And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah; and Satan came also among them.
So far the book has stayed on earth, with Job and his household. This verse lifts the veil on a scene Job never saw: a gathering in heaven where his name comes up, and where his accuser is standing in the room.
Without this scene the disasters that follow make no sense. Heaven is watching what happens on earth.
To teach such a lesson, the veil is lifted for us on a higher scene. Earth is the stage where the godly man is tested. And the sight of a saint watched by angels is not only a later thing, true of apostles and others; it was already true then.
Some treat this heavenly scene as poetic decoration. Commentators answer that poetry and truth are not opposites here.
The book is a magnificent piece of poetry, told in a vividly dramatic form. That does not in the least mean it is any less true. In God's word poetry must be truth, and nothing is grander than these great dramas. The setting is heaven and earth, and those taking part are God, the angels, Satan and man. There is no room for invention here, because the truth is grander than anything men can imagine.
Scripture also calls believers sons of God, so the question matters here. The answer starts with heaven itself.
Heaven as a place is not fiction. There is an uncreated heaven where God's throne and dwelling place have always been. From this passage we may gather that there are certain times when all who live in heaven, good and evil, have to gather before the Lord. The expression "sons of God" does not mean believers on earth (a believer's sonship is a New Testament truth), but supernatural beings, the angels. According to this book, these sons of God shouted for joy at the hour of creation (38:7).
The title says more about them than that they are spirits. The name set beside theirs points up the difference.
The expression "sons of God" seems to suggest not just a spirit nature, but moral likeness to God as well. The mention of "Satan" in contrast makes this even clearer.
Many read "there was a day" as any random morning. One commentator argues the wording points to a set day, and that our English versions miss it.
We have a most remarkable scene, where "the sons of God" came together, we may say, to pay their homage to God Himself in heaven. You know that "the sons of God" serve as messengers. Here we get a very vivid view of one particular day when they came — the day, not merely a day. Neither the Revised Version nor the Authorised Version has it, but that is the word intended.
Most people picture the devil locked away below in fire. This verse shows him somewhere else, and Scripture sets a limit on how long that lasts.
This scripture corrects our ordinary views of Satan. Though he is morally fallen, he still has access into God's presence, and can still present himself along with the "sons of God." He is far from being shut up in hell, or even confined to earth. We see this shameless rebel taking his place there as though it were still his right. The time is coming, and soon, when he will be cast out of heaven down to earth (Rev. 12:7-12). He will stay there only a short time, and then be bound a thousand years in the bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1-3).
Does standing among the sons of God make Satan one of them?
The sons of God here in Job 1:6 appear to be unfallen angels, for fallen angels are not sons of God. Satan came among them, though not one of them.
Why does God let the accuser stand there at all? The answer given is not that God is careless, but that He is patient and has a longer purpose.
How great is the patience of God! He has put up with Satan's spite and scheming through all the sad centuries of fallen man's history. He even let him tempt our first parents while they were still innocent. He lets him make his accusations and hints that there is no good, right before His very face. But God allows it all to bring out lessons for eternity. Satan is certainly heaping up more wrath for himself, and meanwhile his very malice can only serve God's righteous purposes of blessing.
- Lifted. The veil lifts on a higher scene: earth is the stage, and a tested believer is a spectacle to angels.
- Summoned. This is no random morning. The sons of God come on the appointed day to present themselves before the Lord.
- Angelic. These sons of God are not believers on earth but the angels who shouted for joy when the world was founded.
- Admitted. Satan is not shut up in hell; he still has access to God's presence, until the day God casts him out of heaven.
- Permitted. God's patience lets the accuser speak to His face. That very malice ends up serving His purposes of blessing.
And Jehovah said to Satan, Whence comest thou? And Satan answered Jehovah and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
The scene shifts from Job's home to God's presence, where Satan appears among the angels. His opening question draws out where this enemy is, what he does, and who is in charge.
God is not asking for information. He is bringing the matter into the open, as He did in Eden:
"The LORD said to Satan, 'From where have you come?'" He would bring it out. Of course, God did know. But here, as in Genesis, we are in those early days when God dealt with people as with children. He brought things out plainly for those who needed the plainest truth. So we see Him elsewhere coming down to look after man. He knew perfectly well without calling after him in the garden of Eden; but it is for us that He reveals it in this way.
