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not meant to understand
Job 39:1-30 (JDV)
Job 39:1 Do you know the time mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the deer in labor?
Job 39:2 Can you count the months they are pregnant so you can know the time they give birth?
Job 39:3 They crouch down to give birth to their young; they deliver their newborn.
Job 39:4 Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field. They leave and do not return.
Job 39:5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from its bonds?
Job 39:6 I made the desert its home, and the salty wasteland its dwelling.
Job 39:7 It scorns at the noise of the village and never hears the shouts of a driver.
Job 39:8 It roams the mountains for its pastureland, searching for anything green.
Job 39:9 Would the wild ox be willing to serve you? Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?
Job 39:10 Can you hold the wild ox to a furrow by its harness? Will it plow the valleys behind you?
Job 39:11 Can you depend on it because its strength is great? Would you leave it to do your hard work?
Job 39:12 Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?
Job 39:13 The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?
Job 39:14 She abandons her eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed in the sand.
Job 39:15 She forgets that a foot may crush them or that some wild animal may trample them.
Job 39:16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own, with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.
Job 39:17 You see, God has deprived her of wisdom; he has not endowed her with insight.
Job 39:18 When she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
Job 39:19 Do you give strength to the horse? Do you adorn his neck with a mane?
Job 39:20 Do you make him leap like a locust? His proud snorting fills one with terror.
Job 39:21 He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.
Job 39:22 He laughs at fear since he is afraid of nothing; he does not run from the sword.
Job 39:23 A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and a javelin.
Job 39:24 He chews up the ground with trembling rage; he cannot stand still at the trumpet’s sound.
Job 39:25 When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly. He smells the battle from a distance; he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.
Job 39:26 Does the hawk take flight by your insight and spread its wings to the south?
Job 39:27 Does the eagle soar at your command and make its nest high?
Job 39:28 It lives on a cliff where it spends the night; its stronghold is on a rocky crag.
Job 39:29 From there it searches for prey; its eyes penetrate the distance.
Job 39:30 Its brood gulps down blood, and where the slain are, it is there.
not meant to understand
The LORD reminds Job of all those ways of the animal world – both wild and tame, that are beyond the scientific inquiry of humans. There are some things that we are not meant to understand. How God works through suffering is sometimes one of those things.