Animals/Man

Characteristics Animals/Man
We would do well to learn from the lesser species.
Job 39, G-d shows man's ignorance of the animal creation; the meaning of His questions is, to know the circumstances, which have something peculiarly expressive of His providence, and make the questions proper in this place.
Wild goats - mountain goat, called yael. There is no cliff of the mountains so high, or steep, but this animal will mount it in a number of leaps, provided only it is rough, and have knob large enough to receive its hoofs in leaping. This animal is native to Arabia, is of amazing strength and agility, and considerably larger than the common goat. Its horns are very long, and often bend back over the whole body of the animal; and it is said to throw itself from the tops of rocks or towers, and light upon its horns, without receiving any damage. It goes five months with young, they conceive in November, and bring forth in March.
Do you feel like a wild goat and there is no mountain high enough that you can not climb?
Do you have the horn of G-d for strength and agility, taking leaps without being harmed?
Hind - is the female of the stag, or and goes eight months with young, they conceive in September and they bring forth in April. They live to thirty-five or forty years.
It is intimated (Ps. 29:9) that G-d by thunder helps the hinds in calving. There is an herb called "seselis", which it is said they feed upon before birth, to make it the easier; as well as they use that, and another called "aros", after the birth, to ease them of their later pains.
Afterbirth, or umbilical cord, they eat, and it is supposed to be medical to them.
Though they bring forth their young with a great deal of difficulty and sorrow, and have no assistance from man, yet, by the good providence of G-d, their young ones are safely produced, and their sorrows cast out and forgotten.
After the fawns have sucked for some time, the dam leads them to the pastures, where they feed on different kinds of herbage; but not on corn, for they are not born before harvest-time in Arabia and Palestine, and the stag does not feed on corn, but on grass, moss, and the shoots of the fir, beech, and other trees: therefore the word bar, here translated corn, should be translated the open field or country, and are no more burdensome to Hinds.
This is an example to children, when they have grown up, not to be always hanging upon their parents and craving from them, but to put forth themselves to get their own livelihood and to being able to provide for themselves.
Have you cut the biblical cord and making your own way or running back to your parents for reassurance?
Wild Ass - untamable and they differ from tame asses only in their independence and liberty, and in their being stronger and more nimble: but in their shape they are the same.
He has given a nature to unbounded liberty, and therefore an allowance for it. Freedom from service, and liberty to range at pleasure, are but the privileges of a wild ass.
It is a pity that any of the children of men should covet such a liberty, or value themselves on it. It is better to labour and be good for something than ramble and be good for nothing.
The tame ass is bound to labour; the wild ass has no bonds on him. Man can rob animals of freedom, but not, as G-d, give freedom, combined with subordination to fixed Laws.
The tame ass, that labors, and is serviceable to man, has his master's crib to go to both for shelter and food, and lives in a fruitful land: but the wild ass, that will have his liberty, must have it in a barren land. He snuff up the wind at his pleasure, as the wild ass is said to do (Jer. 2:24), as if he had to live upon the air, for it is the barren land that is his dwelling.
He that will not labour let him not eat.
Who hath given him this disposition that he loves freedom, and hates that subjection which other creatures quietly endure?
Have you laughed being determined not to be brought to receive your yoke, or to do your work?
Unicorn – The Hebrew word translated unicorn in this and other passages is believed by most Hebrew scholars to refer to the huge and fierce rhinoceros, which has the latter name from the horn that grows on his nose. The rhinoceros is known by the name of reim in Arabia to the present day. He is allowed to be a savage animal, showing nothing of the intellect of the elephant. His horn enables him to combat the latter with great success; for, by putting his nose under the elephant's belly, he can rip him up. His skin is like amour, and so very hard as to resist sabers, javelins, lances, and even musket-balls; the only penetrable parts being the belly, the eyes, and about the ears.
He is able to serve, but not willing; and G-d here challenges Job to force him to it. Job expected every thing should be just as he would have it. "Since thou dost pretend" (says G-d) "to bring every thing beneath your sway, begin with the unicorn, and try your skill upon him. Now that your oxen and asses are all gone, try whether he will be willing to serve you in their stead and whether he will be content with the provision you used to make for them.
You can’t tame him, nor bind him with his band, nor set him to draw the harrow. There are creatures that are willing to serve man, that seem to take a pleasure in serving him, and to have a love for their masters; but there are such as will never be brought to serve him, which is the effect of sin. Man has revolted from his subjection to his Maker, and is therefore justly punished with the revolt of the inferior creatures from their subjection to him; and yet, as an instance of G-d's good-will to man, there are some that are still serviceable to him. Though the wild unicorn will not serve him, nor submit to his hand in the furrows, yet other animals that are not of a wild nature, in which man may have a property, for which he provides, and to whose service he is entitled.
