Job 1:14

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.