His own answer settles a question people still get wrong — he is not locked away somewhere:
Popular theology seems vague about where Satan is at present. Some speak of him as if he were already in Hell; others seem to limit his work to the earth. His own words in Job 1:7 are enough to prove that he has not yet been cast into Hell... One thing is certain. Once Satan or any other transgressor goes into Hell, he will never come out again to walk to and fro on the earth. Hell's miserable prisoners will not be allowed to roam about at will.
But moving from place to place is also a confession of limits:
This shows that Satan is not everywhere at once, as God is. Satan can only be in one place at a time, however quickly he may travel. Yet he has many agents, evil spirits, who carry on his wicked work throughout the world... Some have also questioned whether Satan knows our thoughts. Absolutely not! Only God knows the hearts and thoughts of mankind. He alone is omniscient.
What God draws out of him is a life with no rest in it. The contrast could not be sharper:
God speaks with grace in front of everyone. He brings out the restless hatred of the evil one. That hatred stands in contrast with Him who would come down in love to seek the lost. "Come to me," He said in the hour of His rejection, "and I will give you rest." He said it not only untroubled, but in overflowing love. Satan knows nothing of that rest, and neither do the wicked... But here is the enemy of God and man, who knows no rest and shows his unrest in malicious activity.
The verse shows him in God's presence and describes him on earth. He is not a different being in each place:
In this conversation the Lord challenges and Satan accuses. The answer to the first question shows where Satan is carrying on his work. Like the restless raven flying over the endless waters after the flood, he walks about "like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." In heaven he is the accuser. On earth he is the destroyer. Wherever he is, he is always and only Satan — the enemy of God and of good.
That roaming is not history. It is the world believers live in now, and it shows where he aims:
Though the cross broke the devil's power, he has not yet been thrown into the lake of fire. As a restless and roaring lion he is still "going to and fro on the earth… walking up and down on it" (Job 1:7; Job 2:2). His aim, as always, is to destroy. With God's people his efforts take the form of trying to destroy their faith in God.
Satan speaks here as one summoned and answerable:
Notice the description of Satan: he goes "to and fro in the world," "prowling around, seeking someone to devour." In such times we need great caution. But let God's people feel that this power is only permitted. God limits it, restrains it, and subdues it at His will.
- Question — God asks where Satan comes from. He does not need telling. He brings hidden things into the open for our sake.
- Answer — his reply proves he is not yet in hell, but loose on the earth. A creature who must travel is not everywhere at once, and he cannot read your thoughts.
- Restlessness — the to-and-fro is his character. He knows no rest, unlike the Christ who gives rest to all who come.
- Reach — in heaven he accuses, on earth he destroys, and with God's people his aim is their faith.
- Restraint — the verse that shows him roaming also shows him answering to God. His power is permitted, hemmed in, and held down at God's will.
And Jehovah said to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and abstaineth from evil?
God's opening move in the book of Job is not a disaster but a commendation: He names Job to Satan and praises him. That raises the two questions the whole book turns on. Why does God point out His best man to the enemy? And what does He mean by calling him blameless?
The conversation begins with God, not with the accuser.
Here we learn what could not otherwise be known: it was God, and not Satan, who began the whole transaction. It was God who took notice of His servant Job. His delight in His servant — for He does delight in His saints — is what roused the malice of Satan.
That order shapes everything that follows.
Notice carefully here: the source of all these dealings is not Satan's accusations, but God Himself. God knew what His servant Job needed. He Himself brings forward Job's case and sets everything in motion. If He asks Satan whether he had considered His servant Job, it is because He Himself had. Satan is only an instrument. He is clever, but he does not know that he serves God's purposes of grace. And for Job's good, God lets Satan have his way up to a certain point. The purpose is to bring Job to know his own heart, and so onto deeper ground in his practical relationship with God.
God calls Job "my servant." That title belongs to a short list of men in Scripture.
The term "servant" is often used in Scripture of people commissioned by God to carry out some special duty for Him. Among others it is applied to Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Job, and even to Nebuchadnezzar, the first great head of Gentile rule.
