Job 1:13-19

4. The first trialloss of possessions and loved ones (Job 1:13-19)

TEXT 1:13-19

(13) And it fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house, (14) that there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them; (IS) and the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away: yea, they have slam the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. (16) While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. (17) While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have taken them away, yea, and slam the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. (18) While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house; (19) and, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

COMMENT 1:13-19

Job 1:13With telling efficiency Satan proceeds to carry out the permitted testing. Swift disasters strike at the household of Job. In rapid succession the entire life style of Yahweh's servant has been violently removed. Violence[35] is basic to Satan's method in every age. The formula now there was a day suggests a lapse of time between the scene in heaven and the initiation of the trial. This suggests that the family disasters are not involved in either his or his family's misconduct. The unexpectedness of each event leaves no time interval for Job to rationalize any explanation of the ensuing crises. How will Job respond to misfortune? How will he analyze his new conditionin view of his explicit trust in Yahweh?

[35] As violence is a fundamental sign of contemporary social, economic, and political disorder, how must Christians respond? See Jacques Ellul, Violence, NY: Seabury, E. T., 1969; also his Hope in Time of Abandonment, NY: Seabury, E. T., 1973, and G. Sorel's classic Reflections on Violence. This theme is a fundamental issue and must be faced if we are to encounter the contemporary world id Christ's name.

Job 1:14Life is progressing as usual; then the disorganizing phenomena occur. How will Job cope with his new situations? We are told that men must always either cope or adjust to the factors about us. Is this the only option for contemporary believers in Job's vindicator? (See Toffler's Future Shock and discuss.)

The messenger emphasizes the calm before the raid. Just the right conditions for surprise. The oxen were ploughing describes that the plans for the fall work were being fulfilled. The season for ploughing is winter and everything is perfectly normal; then disaster strikes. Job will have passed from wealth to destitution in four moments.

Job 1:15The Sabeans fell upon them. But who are the Sabeans?[36] (Hebrew sebaGenesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9; Genesis 25:3; 1 Kings 10; Isaiah 40:6; Jeremiah 6:20; Job 6:19; and Joel 3:8) The specific identification is contingent upon the location of Uz. There are Sabeans related to distant South Arabians. These people are located ca. 1000 miles south of Jerusalem from which the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon (1 Kings 10:1-10). The distance seems highly improbable for a raid to Job's homeland. The Sabeans meant here are perhaps those from the region now known as Yemen (see W. Phillips, Qataban and Sheba, NY, 1955). In Job 6:19, Sheba is parallel to Tema. In Isaiah 21:13 and Jeremiah 25:23 Tema is in the geographical area of Dedan. This would imply a North Arabian identification.

[36] The specific identification is quite complex and unnecessary for our purposes, but see R. L. Bowen, Archaeological Discoveries in South Arabia, 1958, pp. 215-86; and G. W. van Beek, South Arabian History and Archeology, in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (in honor of W. F. Albright, NY, 1961). There are three groups.

The lone surviving witness to the disaster bears the sad tidingsI alone escaped the sword. This feature is found a number of times in the Old Testament (egs., 1 Kings 18:22; Genesis 44:20; Josiah Job 13:12; 2 Samuel 13:32; and Ezekiel 9:8.) The Hebrew is very vivid in its description of death by the sword. Literally the text says and the servants (boys) were killed by the mouth of the sword (Hebrew idiom expressing the fact that the sword ate its victims).[37]

[37] For the archaeological data on these ancient swords see T. J. Meek, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 122, 1951, pp. 31-33. Note further use of imagery in Revelation 1-16; Revelation 2:16; Revelation 19:15 where sword proceeds from the mouth of the Messiah.

Job 1:16Even while he was still speaking disaster intensified. The first calamity came from the hands of man; the second from nature. The Hebrew grammar indicates the simultaneity of the two disasters. The fire of God is probably lightning. In the great Elijah encounter in 1 Kings 18:38, the lightning is called the fire of Yahweh to emphasize that the source was not Baal, the Canaanite weather god. The fire was so devastating that it literally ate all before it (see Job 15:34; Job 20:26; Job 22:20; and Numbers 16:35; Numbers 26:10).

Job 1:17First the Sabeans fell on them; then the Chaldeans. The mention of the Chaldeans here suggests an early origin for Job, i.e., from a marauding tribe. From the ninth century B.C., when they first appear in the Assyrian records of Ashurnasirpal II (884-859) to the period when they provided the rulers of the neo-Babylonian empire of Nebuchadrezzar the Old Testament is aware of the presence of the Chaldeans. They finally gained control of Babylon in the late eighth century B.C. before Nabopolassar, in 626 B.C., founding the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The description of the Chaldeans here in Job is from a much earlier period than the neo-Babylonian era. The idiom translated formed three bands literally means put three heads, i.e., they made a three-pronged attack. This strategy is mentioned in Judges 7:16; Judges 7:20; Judges 9:34; Judges 9:43-45; and 1 Samuel 11:11; 1 Samuel 13:17.

Job 1:18-19Now disaster will strike deep into the very heart of Job's household. Before, property was the object of destruction, now persons. The scene now reverts to that sketched in Job 1:13. All the children are gathered in the house for the final hour of doom. Only a whirlwind could have struck the four corners of the house. The first and third calamities were brought about by human agency, and the second and fourth were the results of nature's violence. Satan has power over both men and nature. He has the greatest power in the universe, second only to our creator-redeemer God. The word translated young men is the same one rendered as servants in the previous accounts.