Job 1:13 – 19
13 When the next day came that his sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine in the house of the firstborn brother, 14 a messenger cam to Job and said:
The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were grazing nearby,
15 when Sabeans fell upon them and took them away,
the slaves they struck down with the edge of the sword.
I alone escaped death to tell you.
16 While this one was still speaking another messenger came and said:
The fire of God fell from heaven burned up the sheep,
and consumed the slaves.
I alone escaped death to tell you.
17 While this one was still speaking another messenger came and said:
Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and took them away,
the slaves they struck down with the edge of the sword.
I alone escaped death to tell you.
18 While this one was still speaking another messenger came and said:
Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine in the house of the firstborn brother,
19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from across the wilderness stricking the four corners of the house.
It collapsed upon the young people, and they died.
I alone escaped death to tell you.
These verses in my mind are a set of the worst possible things that can happen to you without impacting your one flesh. Job loses work animals and slaves, then he loses his food, then he loses his transportation, then he loses his kids. In my reality, it would be like losing my ability to work and provide an income and my savings, losing my cars, and losing my kids. In trying to bring it into my world, I cannot believe that Job was left with a house and a wife who could help him as that would seem even worse. I know people have lost everything during this pandemic and while everything pales to losing a kid, Job still had his house, his health, and his wife. Job’s losses may seem extreme to the average person, but many have had similar pain.
The cycle of loss starts with a neighboring tribe coming down from the hills and taking all his work animals and killing the slaves who tended them. This action was probably unexpected, but wars have been fought over similar incidents in history and their might have been an initial reaction to respond and bring them back.
But before the response can even be formed, it gets worse. And this time it is not a group of people, but the work of God. Lightning from heaven burned the sheep and the slaves tending them. There is no fighting God and there is no bring back sheep or people burned up. The utter despair begins here and yet even before it starts it gets worse.
Another tribe comes and takes away the camels. The raiding party was so big it had to break into three columns to make the attack. So not just one group but two have come to take from the richest man in the East, all at once, and there is no way Job can possibly fight two wars at once and win. Even if God were not involved it was devastation that could not be overcome.
And then the real pain comes, all his kids die at once. Again, it does not happen by any mechanism that could be overcome and there is no bringing them back. God has chosen to test Job and there is nothing to be done to fix it.
The Hebrew action words for the first tribe and the lightning were similar if not exact duplication and represented a fallen action as if coming from on high. Similarly, the action words for the second tribe and the wind sweeping in across the plain are obvious and unstoppable. Other similarities include the slaves being killed, the phrasing of the kids feasting, and the slaves escaping to bring word. This is poetry, and the poet is using every option open to him to paint a dramatic picture of overwhelming destruction followed by overwhelming destruction.
For the first time, I thought the poet could be a woman. Its amazing how hard stereo types are to break. The Bible does include verse attributed to women, so maybe a woman wrote this as well. One of those questions to ask God after we arrive in heaven.
The main thrust of this section is focused on what Job loses and how extreme it was. A positive note is that we too can praise God no matter how bad it gets and use Job as the example we model our response after. I have lost friends along my journey, I have lost my parents, I have lost jobs, and I have been without money, without a job, and with debts to pay. Each event was painful, and I would not want to repeat any of them, but God got me through everyone and those experiences and the comfort in knowing He delivered me make me who I am today.
I always had this impression of Job as someone higher and better than us and that his story was bigger and grander than ours. But now I think that Job was a normal person experiencing normal pain and his story is in the Bible for us to use to get through every event, not just the big ones that Biblically scare us. I know Job’s response looks better than mine, but my story of how God delivers me is my own to use for His Glory.