Job, Chapter 39, Verse 16
She cruelly disowns her young and her
labor is useless; she has no fear.
Job
is now being confronted by He that Is. “The wings of the ostrich flap
away; her plumage is lacking in feathers. When she abandons her eggs on the
ground and lets them warm in the sand, she forgets that a foot may crush them,
that the wild beasts may trample them; she cruelly disowns her young and her
labor is useless; she has no fear. For God has withheld wisdom from her and
given her no share in understanding. Yet when she spreads her wings high, she
laughs at a horse and rider.
·
Enter God. He comes down in a whirlwind and
poses a number of rhetorical questions to Job, all of which are designed
to show Job how small he is in relation to the universe...which, by the way,
God created.
·
God's wisdom isn't like human wisdom. After
all, God is concerned with making waves flow and the architecture of the
heavens.
·
This doesn't mean that human affairs don't
concern him; they're just one part of a vast, unknowable whole.
·
Basically, Job's question is answered with a
bunch of equally unanswerable questions. He is completely and totally out of
his league on this one.
·
God talks of natural things in human terms so
that Job can understand them. By doing so, he illustrates how the mortal and
the immortal are so far apart even though they are physically close together
(38:28).
Has the rain a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew?
Humility at its source is knowing that all goodness comes from the
Spirit; even in the mist of our crosses. This prayer by Saint Francis de Sales
is a great consolation for those who do not understand the crosses which God
has entrusted to them.[2]
Prayer
The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the
cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. This cross
He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with
His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms and
weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one
ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His holy Name, anointed it with
His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent
it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the
all-merciful love of God.
Daily Devotions
[1]https://www.shmoop.com/book-of-job/chapter-38-39-summary.html
[2]http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=995
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