Job 39:1-30

Job, a servant of God

Job

Keith Simons

Words in boxes (except for words in brackets) are from the Bible.

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Chapter 39

God speaks about birds and animals

Wild animals

v1 You do not know when the mountain goats are born. You do not watch the birth of the young goats. v2 You have not counted the months that the female goats are pregnant. (That is, when a female waits to give birth.) v3 The female goats bend their legs and the young goats are born. And then, their pains end. v4 The young goats grow. They become strong. They leave their mothers. And the young goats will not return.

v5 Someone has freed the wild donkey! (The donkey is like a small horse.) Nobody owns the donkey now! v6 The donkey lives in wild places. And it wanders on the salt plains. v7 When the people argue in the town, the wild donkey laughs. Nobody can order the wild donkey to work. v8 So, the donkey wanders on the hills. And it looks for any green plant.

v9 The wild ox will not agree to serve you. (An ox is like a cow.) And the wild ox will not stay at the place where you feed it. v10 It will not pull your plough through your fields. v11 It is strong. But it will not work for you. v12 It refuses to collect your grain. You cannot control a wild ox.

Chapter 39

In chapter 39, God taught a lesson about the animals. Job supposed that God did not really know Job’s situation. And that this was why God did not rescue Job. But Job’s idea was wrong.

God created all the birds. And God created all the animals. Each bird or animal has its own character. In other words, the behaviour of each bird and each animal is different. This was God’s plan. And this fact shows God’s great intelligence.

Jesus taught that God even knows about the death of a little bird. But a person is more important to God than a bird. And God knows everything about us – Matthew 10:29-31.