Job 39:1 - Meaning and Application

God now shows Job how little he knows about the wild creatures that roam the deserts and live free, yet are still cared for by God’s providence, that is, God’s wise and loving rule over creation.

I. The wild goats and the deer. The point made about them is how they bring forth and raise their young. As each animal is fed, so each kind of animal is preserved by God’s care, and, as far as we know, none has died out to this day.

Notice two things about their young. First, people do not know when they will give birth, Job 39:1, Job 39:2. How can we claim to know what is hidden in the womb of providence, or what a day will bring, when we do not even know the time of a deer’s or wild goat’s pregnancy? Second, though they give birth with pain and difficulty, and without help from man, God’s good care brings their young safely into the world, and their distress passes away and is forgotten, Job 39:3. Some think Psalm 29:9 suggests that God, by thunder, helps the deer in labor.

This should comfort women in childbirth. If God helps even the deer bring forth their young, will he not much more help those who are his children by covenant and save them in child-bearing? Also, their young grow well, Job 39:4. After they nurse for a while, they go out into the grain fields and no longer depend on their mothers. This is an example to children. When they are grown, they should not keep leaning on their parents and asking for everything, but should work for their own living and repay their parents.

II. The wild donkey, a creature often mentioned in Scripture, and, some say, impossible to tame. People are said to be born like a wild donkey’s colt, so hard to guide. God has given the wild donkey two things: wide freedom and an open, unfenced home.

Who but God has sent the wild donkey free, Job 39:5? God gave it its nature, and therefore he gave it this way of life. The tame donkey must labor, but the wild donkey has no chains on him. Yet this kind of freedom is only the freedom of a wild beast. It is a pity if any human being covets that sort of life or prides himself on it. It is better to work and be useful than to wander and be useless.

But if God lets some people live more freely while others are bound to hard labor, we should not be surprised. The same is true among animals. The wild donkey’s home is the wilderness, Job 39:6. There he has room to roam and to sniff the wind at will, as Jeremiah 2:24 says. It is as if he lives on the air, for the barren land is his dwelling place.

The tame donkey, which serves people, has its master’s feeding trough for shelter and food, and lives in a fruitful land. But the wild donkey, which wants its freedom, must have it in a barren place. Those who will not work should not expect to eat. On the other hand, the one who works will eat from the labor of his hands and even have something to give to others. Jacob, the shepherd, has rich stew to spare, while Esau, the hunter, is close to starving.

Job 39:7, Job 39:8 give a fuller picture of the wild donkey’s life. First, he has no master and will not stay under control. He laughs at the noise of the city and scorns the crowd. If people try to catch him and surround him with a large group, he quickly escapes, and the driver’s shout means nothing to him. He mocks the busy life of cities, as Bishop Patrick notes, thinking himself happier in the wilderness. In the end, what people value depends a lot on their own opinion.

Second, since he has no owner, no one provides for him. He must fend for himself. The mountain slopes are his pasture, and even there the food is poor. He looks here and there for a little green plant, wherever he can find one, while the working donkey has plenty without searching. From the untamed nature of this and other creatures, we can see how unfit we are to try to govern providence, since we cannot even govern a wild donkey’s colt.

III. The unicorn, or probably the wild ox, a strong animal (Numbers 23:22) and a proud, noble one (Psalm 112:10). He is able to serve, but unwilling, and God challenges Job to force him into service. Job seemed to expect everything to go as he wanted. So God says, in effect, since you claim you can bring everything under your control, start with the unicorn and try your skill on him. Now that your oxen and donkeys are gone, see whether he will work in their place, Job 39:9, and whether he will be content with the same feeding trough you used for them. Will he stay by your crib? No.

You cannot tame him, tie him with a harness, or make him pull the plow, Job 39:10. Some creatures are willing to serve people and seem to take pleasure in it. They even appear to love their masters. But others will never submit to man, and that is one result of sin. People have rebelled against their Maker, and so the lower creatures are justly allowed to rebel against man. Even so, as a mark of God’s kindness to us, some animals still serve us. Though the wild bull, as some think this means, will not serve at the plow, there are still tame oxen that will, and other animals that are not wild by nature, in which man has rightful use and over which he has care. Lord, what is man, that you are so mindful of him?

You also cannot trust him, Job 39:11, Job 39:12. Though his strength is great, you would never leave your work to him as you might with your ox or donkey, which a child can lead or drive while they bear the load. You would never depend on the wild bull to help with the harvest, still less to bring in the grain and gather it into the barn. And because he will not help with the grain, he is not as well fed as the tame ox, whose mouth was not to be muzzled while treading out the corn.

He does not draw the plow because the One who made him never designed him for that task. A willingness to work is as much God’s gift as the strength to work. It is a great mercy when God gives both strength for service and a heart for it. We should pray for that, and reason ourselves toward it, since animals cannot do so. As among beasts, so among people, those may truly be called wild and abandoned to the desert who have no desire either to work hard or to do good.