Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,
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 Timing of the First Blow
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:
J. G. BellettThere 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.
William KellyNot 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!
Struck at the Height of Happiness
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.
Samuel RidoutSo 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.
A Picture of the World at Ease
The feast and the ploughing oxen paint a settled, untroubled world. One writer draws the line straight from that scene to our own day:
Charles StanleyWho 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
The Enemy Under Orders
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.
William KellyThe 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.
Why the Loss Cut So Deep
One writer traces Job's later words back to what this day of feasting had meant to him:
G. V. WigramHere 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.
Summary
- 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.