And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their brother, the firstborn.
The scene shifts from heaven's council chamber back to earth, and the trial God permitted begins on a day of family celebration. The timing is no accident. The question is who arranged it, and how far he was allowed to go.
The verse opens with a day. One writer notes that this book keeps heaven and earth in view together, and each has its own day:
There are "heaven" and "earth" here, as in all Scripture; each, too, having its "day" or special occasion.
What follows on earth looks entirely natural. Raiders, fire, wind, messengers — ordinary causes, moving fast.
Not a finger of Satan appears; yet his hand was in everything. These were earthly events, carried out by ordinary means. No doubt they fell with extraordinary speed, and that was no small part of the trial. A long gap between the blows would not have served the enemy's purpose. He arranged it with great skill, so that these disasters would look like judgments sent by God — judgments that spared nothing — and yet they came by outward, earthly means... Satan's hand lay hidden under these painful blows, but God's hand was above Satan. How sure and great the comfort!
Job was not living far from God when the blows came. He was prospering, happy and godly. That is what makes the timing so cruel.
So the blows fall one after another, with no chance to recover in between. They come with terrible suddenness, in the middle of prosperity, happiness and godliness. They could not be undone. They piled up. They stunned. In one short hour Job is stripped of everything. Satan had done his work thoroughly, and he did it by the permission of an all-wise God.
The feast and the ploughing oxen paint a settled, untroubled world. One writer draws the line straight from that scene to our own day:
Who would have thought Satan could have such power, if God had not shown it to us in this book? Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine, just like the world today. They had no idea of the sudden destruction waiting for them. The oxen were ploughing and the donkeys were feeding beside them. Everything was going on as usual. What a happy-looking world! You would think there was no tempting devil in it.
Another writer finds every feature of the wider world inside this one family, from the children's love of enjoyment to attacks by neighbouring tribes:
Every family circle, like every heart, is a little world. Self-indulgence and the love of enjoyment appear in the children. Then there are natural disasters, from wind and fire and disease, and disasters that come through other people, like the Sabeans and the Chaldeans. All of this is still the ordinary run of human life today. There is blow after blow, messenger after messenger, turning over every page of the story. It is human life then instead of now, but the same life, with its losses, its crosses and its bitter setbacks.
after
Satan chose the hour, but he did not set the limits. God set a limit on what he could touch, and that limit is where the comfort of this chapter lies.
The Lord gives the adversary permission to stretch out his hand, but not against Job himself. What a comfort that even the enemy's hand is under God's hand! On the side of evil everything is measured out; on the side of good it is unlimited. We ought to know this well, for all things are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
One writer traces Job's later words back to what this day of feasting had meant to him:
Here we see that Job bows, but he does not thank God for his trials. In chapter 3 the secret comes out. In his prosperity, Job was rejoicing not in the Lord but in his prosperity. He was living in his circumstances... God had seen Job rejoicing in his circumstances. Job had not reached the height of soul that walks above circumstances. That is the real root of Job's failure laid bare. He was taken up with his circumstances, and not with the God of his circumstances.
- Two days. Heaven has its day of counsel; earth has its day of feasting. The first shapes the second, though no one at the table knows it.
- Ordinary means. Sabeans, fire, wind, messengers — nothing looked supernatural. Satan's hand was in everything, yet no finger of his appeared.
- God above. The enemy's hand was under God's hand. Evil is measured out; good has no limit.
- Suddenness. The blows fell one after another, with no space to recover. They struck a man in the middle of prosperity and real godliness.
- The test. The day exposed where Job's joy had been resting: in his circumstances, not in the God of his circumstances.
And there came a messenger to Job and said, The oxen were ploughing, and the asses feeding beside them;
Job 1:14 opens the report of disaster: an ordinary working day on Job's estate, oxen at the plough, donkeys grazing beside them — and then a man running with news. The scene looks completely ordinary. So who stands behind the news this man brings?
These animals did the work that made Job rich. The trial starts by taking them away.
Four blows fell on Job. Their number suggests the trial the Lord's servant was put through. The first blow fell on his oxen and donkeys, the means of labour, which is the chief source of wealth... The Sabeans were a mixed nomadic race of nearby Arabians. They swooped down suddenly, killed all the servants except the one who escaped to tell the tale, and made off with all the spoil. We can see Satan's work in stirring up the greed of these people, who were always ready to murder and rob. But the supernatural part was the timing. Along with everything else, it happened at just this moment, God permitting it all.