The older translation reads "perfect," and many have misused that word.
Job was not a lopsided man, weak in some qualities and remarkable in others. He had whole-heartedness and integrity. This rested on the fear of God and showed itself in the refusal of evil. The inner and the outer life were right all round. The word "perfect" gives no support at all to the foolish dream that sin in the flesh is wiped out. That is not what "perfect" means in Scripture. It means a spiritually complete character, together with integrity.
Some have read the book as though Job came to God only at the end. God's own words rule that out.
Let the reader clearly understand this. Job was a real saint of God — a soul made alive by God, a possessor of divine and eternal life. We cannot insist on this too strongly. He was just as truly a man of God in the first chapter as he was in the forty-second. If we do not see this, we shall miss one of the great lessons of the book.
There is a further surprise in "none like him on the earth." Job was a Gentile, not a Jew, and still no one matched him.
You can understand that the Jews did not like that. None like Job, a Gentile! According to the story, according to the book, according to the truth — none like him! Yet it was so.
God speaks well of Job in front of the one being who will not.
"Have you considered my servant Job?" asks Jehovah. He takes up for Himself the description of Job already given. God delights in His beloved people and in their righteous ways. If Satan accuses, He will commend. It is always so; judgment is His strange work. He prefers to be occupied with good. "If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise," He thinks on that.
Satan cannot contradict the verdict, so he attacks the reason behind it.
True to his character, Satan can only accuse. He cannot deny Job's righteousness, but he attacks his motives. Having no motive himself but selfishness, he declares that Job is driven by that alone. Why should he not be righteous? Does it not pay?
God praised Job, but where did that goodness come from?
He was the most perfect man on earth, but it was not the goodness of the flesh that made him so — it was God's work in his soul. God commends him when speaking to Satan. The enemy cannot deny his good qualities, so he can only put them down to low motives. But God knew His servant, though the poor servant did not know himself.
- God begins. The trial does not start with Satan spotting Job; it starts with God naming him. The accuser reacts; he never initiates.
- God commends. Where Satan can only accuse, God speaks well of His own — He takes up the description of Job as His own verdict.
- God defines. "Blameless" means integrity and a complete character, rooted in the fear of God. It never meant that sin in the flesh was gone.
- God owns. "My servant" places Job with Abraham, Moses, Joshua and David. And God says "none like him on the earth" of a man who was not even a Jew.
- God aims deeper. Job was already a true saint, but he did not know that his goodness was God's work in him. Satan becomes the ignorant instrument of God's purposes of grace, bringing Job to know his own heart.
And Satan answered Jehovah and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
God has just praised Job, and Satan cannot deny a word of it. So he attacks the reason behind Job's goodness — a charge that lands on God as much as on Job, since it says this fear of God has been bought.
God had described Job's life. Satan says nothing against that description; he goes underneath it.
True to his character, Satan can only accuse. He cannot deny Job's righteousness, but attacks his motives. Having no motive himself but selfishness, he declares that Job is driven only by that. Why should he not be righteous? Does it not pay? He is prosperous, blessed in every way, and God lets nothing come near him to hurt him.
Where does such a reading of another man come from? One writer answers that Satan judged Job by himself, and draws a warning from it.
"Then Satan answered the LORD and said, 'Does Job fear God for no reason?'" It is nothing but selfishness; it is only for his own ends. How did he judge that? From himself. It is a dangerous thing to judge anything from ourselves. It is a blessed thing to judge from God's word.
The words about the hedge are not simply an observation about Job's comfortable life. They are a challenge to the fairness of God's own assessment.
God has pronounced. Is that not enough? Sadly, sin has brought in distrust of God Himself. He too is on trial, and Satan's reasoning in Job's case almost openly takes that ground. God pronounces about Job, and Satan takes exception to it. "Have You not made a hedge about him, and about his house?" he says. He means: "This sentence is not given upon proper trial." Man, to his own ruin, has accepted Satan's malice as truth. Yet God, in His very mercy to man, does not retreat behind His privilege. He is, and must be, sovereign in what He does, so that "none can stay His hand, or say to Him, What are You doing?" Even so, He will allow the question, and let everything come into the fullest light.