Peacock – is an emblem of pride; when he struts, and shows his fine feathers, they spend a great deal of time preening. The plumes of the peacock look multicolored but are actually brown. The plums are made of kertain, the same material found in human fingernails. The color is created by microscopic melanin reflective rods in the tiny barbules that line each of the feather’s barbs. Slight differences in the spacing and layering of the melanin rods in the keratin causes different colors to be reflected. Melanin is the substance that causes darkness in human skin. The process is somewhat similar to the way water droplets create rainbows.
Peacocks are social birds who prefer to sleep and move around in a group generally stay in one area as long as they have a reliable source of food and a tree to roost in. If any members of the group senses a theat it lets out an alarm call that alerts the others. Male peacocks make a strange whooping noise that has been described as resembling a half-human, half baboon.
Males use their spectactularly colored plumage in elaborate courtship displaysby raise and fan out their tail feathers. They may beat their small wings behind the fan and strut around, this way and that and let out loud scream. The most desirable ones in the eyes of the females can preside over harems of three to five peahens. It is not entirely clear what attracts the females the most: size, sheen, or color. Females seem to prefer males with elaborate, heavily spotted trains and loud calls. Young males with less developed trains and softer calls generally don’t attract a mate.
Should we repine if we see others wear better clothes than we can afford to wear?
Who are we courting, our flesh or our spirit?
G-d gives His gifts variously, and those gifts are not always the most valuable that make the finest show.
Who would not rather have the voice of the nightingale than the tail of the peacock?
Ostrich – literally, "the crying bird"; as the Arab name for it means "song"; referring to its night cries (30:29; Micah 1:8) vibrating joyously. The vibrating, quivering wing, serving for sail and oar at once, is characteristic of the ostrich in full course. Feathers for running; she cannot mount in the air, lashes herself" up to her course by flapping her wings, proudly "lifting up herself." Caring of herself, she leaves her eggs in danger, but, if she herself be in danger, no creature shall strive more to get out of the way of it than the ostrich. Then she lifts up her wings on high (the strength of which then stands her in better stead than their beauty), and, with the help of them, runs so fast that a horseman at full speed cannot overtake her. At first they went a pretty high trot; and, when they were heated a little, they expanded their wings, as if it were to catch the wind, and they moved with such fleetness as to seem to be off the ground. Tamed they can be mounted.
She scorns the horse and his rider. Those that are least under the law of natural affection often contend most for the law of self-preservation. Let not the rider be proud of the swiftness of his horse when such an animal as the ostrich shall out-run him.
She has goodly feathers, and yet is a foolish bird; for wisdom does not always go along with beauty and fun.
How she exposes her eggs; she does not retire to some private place, and make a nest there, as the sparrows and swallows do (Ps. 84:3), and there lay eggs and hatch her young. But lays her eggs with great care and hatches them, as other birds do; but in hot countries the eggs do not need so constant incubation; she therefore often leaves them and sometimes forgets the place on her return. Moreover, the outer eggs, intended for food, she feeds to her young. If the sand and the sun will hatch them, well and good; they may for her, for she will not warm them. These eggs, lying separate in the sand, exposed to the sun, gave rise to the idea of her altogether leaving them. She takes no care to preserve them, G-d, by a special providence cares for the neglected eggs.
Because she is not guided by natural instinct in providing for the preservation of their young, to be hardened against any is unnamable, even in a brute-creature, much more in a rational creature that boasts of humanity. Especially to be hardened against young ones, that cannot help themselves and therefore merit compassion, that gives no provocation and therefore merit no hard usage.
Carelessness of her young, it is well that this is peculiar to herself, for it is a very bad character. It is worst of all for her to be hardened against her own young ones, as though they were not hers, whereas really they are parts of herself. In laying her eggs is in vain and all lost, because she has not that fear and tender concern for them that she should have.
Those are most likely to lose their labour that is least in fear of losing it.
This intimates that the art which other animals have to nourish and preserve their young is G-d's gift. The Arab proverb is, "foolish as an ostrich." Yet her very seeming want of wisdom is not without wise design of G-d, though man cannot see it; just as in the trials of the godly, which seem so unreasonable to Job, there lies hid a wise design.
The folly of the ostrich, as well as by the wisdom of the ant, we may learn to be wise; As careless as the ostrich is of her eggs so careless many people are of their own souls; they make no provision for them, no proper nest in which they may be safe, leave them exposed to Satan and his temptations, which is a certain evidence that they are deprived of wisdom.
So careless are many parents of their children; some of their bodies, not providing for their own house, their own bowels, and therefore worse than infidels, and as bad as the ostrich; but many more are thus careless of their children's souls, take no care of their education, send them abroad into the world untaught, unarmed, forgetting what corruption there is in the world through lust, which will certainly crush them. Thus their labour in rearing them comes to be in vain; it were better for their country that they had never been born.
