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Throughout Scripture the horse is associated with warfare and
military strength. In Bible times the donkey and mule were the
normal beasts of burden, but the horse, with its greater speed
and strength, was recognised as the mount of the warrior: “The
horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety [NKJV,
deliverance] is of the LORD” (Proverbs 21:31). In truth, as that
proverb reminds us, it is only with the blessing of the Almighty
that man can gain the victory, for “An horse is a vain thing for
safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength”
(Psalm 33:17); and, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses:
but we will remember the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm
20:7). No doubt it was for this reason that the kings of Israel
were commanded not to multiply horses to themselves (Deuteronomy
17:16), so that they would place their trust wholly in the God
of Israel in times of conflict. |
Hast Thou given the horse strength?
Nevertheless, the qualities of the horse, which until modern
times made it the chief means of mobility in war, are clearly
attributed in Scripture to the handiwork of the Creator. In a
superb passage (see panel above), God challenges Job with
the example of the horse as one of His mighty works. It is notable that this passage draws attention
to the nostrils of the horse. It has been known since the middle
of the eighteenth century that horses have an unusual anatomical
arrangement at the base of their skulls, consisting of a pair of
air-filled pouches, of up to half-a-litre capacity, connected to
their respiratory system. Many theories have been put forward to
explain their function, but new research by scientists at the
University of Saskatchewan in Canada has shown that their
purpose is to cool the blood entering the brain of the animal
when galloping at full speed.1 |
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The heads of athletic animals such as horses must be kept cooler
than 40°C during vigorous exercise, or permanent brain damage
can occur. Until now it was not known how this was achieved in
horses, which apparently lack the temperature control mechanisms
found in other animals. It has now been shown that the internal
carotid arteries, carrying blood to the brain, pass through
these pouches, where they are cooled by air from the respiratory
system. The research team used temperature probes implanted in
four horses to measure the changes in temperature at three
different points as the blood moved along the arteries, through
the pouches, and into the brain. They found that the blood was
cooled by up to two degrees in passing through the pouches.
Design or chance?
It is evident to Bible-believers that such a feature in an
animal’s anatomy is a part of its ‘design for purpose’. Without
its pouches the horse would be quite unable to fulfil the role
intended for it by the Creator, as revealed to Job. In contrast,
the evolutionist supposes that the feature arose in small
stages, by chance, and offered a selective advantage to those
horses with it. However, one is forced to wonder how horses
could have survived without them, since any prolonged gallop
would have left them with a severe headache or worse! At the
same time, there is a cost to having the pouches, since they are
prone to bacterial and fungal infections, so there could have
been a contrary evolutionary pressure for horses to avoid them,
and stick to trotting! It is of interest that similar pouches
are found in related animals, such as donkeys and zebras, but
also in quite unrelated species, including tapirs, some six
species of bat, and a South American forest mouse. No research
has been reported into the functions of these pouches, and so
presumably it is not known if they fulfil the same function as
in horses. Darwinists refer to this phenomenon as ‘convergent
evolution’, by which they mean the development of superficially
similar structures in unrelated organisms2.
This term is simply a smokescreen to conceal the extremely
unlikely coincidence of the same ‘chance’ development occurring
many times in different species.
The white horse
How much more satisfying it is to appreciate and rejoice in
the Creator’s handiwork! The myriad features of the living world
testify to the way in which God has designed each living
organism to be fit for its purpose in His creation. Sadly,
evolutionists grope in vain for plausible explanations of the
origins of such complex features, in order to avoid giving
honour to the One Who has made all things. God has selected the
horse to symbolise the glory and power of His Son when he
returns to conquer his enemies and establish righteous
government over all the earth: “And I saw heaven opened, and
behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make
war . . . and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies
which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in
fine linen, white and clean” (Revelation 19:11-14).
Footnotes
1 BBC On-Line Network, 26 January 2000,
reporting work published in Nature.
2 The Gulf Stream, which flows from southwest to northeast
across the North Atlantic, was first charted by Benjamin
Franklin in 1769, based on reports by US merchant ships, who
exploited it on their outward leg and avoided it on their return
home. British merchants at first scorned the longer route, but
marvelled that American ships took less time for the Atlantic
crossing than theirs! With thanks to The
Testimony magazine,
http://www.testimony-magazine.org (first
published April 2000). |
