and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
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?
What the raid took
The stolen animals were not luxuries. They were how Job made his living, and the raiders were neighbours ready to kill for them.
Samuel RidoutThe 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.
William KellyIn Job 1:15 the error occurs of calling the men of Sheba "Sabeans."
An ordinary scene, an unseen enemy
The scene looked completely normal. Nothing showed that an enemy was at work, and that blindness did not end with Job's day.
C. StanleyJob'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.
Why one man survived
The escaped servant is not a lucky accident of the raid. Killing everyone would have silenced the news; sparing one man delivered it.
William KellyThe 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!
Three causes behind one raid
The verse itself shows only raiders and swords. One writer sets out the layers standing behind them.
F. B. HoleIt 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.
Where a sufferer's safety lies
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.
F. B. HoleThe 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.
J. N. DarbyIn 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.
Summary
- 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.