The Wild Ass: Lessons in God's Providence
The wild ass is a recurring theme throughout the Old Testament. It is impossible to know for sure, but it is likely that this refers to the now-extinct Wild Syrian Ass. This specimen was once ubiquitous across the Arabian peninsula and, while being the smallest member of the equidae family, was compared to the thoroughbred in strength and beauty - though it was impossible to domesticate.
In Genesis 16, the angel of the Lord proclaims in an oracle that Ishmael will be a 'wild ass of a man' after Sarah had forced Hagar and the child into the wilderness. Job frequently cites the wild ass in his lamentations and is pointed to the wild ass by God as an example of one of the many creatures that God has established and sustained even in the harsh conditions of the wilderness (cf. Job 39). The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Hosea also reference the wild ass - predominately in the context of other judgment, wilderness, and desolation oracles and metaphors. (cf. Hosea 8:9, Daniel 5:21, Isaiah 32:14). The wild ass is also mentioned in the Psalms (104:11) and in Sirach (13:19). From the survey of this term through the OT, it appears that it is primarily a poetic device used to demonstrate God's judgment by invoking wilderness motifs upon the people of Israel but simultaneously provides an image of God's providence for his creatures even in the wilderness.
Jeremiah makes three mentions of the wild ass throughout his writings. All three are in the context of proclamations of judgment. The first such mention is in 2:24 where Jeremiah compares the Israelites to a wild ass in heat, their lust for idols is as powerful and raw as the sexuality of a wild ass. In both 14:6 and 48:6, the comparison is drawn to highlight how Israel has been reduced to a barren wilderness that Israel must flee for its life through, even if that wilderness offers no hope or life.
Jeremiah's drought oracle is particularly illuminating as it presents an inter-textual reference to Job's use of the wild ass symbol. Jeremiah writes:
Jeremiah's oracle plays with this image of God-as-creator/sustainer by using this image of the wild ass failing to find any food. This is a creature that God has placed in the desolate salt-flats of the wilderness and yet continues to provide green things for. Yet in Jeremiah's drought oracle, God's sustenance is withheld. This is the doom that has come upon Judah. Not only is Judah becoming the formless and void wasteland of the wilderness (an allusion to pre-creation) but even those creatures that usually thrive in this wilderness are starving. This captures the grave extent of the doom that has been proclaimed over Judah.
Yet the book of Jeremiah is not uni-vocal in its pronouncements of doom. Jeremiah's commission is to proclaim two parts doom, one part hope (cf. 1:10). The final use of the wild ass motif is in the context of the Oracles Against the Nations, and specifically in the oracle against Moab. Here the people are told to flee to the wilderness for their salvation, to throw themselves upon the mercy of the creator God who sustains the wild ass in the wilderness (it should be noted here that Daniel's use of the wild ass motif also follows this pattern by showing a scene of Nebuchadnezzar being sustained by God, even while being punished by him). While this is an oracle agvainst Moab, the OAN are also for the benefit of Israel. Even as the land of Israel is reduced to a blasted wilderness, the memory of the Exodus is alluded to at a slant as an avenue of potential hope for the exiled community. The wild ass is the symbol of Israel in Exile/Exodus. The voice of judgment contains within it, the subtle promise of restoration. God sustains his creatures, his covenant with creation does not allow him to wholly abandon even the most wild and blasted of desolations.
The wild ass is both a symbol of judgment upon Israel and a reminder that even in the harshness of God's judgment, sustenance and restoration is the implicit promise. Ishmael does not fall within the covenant blessings of the Abrahamic line, yet God promises to sustain him. So too, in Israel's 'falling-out' of the covenant blessings of the land, God promises to sustain them. The wild ass stands as a reminder of God's merciful nature even in the punishing conditions of the wilderness and exile.
God's care and sustenance extends over every part of his creation. He calls forth life from the devastated and the abandoned. By the beginning of the twentieth century, humanity had managed to wipe out the wild ass in our haste to exploit creation for meat, oil, and war. The twentieth century presented humanity with many Jeremian pictures of devastated creation. One thinks of the battle fields of France, the toxic mess around Chernobyl, the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and bleeding wastelands of the tar sands in northern Alberta. Our war against creation may be exponentially more devastating than anything the Babylonians were able to accomplish against Jerusalem. We may have wiped out the Syrian Wild Ass. But a new wild ass has been introduced to the region with great success. Maybe we can, along with Israel, hear the quiet hope God offers us in the wild ass. God will not abandon his creation, nor allow it wholly to fail, even if we cannot presently see beyond the wilderness.
