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.