And Job rose up, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshipped;
Job has just heard four messengers in a row: raiders, fire, more raiders, and a wind that killed all ten of his children. What he does next raises the hardest question in the book: how can a man honour God at the very moment God seems to have stripped him bare?
Each action in the verse carries its own weight, and only the last one is positive.
Job arose and tore his robe (a sign of repentance). He shaved his head, a picture of how weak and exposed he stood before God. Then he fell to the ground and bowed low before his Creator. All of these are negatives, implying denial of self. But lastly, and most important of all, he worshipped, giving God the place of highest honour and dignity (v.20). To those who have no faith in the living God, worship is one thing they would not think of considering. It feels more natural to complain bitterly that they do not deserve what is happening to them.
The robe he tore was a mark of rank. The Morrish Bible Dictionary describes it as "a large tunic, worn over the common one, but without sleeves," worn by priests, kings, princes and other men of high position.
The torn robe is not a lapse that the worship makes up for. Scripture never blames Job for it.
Job went through the heavy afflictions set before us in the first chapter: the loss of his property and of his family. He tears his mantle, it is true (chapter 1:20). He did not sin in that, the word tells us. His grief was lawful. He was free to grieve for the loss of his children. But he arises and worships before God. He can worship Him, because his will is broken. He can say, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
The messengers pointed to raiders, fire and a storm. Job pointed to none of them.
It showed complete submission to God under the hand that had taken so much from him. It showed that this servant of the Lord was walking in the way of faith. He traced every sorrow back to God alone, no matter how it reached him, and took everything from His hand.
The same writer adds that this submission is not the hardest lesson God teaches.
For some, bowing in submission to God in a great loss is not as hard a lesson as giving up our own wisdom, and refusing every idea of our own righteousness and self-sufficiency.
Many people meet a blow like this by blaming God.
What did Job do? His conduct was perfect. We read, "Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell on the ground and WORSHIPPED." Could it be so? It was. What a rebuke to some, who would blame God for the blow that has fallen.
The same writer makes it practical. He writes: "if we worship, give God the glory, accept the trial at His hand, we shall be greatly helped to bear the trial" (A. J. Pollock).
Satan's charge in the opening chapter was that Job served God only because it paid. This verse is the reply.
Satan's vile suggestion is that no such thing as godliness exists. If a man claims to be godly, it is not that he fears God or cares for God. It is simply that he knows it pays and works to his worldly advantage. Satan says to God, "Stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." The Lord lets this horrible lie of the devil be fully exposed. He lets Satan strip Job of all that he has, and in the end Satan stands exposed as a liar.
Commentators differ on how much credit belongs to Job here. One suggests the very speed of the disaster helped him bear it.
Note that a man bears a great mass of afflictions better at first than he does later on. The strength that is in the heart, the confidence in God, is the resource when the crash is sudden and terrible. And in the speed with which Satan used his power, it seems to me he outwitted himself, for sufferings with a gap between them are certainly more trying.
Another writer reads the same scene as incomplete: "though Job bows, he does not thank God for his trials." He traces this to a man "occupied with circumstances, and not with the God of circumstances" (G. V. Wigram). Yet Job's response here is an answer "to those who claim that their hard circumstances are an excuse for sinning" (Leslie M. Grant).
- Charge. Satan claimed Job served God only because it paid; God let him strip Job and expose the lie.
- Grief. The torn robe and shaved head were real sorrow, and Scripture does not call that sin.
- Worship. Every gesture in the verse denies self except the last, which gives God the highest place.
- Source. Job looked past Sabeans, fire and storm and took the whole loss from God's hand alone.
- Result. A broken will could bless the Name that had taken away — and the accuser stood exposed as a liar.
and he said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah!
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
In all this Job sinned not, nor ascribed anything unseemly to God.
Job has just lost his herds, his servants, and all ten of his children in one day. This closing verse gives heaven's verdict on how he took it, and it raises a question: what did Job avoid, since grief itself was no sin?
Job's first act after the news was worship, not protest. The verse then clears him of one fault in particular: charging God foolishly, as older translations word it. (The ESV renders the phrase "charge God with wrong.")
And how did it affect Job? Very few converted men now would act as Job did then. "Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped." Now Job was a most affectionate man. He was full of graciousness even to strangers. What was it for him to lose all, not merely his property, but every soul of the family, outside his own house? … You could not imagine a happier or clearer expression of complete godliness from a soul so deeply tried. "In all this Job did not sin, nor charge God foolishly," that is, in a way that was contrary to all propriety.
Job tore his robe in grief, and the verse still says he did not sin. Mourning and worship came in the same hour.
The first chapter sets before us Job's heavy afflictions: the loss of his property and of his family. It is true that he tears his robe (chap. 1:20). But he did not sin in that, the word tells us. His grief was lawful. He was free to grieve for the loss of his children. But he rises and worships before God. He can worship Him because his will is broken. He can say, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Job's response did more than pass a test. It showed what Satan's attack actually achieved.
So far, Satan has failed completely. His object had been to drive Job from God; he had only drawn him to Him. This proves the reality of Job's faith.
Many treat pain as permission to speak against God. This verse removes that defence. Others since Job have proved the same thing.
So Job's attitude is a real answer to those who claim that hard circumstances are an excuse for sinning! "In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong" (v.22). Many since Job's time have proven this though enduring terrible afflictions and trouble. Their troubles did not push them away from God. Instead they drove them into His presence, to find comfort and joyful fellowship with the Lord. Job still had much to learn, as we often do, yet his response to trouble shows the reality of his faith in the Lord.
The same verdict comes again later in the book, but shorter. What is missing points to something Job had not yet grasped.
At the end of the first chapter we read, "In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong." In Job 2:10, however, it says only, "In all this Job did not sin with his lips." God would surely have wished to spare Job his sufferings. And what Satan was allowed to do did not come directly from the hand of God. This is a mystery, hard to understand. If Job later did charge God foolishly, it was partly because he did not understand this mystery.
Job passed the test, yet the book does not end here. Behind the losses stood a purpose that only this ordeal could serve.
And to think of Satan being allowed — yes, commissioned by God — to bring about all this! And for what? For the deep and lasting profit of Job's precious soul. God saw that His servant needed to learn a lesson. What is more, He saw that there was no other way to teach it. Job had to pass through an ordeal whose bare record fills the mind with solemn awe. God will teach His children, even though it be by stripping them of all that the heart clings to in this world.
- Charge — to charge God foolishly means saying something about God that is completely out of place. Job never did, even after losing everything in one day.
- Grief — the torn robe was lawful sorrow, not sin; Job could worship in the same hour because his will was broken.
- Reversal — Satan's aim was to drive Job away from God, and instead the blows drove him to God, proving his faith was real.
- No excuse — hard circumstances give no permission to sin. For many since Job, trouble has become the road into God's presence.
- Unfinished — later the verdict shrinks to "did not sin with his lips." Job still had much to learn, and God taught him by stripping away all the heart clings to.