Job 1:16
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. 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.
The report that fire fell from heaven and consumed the sheep and the servants describes destruction wrought by Satan through the elements when God permitted him to afflict Job, not an act of God against His servant. The name given it hides its true author, for Satan brings such calamity and leads men to believe that God is afflicting them. It is God who shields His creatures and hedges them from the destroyer, who has studied the secrets of nature and controls the elements only as far as he is allowed, and who has power only over those whom God does not especially guard. What was done to Job in sweeping away flocks, servants, possessions and children in swift succession is done still, and with increasing power in disasters by land and sea, in fire and storm and pestilence, when God withdraws His protecting care from those who rebel against His law. Yet such sudden loss is a proving and not proof of sin or of being forsaken, and Job's steadfast integrity under it bears witness that faith can rest in God in the darkest hour until He lifts up and rewards His faithful servant with an eternal weight of glory.
Satan's Permitted Destruction
The burning up of the sheep and the servants by fire fallen from heaven was Satan's doing through the elements when permitted by God, not God afflicting Job, and such violence in showing indignation against God's servant is not to be regarded as unexpected when God's work advances. The phrase fire of God misattributes the destruction to God, for Satan brings trouble and leads men to believe it is God who is afflicting them. Satan has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature and uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows.
When suffered to afflict Job, he swept away in a moment all that he possessed, with one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. Flocks and herds, sheep, servants, houses, sons and daughters and children were quickly swept away, the enemy taking all he possessed, breaking family ties and taking his children from him. The attack on the father was connected with the purpose of destroying the children as well.
After taking Job's possessions, he then struck his body with painful, loathsome sores and boils and great suffering from the sole of his foot to his crown.
Protection Withdrawn Today
It is God who shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer, and Satan has control only of all whom God does not especially guard. When men show contempt for the law, rebel against it, and teach and force others to do the same, God withdraws His blessings from the earth and removes His protecting care from rebels. Then, to further his own designs and garner his harvest of unprepared souls, Satan favors and prospers some while bringing trouble, disease and disaster upon others whom God does not especially guard.
While appearing as a benefactor and great physician healing disease, he brings disease and disaster. What he did to Job he does now and will do with increasing power. These visitations will become more frequent and disastrous upon man and beast, in accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, tornadoes, hailstorms, tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves and earthquakes. He sweeps away the ripening harvest so famine and distress follow and taints the air so thousands perish by pestilence, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation.
Integrity Under Sudden Loss
The burning of the sheep and servants was a sudden, devastating stroke in which Job was stripped of worldly possessions and children, and that loss belonged to a proving and testing permitted for him. Close connection with God does not secure prosperity in this life, but may bring sore trial and affliction joined to bodily suffering so severe that the sufferer is abhorred by relatives and friends. That disaster and those severe losses were no evidence of a perverted life or of a sinful course deserving punishment, nor did they mean that God had forsaken him.
His friends wrongly charged him with guilt and blamed his afflictions upon his own sin, and by so doing they became miserable comforters who placed God in a false light and misrepresented Him. Though deprived of worldly goods and afterward afflicted in body, Job denied the charge, did not swerve from loyalty, and preserved virtue, integrity, faithfulness and steadfastness in the might of divine power. He maintained his integrity even when exposed to reproach and persecution for the truth's sake as one of God's appointed witnesses.
God did not prevent the plottings of wicked men against him, but He causes their devices to work for good to one who in trial and conflict maintains faith and loyalty. In His own time He lifted Job up, rewarded His faithful servant, and showed him greater favor than before. That steadfastness bears witness to the faithfulness of God's promises and to His abiding presence and sustaining grace, showing the power of faith to withstand the powers of the world, to calmly repose and rest in God in the darkest hour, and to look beyond time and sense to eternal riches.
The furnace of trial and affliction is worth more than all the pain it costs, for thus God brings His children near to Him to show them their weakness and His strength, teaches them to lean on Him, and prepares them to meet emergencies, to fill positions of trust, and to accomplish the great purpose for which their powers were given them. Though the world cannot discern his moral value with God, such a sufferer has promise of an inheritance of greater value than earthly riches that will satisfy the soul, enrollment as a citizen in the record books of heaven, and a final reward of exalted greatness and enduring eternal weight of glory as an heir of all things.