to the war-horse, described in a way worthy of Him who spoke, which makes the more vivid impression, as here He comes down to where we might be disposed to think ourselves at home. Other animals might be more or less strange and distant; but though man, and Arab man above all, might conceive himself to have some title to speak of what he most loves to use for use or ease, for pride or love, what had he to do with giving the horse its might or fluttering mane ? its locust-like bound? the glory of its snorting, a terror to others? its pawing, impatient of restraint, and exulting in its strength? or its undismayed advance, no matter what the clang or the flash of arms? See how with impetuous rage it seems to bite the ground, so that it is not to be held in when the trumpets sound, and it answers each blast with Aha! as it scents the fight from afar, and the thunder and the shouting of the chiefs. Next, was it man that taught the hawk to soar, and spread his wings to the land of Teman? Was it he who bade the eagle mount up, and build his house on the high rock, whence his piercing eye descries food, or gives his young ones to lap blood? or himself to be where the slain are found? CHAPTERS XL., XLI. JEHOVAH'S RENEWED INTERVENTION. Ir is Jehovah-God then, who alone orders, alone knows, with a beneficent wisdom which takes in every creature, and not least those which are obviously outside all the care or even ken of man. Is he then either to contend with God, or, if he be so presump, tuous, can he pretend to instruct God? Job feels and owns his vileness; he proceeds no farther in such a path; and Jehovah gives a final word in what follows. Chapter xl. And Jehovah answered Job, and said, And Job answered Jehovah, and said, Yea, twice, but I will add no more. And Jehovah answered Job out of the storm, and said, Gird up now thy loins like a man: I will ask thee, and cause thou Me to know. Wilt thou also annul My judgment? Wilt thou condemn Me that thou mayest be justified? Or hast thou an arm like God (EI), |