So careless are too many ministers of their people, with whom they should reside; but they leave them in the earth, and forget how busy Satan is to sow tares while men sleep. They overlook those whom they should oversee, and are really hardened against them.
Horse – is one of the most timid of animals; and this may be at once accounted for from his small quantity of brain. Perhaps there is no animal of his size that has so little. He acquires courage only from discipline. The capacity to receive discipline and instruction is as great a display of the wisdom of G-d as the formation of the bodies of the largest, smallest, or most complex creation is of His power.
How much discipline do you practice?
Horses that are prepared against the day of battle and is serviceable to man at a time when he has more than ordinary occasion for his service, they are not always mentioned in counting one’s stock, for cattle use in husbandry was valued more than those for state and war, which alone horses were then reserved for. They were not then put to such mean services as with us they are commonly put to, for running, drawing, and carrying, no creature that is ordinarily in the service of man has so much strength as the horse has.
They have strength of body plus fortitude and courage, do we possess these qualities? Will we go the distance and face the battles head on?
Clothed - a fine large mane to a horse makes him alarming and is a great ornament and recommendation.
With thunder - A strong metaphor, to denote force and terror, signify such a tremor as thunder makes, from whence that has its name; and it may be observed that between the neck and shoulder bone of an horse there is a tremulous and quavering motion; and which is more intense in battle, not from any fearfulness of it, but rather through eagerness to engage in it. In his training for battle a pair of drums, something like our kettle drums, hanging on each side of the animal's neck, and beaten, by a person on the saddle, with two plectrums or drumsticks; the neck itself being literally clothed with the drums and the housings on which they are fixed and by proper discipline it can bear those thundering sounds, which at first would have scared it to the uttermost of distraction?]
Afraid – There is a twofold beauty in this expression, which not only marks the courage of this beast, by asking if he can be scared; but likewise raises a noble image of his swiftness, by insinuating that, if he could be frightened, he would bound away with the nimbleness of a grasshopper.
Grasshopper - is frightened at every noise, and at any approach of men
It is a mercy to man to have such a servant, which, though very strong, submits to the management of a child, and rebels not against his owner.
Glory of his nostrils - which may be understood of his sneezing, snorting, pawing, and neighing, flings up his head, when his nostrils are broad, spread, and enlarged; and especially when enraged and in battle, when he foams and fumes, and throws foam about, and his breath comes out of his nostrils like smoke, and is very terrible.
Paws – with pride, how wonderfully are the brute-creatures fitted for and inclined to the services for which they were designed.
Valley - Where armies are usually pitched and set in battle army, and especially the cavalry, for which the valley is most convenient; and here the horse is impatient of engaging, cannot stand still, but rises up with his fore feet and paws and prances, and, as the word signifies, digs the earth and makes it hollow, by a continual striking upon it; so generally horses are commonly described in this manner.
Rejoiceth in his strength - of which he is sensible, and glories in it; marches to the battle with pride and stateliness, defying, as it were, the enemy, and as if sure of victory, of which he has knowledge when obtained; of horses, when conquerors they exult, when conquered they grieve; it has its name in the Hebrew language from rejoicing.
Armed men - animated, not by the goodness of the cause, or the prospect of honour, but only by the sound of the trumpet, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting of the soldiers, which are as bellows to the fire of his innate courage, and make him spring forward with the utmost eagerness.
[Mocketh at fear - fearless he is, how he despises death and the most threatening dangers, at those things which cause fear and fright to men; as arms, though ever so terrible, and armies, though never so numerous.
Neither turns back – the naked sword, when it is drawn against him, and ready to be thrust into him; the horse being so bold and courageous was with the Egyptians a symbol of courage and boldness.
Quiver rattles – The quiver is what arrows are put into and carried in, and seems here to be put for arrows, which being shot by the enemy come whizzing about him, but do not intimidate him.
Glittering - Now firm the managed war-horse keeps his ground, nor breaks his order though the trumpet sounds! With fearless eye the glittering host surveys, And glares directly at the helmet's blaze. The master's word, the laws of war, he knows; and when to stop, and when to charge the foes.
Spear and shield - The Persians training their horses and getting them used to noises, that in battle they might not be frightened at the clashing of arms, of swords and shields against each other; in like manner as our war horses are trained, not to start at the firing of a gun, or the explosion of a cannon.
So rattle the quiver, brandish the spear, to drive him back, he will not retreat, but press forward and even inspires courage into his rider.
Swallows the ground - He curvets and prances, and runs on with so much violence and heat against the enemy that one would think he even swallowed the ground with fierceness and rage.
Sound of the trumpet - "he will not stand still at the noise of the trumpet"; and the word signifies firm and stable, as well as to believe; when he hears the trumpet sound, the alarm of war, as a preparation for the battle, he knows not how to stand; there is scarce any holding him in, but he rushes into the battle at once, (Jer. 8:6).