Nothing in the messenger's report sounds supernatural. But the reader of chapter 1 knows what the messenger does not.
Soon the results of that permission appear on earth. The rest of the chapter shows us disaster following quickly on disaster. Not a finger of Satan appears; yet his hand was in everything. Ordinary instruments carried out these earthly events, and they fell with extraordinary speed. That was no small part of the trial... Job felt, as we too should, that all was under the eye of God. Never let us forget Him. If Satan's hand was hidden under these afflicting strokes, God's hand was above Satan. How sure and great the comfort!
Every report in this series ends the same way — a single man left alive to speak. That detail is not luck.
Satan marshalled all his forces against Job. In one day Job had news of four sudden calamities. They stripped him of all his possessions and all his children. The first messenger told him about a raiding band of enemies, the Sabeans. They had killed the servants in charge of Job's oxen and donkeys, and had stolen the animals (vv. 14-15). Satan had allowed one man to live, who carried this message to Job.
Kelly notes that the survivor escapes only "just so far as to tell the dismal news." One voice left made the loss sting more.
The messenger's arrival is the first visible result of a conversation Job never heard. God had already set what Satan may do, and what he may not.
In the case of Job we find God saying with authority and permission to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." Here was the limit of the permission; Satan could get no more... Here we see the remarkable extent of Satan's power. But God's absolute power over Satan reaches further still.
Four different agents strike Job — raiders, fire, raiders again, weather. Behind them all is one malice. Above that malice is a purpose neither Job nor Satan could see.
The history of the calamities that came on Job lets us see the truth. His sudden losses of flocks and herds and children came from the malice of Satan. To outward appearance, the Sabeans captured the oxen and sheep. The Chaldeans carried away his camels. Fire from heaven burned up his sheep. The hurricane killed his sons and daughters. But the inspired narrative tells us that all these disasters came from the evil plotting of Satan. The Lord permitted that plotting. Yet He overruled it all for the eventual and greater blessing of Job.
The oxen and donkeys were part of what Job's heart rested on. One commentator traces Job's later failure back to that.
Job, in prosperity, was rejoicing not in the Lord but in his prosperity; he was living in circumstances... God had seen Job rejoicing in his circumstances. Job had not reached the height of soul that belongs to someone who walks above circumstances. That uncovers the real root of Job's failure. He was occupied with circumstances, not with the God of circumstances.
- Permitted — the raid begins in heaven, not in Arabia. Satan acts only inside the limits God set, and can get no more.
- Ordinary — no finger of Satan shows. The tools are raiders, fire and weather. That is what makes the trial so hard to read.
- Targeted — the first blow takes the oxen and donkeys, the working heart of Job's wealth. The timing is the supernatural part.
- Designed — Satan leaves one servant alive in each disaster, so the news reaches Job and lands with full force.
- Overruled — God governed the same events Satan meant for ruin and turned them to Job's greater blessing. They also exposed how much of Job's joy had rested on what he owned.
and [they of] Sheba fell [upon them] and took them, and the servants have they smitten with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped, alone, to tell thee.
The first blow falls on an ordinary working day, with the oxen at the plough and the donkeys grazing beside them. Nothing about the raid looks supernatural — so who were these raiders, why did one man survive, and whose hand was behind the sword?
The stolen animals were not luxuries. They were how Job made his living, and the raiders were neighbours ready to kill for them.
The first blow fell upon his oxen and donkeys, the means of labour which is the chief source of wealth... The Sabeans were a mixed nomadic people from nearby Arabia. They swooped down without warning, killed all the servants except the one who escaped to tell the tale, and made off with all the spoil. We can see Satan's work in stirring up the greed of these people, who were always ready to murder and to rob. But the supernatural part was the timing: this raid, along with all the rest, took place at just this moment, and God permitted it all.
Even the name the verse gives these raiders is questioned.
In Job 1:15 the error occurs of calling the men of Sheba "Sabeans."
The scene looked completely normal. Nothing showed that an enemy was at work, and that blindness did not end with Job's day.
