NOTES for Job 39:26-27

²⁶Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?

²⁷Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?

So what is wisdom? The human answer is clear: wisdom is the practice of righteous life. And what is God's answer? Here is His world; in it forces unknown to man act, and beings dwell that have absolutely nothing to do with man. They simply exist, and that is all. Do they live and act by human wisdom? At first glance, such an answer has no relation to righteous life. Nor, for that matter, to human life at all. But that is only at first glance. If one thinks about it... If righteousness were only a human matter, and the Torah only a moral code, then perhaps it would be so.

But in fact everything is different. The Torah is not merely a moral code. It is a moral code only in the last place. In the first place, it is a description of the laws of spiritual life, the very laws that determine a person's relations with God and people's relations with one another. But these laws cannot fail to be connected with others, with those that determine the life and existence of the universe itself.

They come from one Source: the laws of the universe and the laws of human relationships. And if a person claims the right to give a final evaluation of human relations, and of people themselves too, claims that he is righteous and that his righteousness is complete and beyond question, then he must also know everything about the universe. The world must submit to him as willingly as his own judgments about his righteousness. And if it is not so, then at minimum a person's assessment of his own righteousness is not final. Nor is his assessment of other people's righteousness. Then it is better not to claim the role of judge in this regard at all, leaving final evaluations to God.

In the end, God makes righteousness possible for man, not man for himself. Of course, given the limitation of every human view, this is not easy to understand.

Other notes

For

¹⁹Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

²⁰Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.

²¹He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.

²²He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.

²³The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.

²⁴He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?

²⁷Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?

²⁸She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.

²⁹From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.

³⁰Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.

Among His other creatures, God points Job to the war horse... Read more

Among His other creatures, God points Job to the war horse (vv. 19-25). Unlike the ostrich or the wild donkey, the war horse is not only God's creature but also the work of human hands. Yet even the horse is not truly subject to a person unless God makes it subject to him. The power a person needs from the horse was placed in the horse by God; it is the same natural power that exists in the wild ox. And by itself it is just as little subject to a person. If God had not made the horse obedient to the rider, the rider would never have become a rider. It turns out that even what appears to have been created by God directly for human beings can be used by a person only with God's help. A person can do nothing by himself; he always needs the Creator's help. Otherwise he is powerless even where he would seem to feel at home. This human powerlessness is the answer to Job's question about righteousness and about the rights the righteous person has before the face of God.

Righteousness is unquestionably important to God; for Him, the righteous person and the sinner are not the same. But human righteousness is only a reflection of God's righteousness. And even the reflection becomes possible only because God Himself polishes the human being, making him a mirror of His righteousness. Righteousness does not belong to the person; he does not make himself righteous. Therefore no one can present his righteousness to God as a claim to certain special rights or a special position before God. Righteousness may be characteristic of a person, but a person does not belong to himself. Everything best in him, including righteousness itself, is God's gift, just as the ability to use everything in the world that God has prepared there for humanity is God's gift. Religious consciousness does not understand this. A religious person is sincerely convinced that he can become righteous, even if with God's help, and then present himself to God as a kind of gift that God will receive with joy. But God wants to explain to Job that a person can do nothing by himself, that righteousness is a path shared with God and a work shared with Him for the transformation of human nature, which a person cannot direct in any way. Righteousness is not a person's gift to God, but a task given by God to a person and freely accepted by that person. And all a person's deeds and actions, his whole life and death, and even the whole world, are only an instrument given by God to the person for solving the task set before him.

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NOTES for Job 39:26-27

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