Notice how we try to avoid battles well he meets them head on.
Ha, Ha - signifies by neighing; high mettle is the praise of a horse rather than of a man, whom fierceness and rage ill become.
Smelleth the battle afar off - which respects not so much the distance of place as of time; he perceives beforehand that it is near, by the preparations making for it, and particularly by what follows. Horses, they presage a fight, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting; they understand an engagement is just about to start by the loud and thundering voice of the captains, exhorting and spiraling up their men, and giving them the word of command; and by the clamorous shout of the soldiers echoing to the speech of their captains; and which are given forth upon an onset, both to animate one another, and intimidate the enemy.
This description of the war-horse will help to explain that character which is given of presumptuous sinners, in Jer. 8:6. “Every one turneth to his course, as the horse rushed into the battle.” When a man's heart is fully set in him to do evil, and he is carried on in a wicked way by the violence of inordinate appetites and passions, there is no making him afraid of the wrath of G-d and the fatal consequences of sin. Let his own conscience set before him the curse of the Law, the death that is the wages of sin, and all the terrors of the Almighty in battle-array; he mocks at this fear, and is not affrighted, neither turns he back from the flaming sword of the cherubim.
Let ministers lift up their voice like a trumpet, to proclaim the wrath of
G-d against him, he believes not that it is the sound of the trumpet, nor that G-d and His heralds are in earnest with him; but what will be in the end hereof it is easy to foresee.]
Hawk – The birds of the air are proofs of the wonderful power and providences of G-d, as well as the beasts of the earth. The hawk, a noble bird of great strength and level-headedness, and yet a bird of prey, is here taken notice of for her flight, which is swift and strong at thirty miles in an hour. With so much swiftness, steadiness, and constancy, until she has seized her prey, this is her wisdom, and it was G-d that gave her this wisdom, not man. Perhaps the extraordinary wisdom of the hawk's flight after her prey was not used then for men's diversion and recreation, as it has been since. The course she steers towards the south, whither she follows the sun in winter, out of the colder countries in the north, especially when she is to cast her plumes and renew them. She casts her old feathers and gets new ones, and this every year, her flight nor her feathers, whether at one time or the other, are owing to men, but to the L-rd, who gives both. So the birds of passage know the precise time for taking flight, and the direction in which she is to go. There is much of the wisdom and providence of G-d to be seen in the migration of birds of passage.
It is a pity that the reclaimed hawk, which is taught to fly at man's command and to make him sport, should at any time be abused to the dishonor of G-d, since it is from G-d that she receives that wisdom which makes her flight entertaining and serviceable.
There is a beautiful passage in Jeremiah 8:7, on the same subject: "The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming: but my people know not the judgment of the L-rd.”
Eagle - a royal bird, and yet a bird of prey too, the permission of which, nay, the giving of power to which, may help to reconcile us to the prosperity of oppressors among men. The eagle is here taken notice of, for the height of her flight. No bird soars so high, has so strong a wind, nor can so well bear the light of the sun. For the strength of her nest, she makes it on high. It is by the natural power and instinct G-d has given her that she will soar out of your sight, much more out of your call.
Sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rock; “but I will bring thee down thence, saith the L-rd”, in Jer. 49:16. The higher bad men sit above the resentments of the earth the nearer they ought to think themselves to the vengeance of Heaven.
The eagle preys upon living animals, which she seizes and tears to pieces, and thence carries to her young ones. For her Eyes behold afar of in her quick sightedness, not upwards, but downwards, in quest of her prey. In this she is an emblem of a hypocrite, who, while, in the profession of religion, he seems to rise towards heaven, keeps his eye and heart upon the prey on earth, some temporal advantage, some unexpected child, some widow's house or other that he hopes to devour, under pretence of devotion.
The eagle does not feed her young with carrion, but with prey newly slain, so that they may suck up blood; they do it by instinct, and know no better; but for men that have reason and conscience to thirst after blood is what could scarcely be believed if there had not been in every age wretched instances of it. They also preys upon the dead bodies of men: Matt. 24:28 say: Where the slain are, there is she, these birds of prey (in another sense than the horse,) smells the battle afar off. Therefore, when a great slaughter is to be made among the enemies of the church, the fowls are invited to the supper of the great
G-d, to eat the flesh of kings and captains, in Rev. 19:17-18.
Even wild beasts, cut off from all care of man, are cared for by G-d at their seasons of greatest need. Their instinct comes direct from G-d and guides them to help themselves in parturition; the very time when the herdsman is most anxious for his herds.
Every creature will make towards that which is its proper food; for He that provides the creatures their food has implanted in them that inclination. These and many such instances of natural power and reasonableness in the inferior creatures, which we cannot account for, oblige us to confess our own weakness and ignorance and to give glory to G-d as the fountain of all being, power, wisdom, and perfection.