Job's sons and daughters are eating and drinking wine, just like the world today. They give little thought to the sudden destruction that awaits them. The oxen were ploughing, and the donkeys feeding beside them — everything going on its usual way. Happy-looking world! To look at you, there might be no tempting devil in you at all. How quickly and how well Satan did his work... We hear of a dreaded invasion, and men talk about the emperor, the press, and the people. But how few remember the great adversary Satan.
The escaped servant is not a lucky accident of the raid. Killing everyone would have silenced the news; sparing one man delivered it.
The enemy arranged it with great skill. These disasters were to look like judgments sent by God — judgments without mercy — and yet they came about by outward, earthly means... "and I alone have escaped" — just far enough to tell the miserable news, and so, as the only survivor, to make it all the more painful. If in each case not one had escaped, the news could never have come in this way. The damage was complete; yet Job felt, as we too should, that all was under the eye of God. If Satan's hand was hidden under these blows, God's hand was above Satan. How sure and great the comfort!
The verse itself shows only raiders and swords. One writer sets out the layers standing behind them.
It was a most instructive scene. We see three causes and two effects. The great First Cause is God. The second, lesser cause is Satan. The third and still lesser cause — or rather, causes — are the Sabeans, the Chaldeans, and what men would call the forces of nature. The first effect was a complete sweeping away of all Job's family and possessions. The second and final effect was a crushing blow delivered against Job.
If the Sabeans are only the outermost cause, stopping there explains nothing. The same writer names where Job's safety lay, and finds the same pattern in Paul's thorn in the flesh.
The third causes were fire from heaven, whirlwind, evil men, in the case of Job, and the thorn in the flesh in the case of Paul. Behind these in each case lay the power and the hostility of Satan; but behind him, as the first cause, was the hand of God. Job's safety and blessing lay in turning away from the third causes, and even from the second cause, so that he might accept everything from the hand of God. It was the same with Paul.
God's hand never leaves this account. Even at his freest, the enemy is working inside a boundary he did not set.
In the case of Job we find God saying with authority and permission to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." Here was the limit of the permission; Satan could get no more... Here we see how remarkable Satan's power is. But God's absolute power over that power reaches much further.
- Third cause. The Sabeans are only the visible layer — raiders taking the oxen and donkeys Job lived by.
- Second cause. Satan stirred their greed. Nothing about the raid was supernatural except its timing, which God permitted.
- First cause. Above the enemy stands God, who set the limit Satan could not pass and permitted everything within it.
- Disguise. The enemy arranged the blows to look like judgments from heaven, with no trace of himself showing. The world still reads such events without ever thinking of an adversary.
- Survivor. One man escaped by design, not by luck. Without a survivor no news could come, and a lone survivor made it hurt more.
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped, alone, to tell thee.
The second messenger arrives before the first has finished speaking, and this time there are no raiders — the fire comes straight down from the sky. So whose hand is at work when a godly man's flocks burn?
What kind of fire was it? The verse does not say:
The second stroke follows at once. It falls on the sheep — the source of his food and clothing — and on the servants who kept them. This time the agent was "the fire of God" from heaven. It is not called lightning, though some think that is what it was. Others have thought it was like the fire that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Whatever it was, it was "an act of God," as men say, when destruction comes without any human hand involved.
Commentators differ. Some take the fire as lightning, and point to a Hebrew word used in the Psalms:
Psalm 78:48, recounting the plagues of Egypt, says the flocks were consumed by hot thunderbolts. The word there is resheph. It is also translated "coals," "burning coals," "burning heat." No doubt lightning is meant, as when the "fire of God" fell from heaven and burned up Job's sheep.
The words "the fire of God" are the escaped servant's own:
It was of course Satan who had the power to bring this fire, whatever its source may have been, but the servant called it "the fire of God."
God allowed Satan to use more than people:
We also learn that, God allowing it, Satan can control fire, wind and the actions of men to carry out his wicked plans. In Job's case, fire came down from heaven; a great wind struck the house where Job's sons and daughters were feasting; Job himself was struck with boils.
Satan staged it all, down to the one man left alive to report it:
Not a finger of Satan appears; yet his hand was in everything. These are earthly events, carried out by ordinary means and falling with extraordinary speed. That speed was no small part of the trial... The enemy arranged it with great skill. These disasters would look like judgments sent by God — unsparing judgments — and yet they came by outward, earthly means... In each case one man escaped — just far enough to tell the dismal news. As the lone survivor he made it all the more painful. If no one had escaped, the news could never have reached Job in that way. If Satan's hand was hidden under these crushing strokes, God's hand was above Satan. How sure and great the comfort!
