Journey Through Job: A Pilgrimage of Holy Acceptance
Chapter 39: Holy Acceptance Trusts The God Who Knows What I Cannot
“Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bring forth among the rocks, or hast thou observed the hinds when they fawn? Hast thou numbered the months of their conceiving, or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?” —Job 39:1–2
In Job 38, the Lord drew Job’s attention to creation itself. Who established the earth? Who commanded the sea? Who causes the rain to fall upon places where no human being lives? Who governs the heavens? Now, in Job 39, God continues to lead Job beyond what he can see and understand.
He asks about the wild goats giving birth among the rocks, the wild ass roaming free, the rhinoceros whose strength cannot be harnessed, the ostrich, the horse, the hawk, and the eagle. Each creature lives according to a wisdom that Job did not design and cannot control.
The Lord is gently bringing Job to the realization that there is an order to creation that exists beyond his understanding. And if Job cannot comprehend the ways of God in something as simple as the birth of a wild animal, how could he expect to comprehend the mysteries of his own life? This is the movement toward holy acceptance.
Holy acceptance does not mean that Job’s suffering suddenly makes sense. It does not mean pretending that his losses do not hurt. It does not require him to deny the questions that have risen from the depths of his heart. Rather, holy acceptance begins when Job can say:
I do not understand, but God does.
I cannot see, but God sees.
I cannot control this, but God remains Lord.
God asks Job:
“Hast thou numbered the months of their conceiving, or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?” (Job 39:2)
The question is simple, but profound. Job does not know. There are countless things taking place around him that he cannot comprehend. The animals live, reproduce, migrate, hunt, and survive according to instincts and patterns established by God. Job does not need to understand every detail for God’s providence to be real.
The same is true of our lives. There are seasons when we desperately want to know why. Why did this happen? Why did God allow it? Why did the door close? Why did the relationship change? Why did the healing not come when we prayed for it? Why does the path ahead look so different from the one we imagined?
Holy acceptance does not always receive an answer to those questions. Sometimes it receives something better: the realization that God is trustworthy even when His ways remain hidden.
The prophet Isaiah reminds us:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” —Isaiah 55:8
And St. Paul writes:
“For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things.” —Romans 11:36
We are not being asked to understand everything God is doing. We are being invited to trust the One who does.
Job has already demonstrated that acceptance does not require silence. He has cried out to God throughout this journey. He has spoken honestly about his pain. He has even challenged what he believes to be God’s judgment of him. God did not abandon him because he questioned. And now God is not asking Job to stop caring. He is asking him to stop trying to make himself the measure of what God should be doing.
This is an important part of surrender.
Sometimes our greatest struggle is not simply accepting what has happened. It is accepting that God may not explain it to us in the way we want Him to. We want the whole picture. God asks us to trust Him with the part we cannot see.
The chapter ends with Job responding to God:
“What can I answer, who hath spoken inconsiderately? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.” —Job 39:34
This is not the silence of despair. It is the silence of a heart beginning to recognize the greatness of God. Job has spoken many words throughout his suffering. Now he begins to discover that there are mysteries before which words are inadequate.
This echoes the posture of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the Annunciation, Mary was given a revelation she could not possibly understand in its entirety. She received an invitation to trust.
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.” —Luke 1:38
Mary’s fiat is one of the deepest expressions of holy acceptance in Scripture.
Let it be done.
Not because everything was understood.
Not because the road ahead would be easy.
But because God was trustworthy.
Job’s journey finds its deepest fulfillment in Christ. Jesus Himself entered into the mystery of suffering. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He did not pretend that suffering was easy. He prayed:
“Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: but yet not my will, but thine be done.” —Luke 22:42
There is holy acceptance. Jesus did not deny His desire that the suffering might pass. He did not suppress His anguish. He brought it honestly before the Father.
And then He surrendered. “Not my will, but thine be done.”
That is the heart of holy acceptance. It is possible to say, Lord, I do not want this, while also saying, Lord, I trust You with it. It is possible to weep and surrender at the same time. It is possible to ask God for healing while accepting that we do not control how or when He brings it. It is possible to hope for restoration while placing the outcome into His hands. Christ does not merely teach us holy acceptance. He lives it before us.
And on the Cross, He takes this surrender all the way.
“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” —Luke 23:46
The God who asks Job to trust what he cannot understand is the same God who, in Christ, enters into the darkness Himself. We are never asked to surrender to an impersonal force. We surrender to a Father whose love has been revealed to us through the Son.
Job 39 reminds us that much of God’s work happens beyond our sight.
The wild goat gives birth among the rocks.
The eagle makes its nest in inaccessible places.
The hawk spreads its wings.
The horse charges into battle.
The creatures move according to a wisdom Job did not give them.
And perhaps this is one of the lessons God wants Job—and us—to receive: Just because I cannot see what God is doing does not mean God is doing nothing. There may be work taking place beneath the surface of our lives that we cannot yet recognize.
A heart may be being softened.
A wound may be becoming an opening for grace.
A closed door may be protecting us from something we cannot see.
A season of waiting may be preparing us for something we are not yet ready to receive.
A suffering we would never have chosen may become the place where we encounter Christ most intimately.
We do not know.
And that is precisely where trust begins.
Holy acceptance means learning to walk even when we cannot see the entire road. From Understanding to Trust Throughout this pilgrimage through Job, the Lord has been slowly moving Job’s heart.
At first, Job wanted an explanation. Then he wanted a hearing before God. He wanted God to answer his accusations and prove that he had not deserved what had happened. But now God is revealing something deeper. The goal is not for Job to understand everything. The goal is for Job to know God. And perhaps this is the deeper healing God desires for us as well. We may spend years asking God to explain our suffering when He is inviting us into something more intimate: Trust Me.
Trust that I am God.
Trust that I see what you cannot see.
Trust that I know what you do not know.
Trust that I am still working when you see nothing happening.
Trust that your life is not outside My providence.
Trust that I have not abandoned you.
Holy acceptance is not the surrender of hope. It is the surrender of the demand to understand. It is allowing God to remain God while allowing ourselves to remain His beloved children. Job is beginning to learn this. And so are we.
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
I do not understand all that You are doing in my life. There are things I wish You would explain, paths I wish You would make clear, and sufferings I wish You would remove. Yet You remind me that Your wisdom is greater than mine and Your vision reaches beyond what I can see. Teach me to trust You when I cannot understand. When I am tempted to demand answers, give me the grace to seek Your presence. When I am tempted to believe that nothing is happening, remind me that You are always at work. When I cannot see the road ahead, teach me to take the next step with You. Give me the grace of Mary to say, “Be it done to me according to thy word.” Give me the grace of Gethsemane to pray, “Not my will, but thine be done.” And give me the grace of the Cross to place everything into the Father’s hands. Lord, I surrender what I cannot understand. I surrender what I cannot control. I surrender the future I cannot see. I surrender my need for answers. And I choose to trust the One who sees everything. Help me to embrace holy acceptance— not because everything makes sense, but because You are trustworthy. May I learn to lay my hand upon my mouth, quiet my restless heart, and rest in the truth that I am held by a God whose wisdom is beyond my understanding and whose love will never let me go. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.
Day 38 Day 40