How does Job 39:20 illustrate God's control over creation and nature? Setting the scene in Job 39 Job has spent chapters longing for answers to his suffering. In response, the LORD walks Job through a tour of creation—wild goats, ostriches, warhorses—asking questions only the Creator can answer. Each question turns Job’s eyes from his pain to God’s power. Reading Job 39:20 “Do you make it leap like a locust? Its proud snorting fills with terror.” The “it” is the warhorse (vv. 19-25). God is challenging Job: “Can you control this fierce animal the way I do?” God’s sovereign mastery displayed • Design: Only God endowed the horse with explosive strength—“leap like a locust”—a picture of unstoppable energy. • Restraint: Though powerful enough to “fill with terror,” the horse still answers the slightest tug of its rider because God built obedience into its nature (cf. James 3:3). • Ownership: The rhetorical “Do you…?” reveals that ultimate rights over creation belong to the LORD alone (Psalm 50:10-11). • Purpose: The warhorse’s courage serves God’s larger plans in human history; even battlefield chaos falls under His rule (Proverbs 21:31). • Contrast: If Job cannot control one creature, he certainly cannot govern the mysteries of suffering. The verse humbles finite reasoning before infinite authority. Supporting scriptures that echo the theme • Psalm 104:24-26 — “How many are Your works, O LORD! In wisdom You made them all.” • Isaiah 40:26 — “Lift up your eyes and see: Who created these? He brings out the starry host by number… not one is missing.” • Matthew 10:29-31 — Even sparrows, worth half a coin, fall only with the Father’s consent. • Colossians 1:16-17 — “All things were created through Him and for Him… in Him all things hold together.” Together these passages reinforce Job 39:20: the Lord’s control is comprehensive—cosmic to microscopic. Personal takeaways • Stand in awe: God’s questions invite worship, not mere information. • Rest in His rule: If He governs warhorses, He governs our trials. • Submit and trust: Like Job, we relinquish the demand for explanations and bow before the One whose hands sustain every galloping heartbeat in creation. |
    |