In Genesis 16, the angel of the Lord proclaims in an oracle that Ishmael will be a 'wild ass of a man' after Sarah had forced Hagar and the child into the wilderness. Job frequently cites the wild ass in his lamentations and is pointed to the wild ass by God as an example of one of the many creatures that God has established and sustained even in the harsh conditions of the wilderness (cf. Job 39). The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Hosea also reference the wild ass - predominately in the context of other judgment, wilderness, and desolation oracles and metaphors. (cf. Hosea 8:9, Daniel 5:21, Isaiah 32:14). The wild ass is also mentioned in the Psalms (104:11) and in Sirach (13:19). From the survey of this term through the OT, it appears that it is primarily a poetic device used to demonstrate God's judgment by invoking wilderness motifs upon the people of Israel but simultaneously provides an image of God's providence for his creatures even in the wilderness.
Jeremiah makes three mentions of the wild ass throughout his writings. All three are in the context of proclamations of judgment. The first such mention is in 2:24 where Jeremiah compares the Israelites to a wild ass in heat, their lust for idols is as powerful and raw as the sexuality of a wild ass. In both 14:6 and 48:6, the comparison is drawn to highlight how Israel has been reduced to a barren wilderness that Israel must flee for its life through, even if that wilderness offers no hope or life.
Jeremiah's drought oracle is particularly illuminating as it presents an inter-textual reference to Job's use of the wild ass symbol. Jeremiah writes:
Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn because there is no grass. The wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail because there is no herbage. (14:5-6, NRSV)This is an allusion to God's proclamation to Job from the whirlwind:
Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observer the calving of the deer/ Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young? Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth, and do not return to them. Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass, to which I have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its dwelling place? It scorns the tumult of the city; it does not hear the shouts of the driver. It ranges the mountains as its pasture, and it searches after every green thing. (39:1-8)God is showing Job the extent of his mastery over even the most wild parts of creation. In his whirlwind speech he demonstrates mastery over every corner of creation - establishing both his power in establishing these creatures and his intimate knowledge and care for them.
Jeremiah's oracle plays with this image of God-as-creator/sustainer by using this image of the wild ass failing to find any food. This is a creature that God has placed in the desolate salt-flats of the wilderness and yet continues to provide green things for. Yet in Jeremiah's drought oracle, God's sustenance is withheld. This is the doom that has come upon Judah. Not only is Judah becoming the formless and void wasteland of the wilderness (an allusion to pre-creation) but even those creatures that usually thrive in this wilderness are starving. This captures the grave extent of the doom that has been proclaimed over Judah.
Yet the book of Jeremiah is not uni-vocal in its pronouncements of doom. Jeremiah's commission is to proclaim two parts doom, one part hope (cf. 1:10). The final use of the wild ass motif is in the context of the Oracles Against the Nations, and specifically in the oracle against Moab. Here the people are told to flee to the wilderness for their salvation, to throw themselves upon the mercy of the creator God who sustains the wild ass in the wilderness (it should be noted here that Daniel's use of the wild ass motif also follows this pattern by showing a scene of Nebuchadnezzar being sustained by God, even while being punished by him). While this is an oracle agvainst Moab, the OAN are also for the benefit of Israel. Even as the land of Israel is reduced to a blasted wilderness, the memory of the Exodus is alluded to at a slant as an avenue of potential hope for the exiled community. The wild ass is the symbol of Israel in Exile/Exodus. The voice of judgment contains within it, the subtle promise of restoration. God sustains his creatures, his covenant with creation does not allow him to wholly abandon even the most wild and blasted of desolations.
The wild ass is both a symbol of judgment upon Israel and a reminder that even in the harshness of God's judgment, sustenance and restoration is the implicit promise. Ishmael does not fall within the covenant blessings of the Abrahamic line, yet God promises to sustain him. So too, in Israel's 'falling-out' of the covenant blessings of the land, God promises to sustain them. The wild ass stands as a reminder of God's merciful nature even in the punishing conditions of the wilderness and exile.
God's care and sustenance extends over every part of his creation. He calls forth life from the devastated and the abandoned. By the beginning of the twentieth century, humanity had managed to wipe out the wild ass in our haste to exploit creation for meat, oil, and war. The twentieth century presented humanity with many Jeremian pictures of devastated creation. One thinks of the battle fields of France, the toxic mess around Chernobyl, the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and bleeding wastelands of the tar sands in northern Alberta. Our war against creation may be exponentially more devastating than anything the Babylonians were able to accomplish against Jerusalem. We may have wiped out the Syrian Wild Ass. But a new wild ass has been introduced to the region with great success. Maybe we can, along with Israel, hear the quiet hope God offers us in the wild ass. God will not abandon his creation, nor allow it wholly to fail, even if we cannot presently see beyond the wilderness.
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