Job 1:4

Scripture mentions birthdays being kept only in the case of Pharaoh, Genesis 40:20, and of Herod Antipas, when John the Baptist lost his life. Matthew 14:6; Mark 6:21. Some think that the sons of Job who feasted "each one on his day" did so on their birthdays. Job 1:4, 13. We do not read that the Israelites had any such custom. The Preacher says the day of death is better than the day of one's birth. Ecclesiastes 7:1.

With plenty of wealth, Job's sons led a life of prosperous ease and enjoyment, sharing their pleasures with their three sisters. Some have thought that this round of feasts was daily, all through the week. But there seems no need to tie it to such a routine. Nothing suggests that these feasts were wanton or worldly in themselves, like those of the man who told his soul to "eat, drink, be merry."

His sons and daughters lacked nothing. God had blessed them with great prosperity, and in the middle of it they feasted and enjoyed life together. There is nothing to show that their pleasure was sinful. But Job had a tender conscience.

It is only a home scene, but it shows all the features of the great world. For every family circle, like every heart, is a little world. Indulgence and the love of enjoyment appear in the children, and something of the common "enmity against God" in the wife of our patriarch. Then there are natural disasters, from wind and fire and disease. And there are troubles that come from other people, from the hand of our neighbour or fellow men, such as the Sabeans and Chaldeans.

His sons also had their own separate households. The description of their ordinary habits leads to a striking trait of Job's godliness... Such was the habitual life of this godly Gentile, which the Holy Spirit takes obvious pleasure in recording. No doubt it was the fruit of the grace of God; yet Job still had to learn better both the God of grace, and himself in His presence. That is indeed the great moral of the book.

Job only saw the possibility that they might do what Agur feared for himself: "be full and deny you, and say, Who is the Lord?" (Proverbs 30:9). The word "curse" God really means "bless," as Job was later urged to "bless God and die" — to renounce Him, bidding Him farewell (Job 2:9).

And he is the father of a family again, a family of a new order. There is nothing to correct among them. All is in happy, holy fellowship, the heart of the father turned to the children, and the heart of the children to their father. At the beginning he had to watch their ways, and provide for the evil they might have committed. But at the end there is nothing of this; their father has only to look at them with admiration and delight.