Behind the visible cause stands a second cause, and behind that a third. Faith traces the chain to the end:
Again and again things work this way. Long ago it was so with Job. The agents of his sorrows were plain for anyone to see — the Sabeans, the Chaldeans, the fire, the whirlwind. But behind these lay the sinister power of Satan, thrusting hard at him. And behind even this lay the chastening hand of God. Job's faith and patience showed itself in this, that he did not look at the third cause, or even at the second. He looked straight through to God, and accepted it all from His hand. It is just the same for us now. When trouble sweeps in on us, we are distracted and often angry if we look to second or third causes. If we bow under the hand of God, we are greatly blessed.
Each messenger interrupts the last. The timing was part of the weapon:
So the blows fall in quick succession, with no chance for even partial recovery. They come with terrible suddenness, in the middle of prosperity, happiness and godliness. They were incurable, cumulative, stunning. In one short hour Job is stripped of everything.
Satan's use of fire from heaven does not end with Job:
It was Satan who brought the Sabeans to invade Job. He is a murderer from the beginning. Then came word that the fire of God had fallen from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants. Strange as it may seem, Satan will use this very same power again. "It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people" (Revelation 13:13).
- Loss — The sheep were Job's food and clothing. The second stroke took his living and his servants, and left one man alive to bring him the news.
- Label — "The fire of God" is the servant's name for it. Satan, by God's permission, was handling that fire.
- Disguise — The enemy staged the disasters to look like unsparing judgments from heaven. He will use fire from heaven again (Revelation 13:13).
- Layers — Behind the visible agents stood Satan. Behind Satan stood the chastening hand of God. Job's faith looked past the second and third causes to the first.
- Comfort — Satan's hand was hidden under the blows, but God's hand was above Satan. Bow under that hand, and you are greatly blessed.
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The Chaldeans made three bands, and fell upon the camels and took them, and the servants have they smitten with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped, alone, to tell thee.
A third messenger cuts across the second. Raiders have seized the camels and killed the men with them. The report sounds like ordinary human violence. But the opening chapter has already shown the reader who set it moving, and why one servant walked away alive.
Each messenger reports a different kind of loss. This third one names the animals taken and the men who took them.
The third blow falls on the camels. They were the animals used for carrying loads and for travel, the source of commercial wealth. The ones who do it here are the Chaldeans, from the north of Job's country. They seem to have been a warlike people, and many of them at that time, though they had not yet reached the national power they held later. They sweep it all away, both camels and servants, as fully as the Sabeans had done.
Commentators differ on where the raiders came from. One places them north of Job, one to the east.
They were enemies, plunderers at that time from the east, as the Sabeans were from the south. They fell on the camels, a very valuable part of Job's property, and carried them away. He alone escaped to tell the sad news.
Scripture then leaves this people alone for centuries, and brings them back as God's instrument.
Ur of the Chaldees is mentioned in Gen. 11:28, 31 and Gen. 15:7, and the Chaldeans fell on Job's camels (Job 1:17). After that we do not read of them for some fifteen hundred years, until God sent them to punish Judah (2 Kings 24:2).
To anyone watching, this was a robbery and nothing more. That was the point.
To the watching eye, what happened to Job was raids by Arabs and Chaldeans — ordinary raids for plunder — and a violent storm that blew the house down. Satan was in it all. And behind Satan was God, arranging the purifying of Job's heart and our instruction in every age.
Satan used human greed and the weather alike. The reports came far enough apart for Job to feel each loss on its own.
So we see that not only men's lusts and passions but the elements too were in Satan's hand, as far as God allowed. One after another the herds, the flocks, the camels and the children perished. The ruin was felt all the more sharply because it did not come in a single moment. There was just time to hear of each loss on its own. On the surface neither God nor the enemy appeared. What appeared were Sabeans, Chaldeans, fire of God from heaven, and a whirlwind from beyond the wilderness.
Each report ends the same way: one man got away. There was a reason he did.
"And struck down the servants with the edge of the sword" — Satan's hand at its most plain, the destroyer — "and I alone have escaped": escaped just far enough to tell the grim news, and so, as the one survivor, to make it all sting more. If no one had escaped in each case, the news could never have come in that way. The damage was complete. Yet Job felt, as we should too, that all of it was under the eye of God. Never let us forget Him. If Satan's hand was hidden under these painful blows, God's hand was above Satan. How sure and great the comfort!
