Did You Teach the Bees?

Job 39 is a fascinating chapter of the Bible.  The context of the chapter is that of God's response to Job's repeated question of "Why me?"  God takes five chapters to answer the question, and the summary of his answer is basically, "None of your business."  

As an answer to Job's question, God demonstrates his superior knowledge of creation - the earth itself and the animals thereon - because of the reality that he is its Creator.  There are things about the world that only God knows, and only God ever will know.  For example, it's estimated that there are more undiscovered species of fish in the oceans than there are known species.  This means that the majority of life in the ocean is completely unknown to man.  It's possible, and even likely, that we will go on to continue to discover new species, but unlikely that we will ever discover them all.  Psalm 148.7 says, "Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps..."  It's likely that David, the author of the psalm, had no idea what creatures lurked in "all deeps," and yet he called even them to praise God.  We will never know the depths to which God is glorified by animal life that we have never even conceived of.  Then why did God create such animals?  The only answer can be for him to delight in them in secret by providing for them and preserving them, and to receive the praise that they alone can give him for their good design that will never be known by man.  

Moreover, only God will ever completely understand the complexity of animal behaviors.  This is the point of Job 39.  In the chapter, God gives Job six examples of different animals and their various behavioral traits: Mountain goats, "wild" donkeys, "wild" oxen, ostriches, horses, and hawks.  Each of these animals have specific behavioral traits that allow them to function, adapt, flourish, and thrive.  

It's possible for us to study these animals and to learn their behaviors.  We are able to predict the ways these animals will behave in certain situations and environments.  But we will never be able to discover why they behave the ways that they do.  God asks Job if he knows why these animals behave as they do.  Job, of course, does not.  God, however, does.  As it relates to Job's question of "Why me?" this chapter answers the question by telling Job, "There are some things that you simply don't get to know, that only God does."  

This reality was made apparent to me yet again today, twice.  The first was this morning.  My wife, daughter, and I were on our back porch, petting a new cat that we obtained.  Off in the distance, we heard a very weak, very wimpy crow from one of our roosters.  Several months ago my daughter hatched several chicks and cared for them into adulthood.  One of these chicks, a rooster we named Tiny, crowed for the first time today.  Roosters won't crow until they're mature.  Apparently, Tiny is now mature, and wanted everybody to know by belting out his very first crow.  

This caused me to wonder: what is it that makes a rooster crow?  What was in Tiny's mind this morning (that apparently wasn't in his mind yesterday morning) that made him think, "I wonder if I could make a cool sound out of my mouth.  I think I'll give it a shot."  Whatever it was, he went through that thought process today.  To be sure, his crow sounded weak, probably like a third grader trying to play the trumpet for the first time.  But he did it.  Somehow, he knew he was wired to crow, and it's what he did.  I'd like to add that question to Job in chapter 39: Do you know why the rooster crows?  

The second example came in a picture that my nephew sent to our family text-thread (the picture at the top of this post).  He works construction in Minnesota, and came across a discarded section of a beehive.  He marveled at the intricate design of the hive, and the perfectly symmetrical compartments that made it up.  He commented on the thread, "This is so cool.  The perfection of the little things in nature truly shows God's greatness.  Who can look at these perfect hexagons and say that was made by accident?"  Indeed.  Job, who taught the bees to make their hive?  Was it you?  Certainly not.  It could only be God.  

These things are only for God to know, and in this knowledge, God delights in the creatures he has made.