Job 39:26 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 39:26

Comments

All of this is part of the world that Job is familiar with. He cannot deny the reality of these wonderful things which all evidence the tremendous skill of the Creator. Do you understand how the hawk or falcon, an example of supreme skill, can effortlessly mount aloft and soar on high, riding the thermals with such elegance and poise? Can you explain the mechanics of flight and how it is possible for the bird to do what you, Job, are incapable of doing: to defy gravity and gain the freedom of the air so that it can swoop down from a position of advantage on its prey far below? In forming the hawk, God has made a creature which has such proficiency in flight that it masters the air, and moves through it with such confidence as it navigates its native realm. Who gave the bird this confidence, and where does its skill come from? Not from itself, for it could not explain to you the mystery of flight; it simply uses what it has been given and exercises that aerobatic control which it finds within its power; nor from the lie of evolution, which is nothing more than an idol created by man to avoid paying tribute to God. These things come from the Lord who almost incidentally draws attention to his great wisdom in making such wonderful forms of life. The hawk and the eagle praise the Lord even though they are unconscious of his presence, for they humbly express their nature in stretching their wings and rising with all their might into the realm which God has given them to be masters of. All day long the brute creation utters praise to God, though man may not be in attendance to witness the chorus. Across the mountains and valleys of the world God receives that worship which unbelieving man withholds, for the beast of the forest and the birds of the air do not hesitate to glorify his name in enthusiastically being what he has designed them to be. Likewise, the eagle or griffon-vulture follows its instincts and makes its nest on high, in inaccessible regions out of sight of prying eyes below. It receives the command to do this from the Lord mediated through those instincts that he has put within it, so that it flawlessly carries out the task he has assigned to it.

Application

Would Job like to say how this could be done? It builds a nest high up on some precipitous ledge where its young are safely nurtured until they first launch out into the abyss below. God has equipped the eagle with proverbially acute eyesight, so that it can spot objects of interest from its high vantage point and alight on them as soon as they drop. Its young suck up the blood of its victims and greet death as their provider and meal preparer. Can the Creator, who possesses such skill, lack skill in dealing with his servant, Job, and overlook justice in his case? Job needs to consider all the works of God again before he opens his mouth in complaint, and forms vain conclusions about the providence of God. He is being required to exercise faith in areas where he cannot see, on the basis of what he can see. The Christian too should make his home on high. ‘If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. ² Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth’ (Colossians 3:1-2). He too should look down with the perspective of heaven on all that takes place on the earth, and with the enhanced spiritual sight that God gives him, understand what takes place on the earth. It is only for a time that we are here and then we go to him that called us.

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Job 39:26 Commentary and Bible Study