God had already fixed how far the enemy could go.
In the case of Job we find God saying to Satan, with authority and by permission, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." That was the limit of the permission. Satan could get no more.
The Chaldean raid landed while the previous messenger was still talking. Job got no gap to steady himself or to save anything.
So the blows fall one after another, with no chance of even partial recovery. They come with terrible suddenness, right in the middle of prosperity, happiness and godliness. They could not be undone; they piled up; they stunned him. In one short hour Job loses everything. Satan had done his work well, under the permission of an all-wise God.
Job never argued with the Chaldeans or blamed the weather. He traced every loss to one Hand.
He admits that nothing was his by right. He came into the world naked, and he would leave it as he came. "We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world" (1 Tim. 6:7). But he turns from the stroke to the Hand that gave it. He looks past all second causes, whether human or miraculous, and lays his sorrow at the Lord's feet. "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
- Hidden hand. The raid looked like an ordinary robbery; Satan was in it, and God was above him.
- Hidden limit. God drew the boundary before the first raid — Satan could touch Job's property, not Job himself.
- Hidden design. One man escaped each time to carry the news, so Job felt the loss one report at a time.
- Hidden speed. The blows fell one after another with no room to recover; in one short hour Job lost everything.
- Open answer. Job looked past every second cause, human or miraculous, and blessed the name of the Lord.
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their brother, the firstborn;
Three messengers have already come, and the fourth cuts in before the third has finished — this time about Job's ten children. Why did the worst news come last, and why was one man left alive to carry each report?
The fourth report takes something no raid could touch. One writer explains what the messenger said, and who kept him alive to say it.
But the most crushing blow of all followed at once. While this man was speaking, another came to Job with news. His sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's house. A great wind — perhaps a tornado — struck the house, destroyed it completely, and killed all ten of Job's children (vv.18-19). The messenger said he alone had escaped to bring the report to Job. He may have been one of the servants of Job's son. But Satan let these four messengers stay alive so that the news would reach Job fast, blow upon blow. Satan planned it all to crush Job completely, so that he would curse God.
Each messenger breaks in on the one before him. One writer shows why the blows fell so close together, and why one man always escaped.
Satan is nowhere to be seen; yet his hand was in everything. These were events on earth, carried out by ordinary means. They fell one after another with great speed, and that speed was no small part of the trial. A long gap between the blows would not have served the enemy's purpose. The enemy arranged it with great skill, so that these disasters would look like judgments sent from God — judgments that spared nothing — and yet they came by outward, earthly means… "I alone have escaped": each man survived just long enough to tell the grim news, and as the only survivor he made the pain of it sharper… The damage was complete; yet Job felt, as we too should, that all was under the eye of God. Never let us forget Him. Satan's hand was hidden under these painful blows, but God's hand was above Satan. What a sure and great comfort!
Fire, wind and armed men did the damage. One writer names who was using them, and by whose permission.
We also learn that, when God allows it, Satan can control fire, wind and the actions of people to carry out his evil plans. With Job, fire came down from heaven. A great wind struck the house where his sons and daughters were feasting. Job himself was struck with boils. The Sabeans and Chaldeans played their part in stripping him bare on that terrible day.
The children were doing what they had often done. So were the farm hands and the animals in the fields. One writer looks at how ordinary the day appeared.
Job's sons and daughters are eating and drinking wine, like the world today. They little think of the sudden destruction waiting for them. The oxen were ploughing, and the donkeys feeding beside them — everything going on as usual. Happy-looking world! You would think there was no tempting devil in you. How quickly and how well Satan did his work!
Job's own words later in the book show that he had long dreaded losing his children. One writer traces where Job's heart had been resting.
While Job prospered, he was rejoicing not in the Lord but in his prosperity. He was living in his circumstances. He kept saying to himself, Ah, there are those precious things — my sons and daughters, my camels — and one day I may lose them. He said, "For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes." His mind was filled with circumstances, and not with the God of circumstances.
Writers differ on how much blame lies with Job's own heart. They agree on how the day ended, and on who set its limits.
So the blows fall one after another, with no chance to recover in between. They come with terrible suddenness, while all is prosperity, happiness and godliness. They could not be undone; they piled up; they left him stunned. In one short hour Job loses everything. Satan had indeed done his work well, under the permission of an all-wise God.