The accusation contains an unintended confession. In naming the protection, the adversary admits it had held.
Satan, the adversary, had watched Job for a long time, and Job's God-fearing, upright life clearly annoyed him. If he could have destroyed him he would have done it. But he had to admit that God had put a hedge around him, and he could not break it down or climb over it.
Even when God opens the hedge, He sets how wide the opening is.
The thought of this is very solemn. It should lead us to walk humbly and watchfully through a scene where Satan rules. Satan has no power at all over a soul who stays in the place of dependence and obedience. And, blessed be God, he can never go one hair's breadth beyond the limit God sets.
The question is not only about Job. It is a charge against anyone who claims to fear God.
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 is 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 allows this horrible lie of the devil to be fully exposed. He lets Satan strip Job of all that he has, and the outcome proves Satan a liar. Instead of cursing God, Job fell down before the LORD and worshipped, saying, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
The charge was a lie about Job. Yet one writer warns that it can be partly true of us.
The gifts become a snare to us, and Satan's charge against us is often true in a measure. Our ground for rest and quietness of spirit before God is His kindness and mercies to us, and not simply the knowledge of His love. You can see this in the violent grief and despair many of His people fall into when God takes away any particular mercy. They had rested in the gift more than in God. The gift was to them the evidence of His love; the love itself was not the rest of the heart.
- Charge. Satan cannot deny that Job is upright, so he attacks Job's motive — a motive he reads out of himself.
- Hedge. The words that accuse Job also admit that God's hedge had held. Satan could not break it down or climb over it.
- Limit. When God opens the hedge, He sets the width. Satan cannot go one hair's breadth beyond what God commands.
- Trial. God does not hide His verdict behind His power. He allows the question and brings everything into full light.
- Answer. Job lost everything and worshipped. The man who blessed the God who took away exposed the lie that godliness is only a paying arrangement.
Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is spread abroad in the land.
Satan cannot fault Job's life. So he attacks what no one else can see: why Job serves God at all. He points to the fence of protection around Job, and to Job's wealth, and calls that the reason. Does anyone love God for who He is? And will God let that question be settled in the open?
Satan does not deny that Job is upright. He attacks the reason behind it.
True to his character, Satan can only accuse. He cannot deny Job's righteousness, but questions his motives. Having no motive himself but selfishness, he declares that Job is driven by that alone. Why should he not be righteous? Does it not pay? He is prosperous, blessed in every way, and God allows nothing to come near him to hurt him. Is this accusation true? Can good exist only where life is pleasant? Is God afraid to let His children face hard times?
The accusation does not stop at Job. If Job's devotion is bought, then God is the buyer.
It was a two-handed attack. It was a blow aimed at God. It meant, "You have created man for your pleasure and you can only gain his service by paying him well." It was also a blow aimed at Job, for as "the accuser of our brothers," Satan moved God against him. But was the accusation false or true? That had to be proved for the sakes of all concerned and for ours also. The question was, should God or Satan triumph in the experience of Job.
God has already given His verdict on Job. Satan points at the hedge to say the test was too easy.
God gives His verdict about Job, and Satan takes exception to it. "Have you not put a hedge around him and his house?" he says. He means, "This verdict comes without a proper trial." Man has accepted Satan's malice as truth, to his own ruin. Yet God, in His very mercy to man, does not retreat behind His privilege… God takes away Job's hedge and gives Satan wide limits within which to deal with him. The end, of course, is blessing for the sufferer and full vindication of God's perfect ways.
Satan's complaint is accurate. The fence is real, and Job is not the only one who has one.
As with Job, God has His hedge about every one of His saints. The "hedge" speaks of guard and possession. Until God removes the hedge, the devil cannot touch him. With Job, God permitted Satan to get in to try him, but not to injure him.
Satan reads Job's wealth as the payment that produces the piety. Job's own history says otherwise.
He attributed to Job the same self-centred motives that drive Satan. He said that God had so greatly blessed Job that it was this profitable existence that caused Job to fear God. He forgot that Job's wealth had built up slowly, as we are sure it did. Job's increase came from his faithfulness to God — not the other way around.
