Ostriches
Ostriches
There are times when I read and study my Bible and I find it gives me a smile. I know that the truths of the Word of God bring great joy into my life but I am talking about how sometimes when we read the Word it just makes us smile. These past few days I find myself smiling a great deal over this passage:
Job 39:13-18
“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them. She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear, because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding. When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.”
This passage is found at the end of the book of Job. Job had been requesting, sometimes a little too forcefully, a meeting with God. He wanted to defend himself and share with God his thoughts concerning his situation in life. God comes to Job and the language God uses is one that we now use for wrestling. So, God, has a verbal, one sided, wrestling match with Job. Jehovah, the name used here to remind the readers that God is the covenant keeping God, asks Job a series of questions. These questions come in two speeches that are designed to remind Job that while he thinks he knows, he really knows very little and God knows and cares for everything. So, God tells Job, who are you going to trust and who do you think you are to question what I am doing? In those questions, we find our passage about the ostrich.
I have read several commentaries on this passage and I will not take the time to explain some of the challenges of the passage but I just want us to meditate on the fact that God references his involvement with the ostrich. Our almighty Creator took some time to think through what he wanted to communicate to us through this bird. While having a huge wing span, his wings do not contain the proper bone structure, nor are they large enough, to allow this bird to fly. Yet, the ostrich flaps his wings proudly and language of the passage allows us to understand that it flaps it’s wings with joy. The main thought, though, is how the female ostrich is not that great of a mom. Nature studies tell us that the male makes a nest, just a dirt mound, and then mates with several females. Each female uses the same nest but it is not big enough for all of those huge eggs and so many just get pushed aside to rot or be stepped on. One female, the most dominant one, sits a little bit on her eggs but the male does a great deal of the sitting. When the chicks are born, the mom is pretty inattentive and if the chicks are going to make it, it is the dad who does most of the providing and protecting. But, when an ostrich decides to run, they can out run a horse. And while they leave them in the dust they do so while laughing at the poor horse.
The whole imagery, for some reason, just makes me smile. This goofy looking bird trying to be cool as it flaps it’s flightless wings and laughs at horses. God tells us why they are such lousy mothers, “because God has made her to forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding”. God has purposely taken any common sense from ostrich mothers and has failed to give them any maternal instincts. He has made them clueless about motherhood. In being clueless, they flap flightless wings with joy and you can hear them laughing as they dust up the horses. That was God’s plan in creation. You wonder how ostriches still exist? Only by the grace of God.
But here is what I believe Job was supposed to hear. Along with all of the other questions, Job was supposed to hear how everything has been created and is being held together by God. Job was a great father. He loved his children and he desired that they know God. He was still hurting from losing all ten on one day. Yet, God was reminding Job that even the truth that Job was a good father was not something that Job should brag about. His paternal instincts, his desire to love and protect his children, even that, was a gift from God. Left to his sinful self, Job, like the rest of us, would be just as neglectful as the ostrich. God created us with those parental instincts. God gave us the wisdom and knowledge to take care of our children. The ostrich was created to remind us of that gift from God.
We have a tendency to forget how everything we know, have, and experience are from God. The fact that the oceans stay where they are at, is because of God. The stars do not all collapse and fall, because of God. The animals do not all rise up and attack, because of God. Our instincts to care and provide for our children is a gift from God. So take some time today and realize that you are able to provide for your needs, you are able to understand how to live, you are able to breathe without thinking, your heart beats, and you are not overrun by the oceans because of God.
There are times when I read and study my Bible and I find it gives me a smile. I know that the truths of the Word of God bring great joy into my life but I am talking about how sometimes when we read the Word it just makes us smile. These past few days I find myself smiling a great deal over this passage:
Job 39:13-18
“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them. She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear, because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding. When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.”
This passage is found at the end of the book of Job. Job had been requesting, sometimes a little too forcefully, a meeting with God. He wanted to defend himself and share with God his thoughts concerning his situation in life. God comes to Job and the language God uses is one that we now use for wrestling. So, God, has a verbal, one sided, wrestling match with Job. Jehovah, the name used here to remind the readers that God is the covenant keeping God, asks Job a series of questions. These questions come in two speeches that are designed to remind Job that while he thinks he knows, he really knows very little and God knows and cares for everything. So, God tells Job, who are you going to trust and who do you think you are to question what I am doing? In those questions, we find our passage about the ostrich.
I have read several commentaries on this passage and I will not take the time to explain some of the challenges of the passage but I just want us to meditate on the fact that God references his involvement with the ostrich. Our almighty Creator took some time to think through what he wanted to communicate to us through this bird. While having a huge wing span, his wings do not contain the proper bone structure, nor are they large enough, to allow this bird to fly. Yet, the ostrich flaps his wings proudly and language of the passage allows us to understand that it flaps it’s wings with joy. The main thought, though, is how the female ostrich is not that great of a mom. Nature studies tell us that the male makes a nest, just a dirt mound, and then mates with several females. Each female uses the same nest but it is not big enough for all of those huge eggs and so many just get pushed aside to rot or be stepped on. One female, the most dominant one, sits a little bit on her eggs but the male does a great deal of the sitting. When the chicks are born, the mom is pretty inattentive and if the chicks are going to make it, it is the dad who does most of the providing and protecting. But, when an ostrich decides to run, they can out run a horse. And while they leave them in the dust they do so while laughing at the poor horse.
The whole imagery, for some reason, just makes me smile. This goofy looking bird trying to be cool as it flaps it’s flightless wings and laughs at horses. God tells us why they are such lousy mothers, “because God has made her to forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding”. God has purposely taken any common sense from ostrich mothers and has failed to give them any maternal instincts. He has made them clueless about motherhood. In being clueless, they flap flightless wings with joy and you can hear them laughing as they dust up the horses. That was God’s plan in creation. You wonder how ostriches still exist? Only by the grace of God.
But here is what I believe Job was supposed to hear. Along with all of the other questions, Job was supposed to hear how everything has been created and is being held together by God. Job was a great father. He loved his children and he desired that they know God. He was still hurting from losing all ten on one day. Yet, God was reminding Job that even the truth that Job was a good father was not something that Job should brag about. His paternal instincts, his desire to love and protect his children, even that, was a gift from God. Left to his sinful self, Job, like the rest of us, would be just as neglectful as the ostrich. God created us with those parental instincts. God gave us the wisdom and knowledge to take care of our children. The ostrich was created to remind us of that gift from God.
We have a tendency to forget how everything we know, have, and experience are from God. The fact that the oceans stay where they are at, is because of God. The stars do not all collapse and fall, because of God. The animals do not all rise up and attack, because of God. Our instincts to care and provide for our children is a gift from God. So take some time today and realize that you are able to provide for your needs, you are able to understand how to live, you are able to breathe without thinking, your heart beats, and you are not overrun by the oceans because of God.
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