Job 39:5

Clearly the question here is not one of zoological knowledge, but of that kind care which goes with perfect knowledge of every creature. God watched over them all with such care — young and old, beast and bird, even the least familiar or the most out of reach. He did so according to the goodness and wisdom that made them. Was it not for Job, then, to listen and learn, instead of darkening counsel with words without knowledge? And certainly His ways with His people are far deeper than His dealings with the animal realm. Yet even there we see His sovereign disposal everywhere. He, not man, has made them what they are, and ordered their habits and their homes. He has given some animals to carry man's loads. Others He has freed from any such service, like the wild donkey. Its house is the desert and its home the steppe, where a city's noise and a driver's shouts are unknown.

The wild donkey is a completely different kind of creature, found mainly in the plains or wilderness. Man just does not control the habits of this animal that is "free as the breeze." Though it lives in "the barren land," God somehow sustains it in finding food. It keeps away from the noise of the city and is not like the tame donkey that must obey the direction of a driver.

He is entirely different from the wild goats in ways and habits. But one thing he has in common with them: he is completely dependent on his Creator. What control has Job over a creature like this, who knows no bonds and serves no master? As he thinks of their freedom, Job might sigh under his own burdens. God is able to loosen his bonds. Let him not doubt, but wait on God.

The wild donkey is very wild and very swift. It is seldom tamed. It is therefore a fitting emblem of man's natural birth (Job 11:12).

In the Word of God the donkey is not only presented as unclean; it is also the very synonym for self-will. Read the Lord's account of him in His reasoning with His servant in Job 39:5-8. And what is sin? ... sin is lawlessness. In other words, sin is doing our own will and neglecting the will of God. Who can claim to be exempt here? Who among us does not love to have his own way, whatever it costs?

Scripture shows us how God governs the world in providence, apart from His covenant. It does this in the very books that reveal the dealings of His electing grace... No more vivid a sketch was ever drawn than the one given of Ishmael's descendants in the words quoted [Job 39:5-8]. Such exactly are the Bedouins.