Job faced his testing with a hedge around him. One writer sets this beside the temptation of the Lord Jesus, who had no such shelter.
There was no Garden of Eden for Him, there was no hedge about Him, as with Job. He met the full blast of Satan's attack with no shelter and nothing to soften it.
The hedge came down, the wealth went, and the devotion stayed. That result exposed the limit of Satan's understanding.
It is beautiful to see how God has completely cleared Job of Satan's accusation. Job was no hypocrite. He had lost everything to which Satan traced his piety, and it shone out brighter than ever. Satan can trace the motives that work in the flesh, the evil in man's heart which he stirs up. But grace in God, His uncaused love, and grace in man that trusts in it and leans on it — these he cannot measure, and he does not know their power.
- The hedge is real. God guards His people on every side, and the enemy cannot reach past that fence until God removes it.
- Satan questions the hedge. He turns Job's protection into his argument: God never put that verdict to a real test.
- God opens the hedge. He does not shelter behind His right to be believed. He allows the trial, so everyone can see the answer to the charge.
- The hedge is not the reason. Job's wealth followed his faithfulness. It never produced it. Satan turned the order around.
- Grace outlasts the hedge. Job lost everything Satan had credited for his piety, and he still held on. Grace is the one thing the accuser could never measure.
But put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath, [and see] if he will not curse thee to thy face!
Behind Job's losses stands a conversation Job never heard. In heaven the accuser answers God's praise of Job with a dare: take away all that Job owns, and Job will curse Him outright. Two questions follow. Can anyone love God for Himself, and not for what He pays? And whose hand does the striking?
Satan does not dispute God's verdict on Job's character. He attacks something harder to defend — the reason behind it.
True to his character, Satan can only accuse. He cannot deny Job's righteousness, but attacks his motives. Having no motive himself but selfishness, he declares that Job is driven by that alone. Why should he not be righteous? Does it not pay? He is prosperous, blessed in every way, and nothing is allowed to come near him to injure him. Let God only remove that safeguard, and let Job be stripped of all his wealth, "and he will curse You to Your face."
The same suggestion outlives Job. It shows up wherever people treat faith as a business arrangement.
The underlying motive with such people is earthly gain; so they hold that "gain" is the goal of piety. In other words, they teach that Christianity is only a way to improve our condition and add to our worldly advantage. This we know, from the history of Job, is really a suggestion of the devil... 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. He simply knows it pays.
Satan says these words about Job, but he says them to God's face.
It was a two-handed attack. It was a blow aimed at God, for it meant, "You have created man for Your pleasure, and You can only gain his service by paying him well." It was also a blow aimed at Job, for as "the accuser of our brothers," Satan moved God against him. But was the accusation false or true? That had to be proved for the sakes of all concerned and for ours also. The question was, should God or Satan triumph in the experience of Job?
Satan does not claim the power himself. He asks God to stretch out His hand.
It was not Satan's lightning, but God's, that struck Job's property. It was God's whirlwind, not Satan's, that destroyed his family. Satan had demanded this — "Stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has" (Job 1:11). Job sees only God's hand in his suffering — "The Lord has taken away" (v. 21). And God Himself says to Satan, "You incited Me against him to destroy him without reason" (Job 2:3).
Satan asks God to "touch" all that Job has. That word has a history in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament the touch expresses God giving His power to people, as with Isaiah (Isa. 6:7), Jeremiah (Jer. 1:9) and Daniel (Dan. 10:10, 16, 18). In Job's case it refers instead to the sending of personal trial (Job 1:11; Job 2:5).
God grants the request — but draws a line Satan cannot cross.
What a perfect rebuke to man's dream of a God who is indifferent to everything! What a rebuke to the mere theory of an earth moving forward under natural laws! It was Jehovah who raised the question here. Satan could only use Job's prosperity to hint at self-interest... Jehovah gives the adversary permission to stretch out his hand, but not against Job's person. What a comfort that even the enemy's hand is under God's hand! Everything on the side of evil has its measure; on the side of good it is infinite.
Answering Satan was not the only reason for the test.
But God did give Satan permission to do as he pleased with Job's possessions, though not to touch his person. Did God allow this only to prove that Satan was speaking falsely? No, for God had work to do with Job himself, to bring him greater blessing than he could have imagined was possible. God would use the enmity of Satan to this end.
