Job 39:1

"Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock give birth?" They are generally very hard for man to reach. They are found in the great heights of the mountains. "Can you watch when the deer give birth? Can you number the months that they complete? Or do you know the time when they bring forth? They bow themselves; they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their pangs; their young ones are in good condition" — though they are hunted to death, and man is fond of feeding on them, yet God provides for them.

Think of the blindness of rationalism. Here is a magnificent disproof of human presumption and complaint against God. Rationalism sees in it no more than Job's ignorance of how long a deer, or another animal named, takes in gestation! Clearly the question here is not zoological learning. It is about the kind and generous care that goes with perfect knowledge of every creature. His watchful oversight matched the goodness and wisdom that made them. It covered young and old, beast and bird, even the least familiar and the hardest to reach. If God cared like that, was it not for Job to listen and learn, instead of darkening counsel with words without knowledge?

Again, was it Job who looked after the mountain goat, or kept watch over the deer at a time most critical for themselves and their offspring? Certainly there is not one whose months El does not count, whose time of bearing He does not know. He counts the hairs of our heads. He sees every sparrow that falls, and has His part in all. The Saviour told this to the trembling disciples to encourage them as they went out at His word.

What does Job know about the habits of the wild animals living in the mountains no one can reach? "The high mountains are for the wild goats" (Ps. 104:18). He might know in general how long these elusive creatures carry their young. But does he know and watch over each parent animal, guard its life, and bring it safely through its time of danger? How amazing and how consistent it all is, and how completely beyond man's knowledge or power. And these young ones, kept for a short time by their parent, then going off on their own — who watches over them?

If God cares for these "rock-climbers," will He not watch the steps of His timid people who are trying to climb over the rugged rocks of adversity? Will He not be with them in the birth-pangs of frightening experiences, and give them a happy outcome from all their troubles?

Days of God are being fulfilled; days that God is counting; days, we may say with spiritual sensitivity, that Mary counted. Think of God entering into this great matter, the fulfilment of days. He says to Job, "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?" (Job 39:1). The sympathetic interest of God in these great matters — entirely beyond the understanding of men! The number of Mary's days was fulfilled. In Galatians we are told, "When the fullness of time had come." These were days counted by God, days counted by the angels.