Job 39 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Job 39 Short Summary:

God continues his questioning of Job in chapter 39, asking him questions about the natural world, specifically about different animals in the creation. All of God’s questions were beyond Job’s ability to answer. During this questioning, Job sat silently, no longer questioning God, but questioning himself for being so bold in demanding answers from God.

Job 39 Bible Study

SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB

• Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan

• Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution

• Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.

• Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost

WHEN:

• The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).

• I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.

• God – God descends to respond to the debate between Job and his friends.

WHERE:

• Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.

OUTLINE:

• GOD QUESTIONS JOB ON THE NATURAL WORLD (39:1-30):

  • In Job 39, God continues his questioning of Job. This line of questioning was meant to humble Job and to make him recognize the intricate complexities of God’s working.

  • God asked Job questions about the natural work that he couldn’t answer. While Job had no answers, he would have had to acknowledge that the natural world was beautifully ordered despite his ignorance, which should have indicated to him that God was in perfect control of everything, including his life, whether he knew any of the details or not.  

  • God asked if Job knew the timing and science behind the animals giving birth.

  • Did Job know about the wild donkeys that were free on the mountain ranges, how they survived and where they wandered? Job didn’t but God did.

  • Could Job tame the powerful wild ox and make it work in his field? (Many interpreters believe the “wild ox” referred to here was the aurochs, a large, powerful, and now extinct species. The last known aurochs died in 1627 A.D.).

  • Did Job know the mystery of the ostrich, a bird with wings that could not fly? A bird that laid its eggs in seemingly careless places where they were often destroyed? Why was such a foolish bird created? Job didn’t know, but God knew its purpose.

  • Did Job give the horse its strength? Did he give it its ability to ride into battle laden with warriors and weapons?

  • Did Job make the hawk which soars above the earth and makes its home in unreachable places? Did Job craft the hawk’s eyes that spot prey with precision from far away?

  • All of these things were too wonderful for Job to comprehend and far beyond Job’s power to create. During this questioning, Job sat silently, no longer questioning God, but questioning himself for being so bold in demanding answers from God.

APPLICATION

• Do you know the length and breadth of the universe?

• Do you know how to cure disease in the human body?

• Can you travel to other planets?

• Can you tell me the number of species of animals on the earth?

• Do you know the precise workings of the human mind?

• Some of the questions God asked Job seem less mysterious to us in the modern day, but don’t think God couldn’t asked a modern man similar questions.

• As a species, we’ve made some discoveries and figured some things out, but as soon as we figure out one thing, two new challenges pop up.

• God created His world with such complexity that every generation will be humbled by a layer of His creative work.

• We once saw a solar system, now we see galaxies.

• We once saw an atom, now we see subatomic particles.

• Explore further and dig deeper, God is always there!