The fire had something to find in Job himself.
He would put the precious ore into the crucible. He knew how much unsuspected evil lay hidden beneath all that outward excellence, mixed even with the inner piety of this good man. He would show that even piety cannot feed on itself, nor righteousness lean on its own arm.
- Charge. Satan cannot deny Job's righteousness, so he attacks his motive. Strip him, says the accuser, and the goodness will go with the goods.
- Target. The accusation strikes at God as much as at Job — it says God can only buy service by paying well.
- Hand. Satan asks God to stretch out His hand, and Job later names that hand as the Lord's, not the enemy's.
- Limit. God gives permission, but draws a line around Job's own body. The enemy's hand stays under God's hand.
- Purpose. God allowed the test to expose the lie. He also used it to work in Job and bring him greater blessing than he could have imagined.
And Jehovah said to Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy hand; only upon himself put not forth thy hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah.
The scene shifts from Job's household to a conversation in God's presence. Everything that follows in the book hangs on this one sentence of permission. Two things stand out. God gives the enemy real power, and God fixes a line he cannot cross.
Satan does not seize Job's possessions. God hands them over. That single fact should change the way we live day by day.
This should lead us to walk humbly and watchfully through a scene where Satan rules. He has no power at all over a soul who stays in the place of dependence and obedience. And, blessed be God, he cannot in any case go a hair's breadth beyond the limit set by God's command.
It is easy to read the chapter as though the accuser set the agenda and God only responded. Commentators point back one step further, to the question God Himself raised first.
Notice carefully that the spring and source of all these dealings is not Satan's accusations, but God Himself. God knew what His servant Job needed. He Himself brings forward his case and sets everything in motion. If He asks Satan whether he had considered His servant Job, it is because He Himself had. Satan is only an instrument, and an ignorant though subtle instrument, to bring about God's purposes of grace. His accusations result in nothing against Job. What God allows him to do only disproves that they are true. But for Job's good, God leaves him to his own will up to a certain point. The purpose is to bring Job to know his own heart, and so to reach deeper ground in his practical relationship with God.
The permission comes with its limit attached. God opens Job's property to attack, but puts Job himself out of reach.
What a comfort that even the enemy's hand is under God's hand! Everything on the side of evil has a limit; on the side of good there is no limit. We ought to know this well, for all things are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
The disasters that follow look like lightning and storm. One writer goes further: the power at work was God's own, put out at the enemy's demand.
We can apply our Lord's words to every outward form of satanic activity: "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above" (John 19:11). In other words, it was not Satan's lightning but God's that struck Job's property. It was God's whirlwind, not Satan's, that destroyed his family. Satan had demanded this — "stretch out your hand and touch all that he has." Job sees only God's hand in his affliction — "the LORD has taken away." And God Himself says to Satan, "you incited me against him to destroy him without reason."
Satan leaves God's presence and goes straight to work. What he then does can leave a reader with an inflated picture of him.
The accuser now acts the roaring lion, and his work against Job begins. But we need caution here, so that we do not credit Satan with powers he does not really have. Satan is only a creature and does not share the attributes of God. He is not all-powerful; he is not all-knowing; he is not everywhere present. If he displays power, it is only with God's permission. If God had not said, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand," he would have had no power.
Behind the permission lies a charge: Job's godliness is only a business arrangement. God brings that charge into the open.
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. The Lord allows this horrible lie of the devil to be thoroughly exposed. God allows Satan to strip Job of all that he has, and the result exposes Satan as a liar. Instead of cursing God, Job fell down before the LORD and worshipped.
- Permission — Nothing reaches Job until God says so; the enemy operates only by leave, never by right.
- Limit — The same sentence that grants power fixes its edge: possessions yes, person no. Evil has a limit; good has none.
- Instrument — Satan is an ignorant tool of purposes he does not grasp. God, not the accuser, opened the conversation.
- Purpose — The permission serves Job's good, bringing him to know his own heart and to deeper ground with God.
- Result — The charge that Job serves God for profit collapses. The stripped man worships, and the accuser stands exposed as a liar.
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.
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.