Job 39 and Psalm 73

“Do you know…?”

“Do you observe…?”

“Can you number…?”

Questions can soften a hard heart. Sometimes. If the heart has a crack, even just a little one, big enough for the truth to seep in, sometimes the question reaches in through that crack, pulls the stony pieces of the heart out of the way, and grabs hold of the soft part of the heart, the part that hasn’t died yet. It wrings out the confession, the tears, and offers deep relief even.

I sat across a table from a dear friend recently, and she told me that she believes everyone is just three questions away from tears. Three perfect questions that get to the real heart of the matter. When we talked about loved ones we’ve lost, her eyes welled up and tears spilled out. Her heart is tender; it leaked out of her eyes and into our conversation. It didn’t even take three questions, just a name. Lord, let me be that tender!

God asks Job some heart-softening questions: Do you know…can you see…can you even count…? He gently (majestically!) leads Job to the only answer possible. “No, LORD! Have mercy on me; I don’t know! I can’t see! I have lost count of all Your wonders.” Well could Job have said with the Psalmist:

“When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.”

Psalm 73:21-22

God gives Job a visual of natural events that Job would not have known about or seen. The wild goats – had Job ever watched them give birth? Did he know how long their gestation period is? Can he tell what happens to their young once they grow up and wander away on their own? Does Job have any clue about the life and times of a wild donkey? How about the wild ox? Can Job train the wild ox to do his work for him and then trust the ox to complete it without oversight? The point? These all exist for the glory of God. God created them to bring Him joy and glory. What Job does or doesn’t know about them is meaningless to their well-being. That is all in God’s hands.

God asks Job about the ostrich. She lays her eggs in the sand with no thought about their safety. Who watches over them? Who indeed. God sees each egg and cares for its well-being, development, food, growth, life. He sees it hatch. He sees the mother abandon the eggs in fear because she lacks wisdom. And God is the one who made her this way, because it pleases Him.

God describes the majesty of the war horse to Job – does Job get it? Can he know the mind of the horse in battle as the swords and shield flash and clang and the captains shout their orders? What about the hawk and the eagle? Does Job know how they soar at great heights, how they dive for their prey, how they build nests on high? God knows all His own creation, every cell, every hair on the horse’s mane, every feather in the eagle’s tail, every instinct of His many created animals. God understands and cares for their every need. What can Job offer here? How has Job sustained the life of every created thing let alone his own life? The message is clear – God alone is sovereign over all His creation. God alone has power over all His own creation – power to care, to see each need, to provide, and to protect. God alone understands all this. And since God understands it, cares for it, sees it, knows it, then God alone can be trusted to care for, see, understand, know Job. And me. And you.

We are all just one conversation with God away from a humbled heart, all just a handful of words away from confession. Let His words sink in through the cracks in the hard parts. Let His kindness, care, knowledge of your need overwhelm you with humble gratitude. He sees you. He knows about that spot in your armor that got a nick in the last battle. He knows about the wound underneath it that still smarts when you move a certain way. He knows what wakes you up in the middle of the night, scared, breathless, heart racing. He knows, and He cares. Do you believe this? Do you trust Him – the One Who watches over the ostrich’s abandoned eggs – do you trust HIM with your broken, seemingly abandoned heart? Are you willing to let go of the grip you have on that deceptive feeling of control, the imagined power you think you have? Are you able to let go of it? Right. Me too, friend. That grip is really a battle-weary hand cramped around the weapon we fashioned to protect ourselves from further hurt. Let’s drop our weapons, run to the Father, and let Him carry us.

“Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Psalm 73:23-26