“From there he seeks out his food; his eyes detect it from afar.”
~ Job 39:29
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians? Do you like to go to zoos where you can see all kinds of different animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians? Do you still James like rhinoceroses the most? Your grandpaa thinks that rhinoceroses are big and scary. When your grandpaa was a kid – like you are right now, your grandpaa lived on a farm. Animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians could be found on the farm where your grandpaa grew up. Cottontail rabbits and brown squirrels hung out in the grove of trees near the house where your grandpaa grew up. Your grandpaa’s dad was a really good shot with a shotgun. Your dad’s grandpa each year during pheasant hunting season would shoot pheasants to eat. Stripped gophers lived in burrows in both the front and backyard of the house where your grandpaa grew up. Your grandpaa’s dad always had cattle. Another kind of gopher lived in burrows in the pasture where your great-grandpa’s cattle grazed in the spring and summer on your dad’s grandpa’s farm. Your grandpaa called these gophers flickertails because of the way that these gophers were always continually flicking their tails. After your dad’s grandpa taught your grandpaa how to drive a tractor, your grandpaa’s dad would have your grandpaa disc and/or drag each spring the different fields where your dad’s grandpa planned to sow oats, flax, corn . . . jackrabbits sometimes would be seen in these fields. A skunk or badger or deer would sometimes be seen on the farm where your grandpaa grew up. Canadian geese, snow geese, mallards, mudhens, terns, gulls, herons and pelicans would every years be seen near or on the lake – Lake Goldsmith, that edges land that your grandpaa’s dad farms. Sparrows, swallows, mourning doves, blackbirds, pigeons were always flying around on the farm where your grandpaa grew up. Baltimore orioles, blackbirds, wrens, canaries, blue jays, brown thrushes, a bird which would fly around singing ‘gonna rain’, ‘gonna rain’ and other kinds of birds were sometimes seen on the farm where your grandpaa grew up. Large flocks of crows each fall would nest in groves around where your grandpaa grew up. Your grandpaa would sometimes find crows with broken wings that your grandpaa would take back to the house where he grew up. Rats and mice found places to live around the farm where your grandpaa grew up. Your grandpaa even found a shrew one day when your grandpaa turned over an alfalfa bale. Your grandpaa would collect garter snakes when he was a kid. Your grandpaa would keep the garter snakes that he found in one of the deep window wells of the house where he grew up. Your grandpaa would sometimes catch frogs that could be found in the grass alongside the road that passed next to the house where your grandpaa grew up. Your grandpaa would use the frogs for fish bait or your grandpaa would sell the frogs to a local bait shop. A salamander always seemed to be hanging out in the basement of the house where your grandpaa grew up. Bullheads, perch, bluegills, sunfish, crappies, carp, suckers, northern pike, walleye are fish that your grandpaa caught while fishing in Lake Goldsmith. Your grandpaa knows that he had an idyllic childhood growing up on the farm where he grew up.
Your grandpaa likes to watch animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians in their natural habitat. How do you think God feels about animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians? Do you know Who created all the animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that are on planet Earth? God is Who created all the animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that have lived, are living and will live on planet Earth just like God created you to live on planet Earth. Who or what are you most concerned about today? Are you always making yourselves the center of attention or are you making all the guys, gals and kids and everything else around you more important than yourselves? There are some guys, gals and kids who think that they should be seen as the most important guys, gals and kids around – and that they should get special attention. When Job went through what he went through when God’s adversary – Lucifer, saw to it that Job’s kids were killed, had all of Job’s possessions stolen and caused Job’s body to be covered with sores, God saw what happened. God heard Job’s three self-described friends telling Job that it had to be Job’s fault that all his kids were killed, that his possessions were taken and that his body was covered with sores. Job’s three so-called friends kept telling Job that he had to have sinned in order for all those bad things to happen to him. Job did not agree with his self-styled friends but . . . Job was to the point where he really wished that he was no longer alive.
After God allowed Job’s three self-proclaimed friends to debate with Job over and over again why Job was in such a terrible, untenable mess, God talked with Job. God in Job 39 uses different animals to remind Job that He is Who created all things to be exactly like they are. There were all kinds of animals and birds in the land where Job lived. God reminds Job that He knows when and where He has mountain goats go to give birth to their fawns. God reminds Job that He knows where He has wild donkeys live and laugh in the wastelands – where nothing else lives. God reminds Job that He knows what He has a wild ox do if someone tries to harness and to use the wild ox for his fields. God reminds Job that He knows the weird things that He has ostriches do. God reminds Job that He knows what He will have a horse do in war. God reminds Job that He knows where He has eagles and hawks fly to do what is said in verse 29 “From there he seeks out his food; his eyes detect it from afar.” Each animal, bird, reptile and amphibian that is living on planet Earth is doing exactly what God wants the animal, bird, reptile and amphibian to do. Each guy, gal and kid who is living on planet Earth is doing exactly what God wants the guy, gal and kid to do.
Job 39 (166)