- Permitted — the day is Satan's work, but only "under the permission of an all-wise God." God's hand stayed above Satan's.
- Designed — the speed was chosen. No long gap between blows, and one survivor each time to carry the news.
- Disguised — a raid, a fire, a storm. Ordinary means, made to look like judgments from heaven.
- Deepest — the fourth report takes what no herd could replace: the children, at a family meal.
- Exposed — the loss hits what Job had long dreaded. His heart had been resting on his circumstances, not on the God who gave them.
and behold, there came a great wind from over the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they died; and I only am escaped, alone, to tell thee.
Three messengers have already told Job that his oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels and servants are gone. Now a fourth reports a desert wind that killed all ten of his children — and one question hangs over the verse: who sent that wind?
The first three reports stripped Job of property. This one takes what property could never replace.
So we find it from all quarters, and then the weightiest of all — the destruction not merely of property but of everything he had, taken quite literally. Did he not have sons? Did he not have daughters? All was swept away, and swept away in a way that was especially distressing to the heart. Was not God above? Does not God take an interest in everything?
Human greed explains raiders. It cannot explain a storm. Yet the reader of chapter 1 knows what Job's household could not see. The same enemy stood behind all four disasters, and nothing in the scene showed him.
So we see that not only men's desires and passions were in Satan's hand, but the elements too — as far as God allowed. One after another the herds, the flocks, the camels and the children perished. The loss was felt all the more sharply because it did not come in one moment. There was just enough time to hear of each loss on its own. On the surface neither God nor the enemy appeared. There were only Sabeans, Chaldeans, fire of God from heaven, and a whirlwind from beyond the wilderness.
The timing of the blows was part of the plan.
They were earthly events, carried out by ordinary means, and they fell with extraordinary speed — and that speed was no small part of the trial. A long gap between the blows would not have served the enemy's purpose. He arranged it with great skill, so that these disasters would look like judgments sent by God, judgments that spared nothing, and yet came by earthly means.
Four disasters, four sole survivors. That is not luck. Each spared man was needed as a courier.
While this man was speaking, another came to tell Job that a great wind (perhaps a tornado) struck the house where his sons and daughters were feasting, killing all ten of his children. The messenger said he alone had escaped to bring the report. But Satan allowed these four messengers to remain alive so that Job would receive the news quickly, blow upon blow. Satan designed these things to devastate Job completely, so that he would curse God.
The wind killed the children, but it never touched Job himself — because it could not. God had drawn a line before the trial began.
So God hands Job over to Satan. Everything he has lies open to that enemy's malice: "Only against him do not stretch out your hand." Not a hair of the child of God can fall without His permission. Satan is only an instrument, carrying out God's will without meaning to; he can do no more than he is allowed to do. How good it is to remember this! If trials come against us like an army, we know that the Almighty stands between us and them. They will only work out His own purposes of love for us.
There are three layers to this disaster, and Job's whole answer depends on which one he fixes on.
There were the agents of his sorrows, quite open to public view — the Sabeans, the Chaldeans, the fire, the whirlwind. But behind these lay the sinister power of Satan, thrusting hard at him. Again, behind even this lay the chastening hand of God. Job's faith and patience showed in this: he did not look at the third cause, or even at the second. He looked straight through to God, and accepted it all from His hand. It is exactly the same for us today. When trouble sweeps in on us, looking at second or third causes distracts us completely and often provokes us. If we bow under the hand of God we are greatly blessed.
The house at the feast is not the only thing this enemy would like to bring down.
Once Satan brought the wind around the house of Job's sons and daughters as they feasted together, and all perished when it collapsed. Today he would bring the wind of his opposition around our souls, and we need constant watchfulness.
- Permitted — the trial starts with God's boundary line, not Satan's freedom. The enemy can do only what God allows.
- Hidden — the messengers report weather and raiders, and the blows even look like judgments from God. The enemy never shows his face.
- Designed — Satan leaves one survivor at each disaster on purpose. The news lands blow upon blow, aimed at making Job curse God.
- Total — the wind takes what the Sabeans and Chaldeans could not: not property but children, all ten, in one day.
- Answered — Job looks past the raiders and past the enemy to the hand of God. That is where trouble stops destroying and starts blessing.