Job 1:18, commentary and pictures

While one messenger was still speaking another came to tell that his sons and daughters were feasting together in their eldest brother's house when disaster struck them there. It was part of Satan's permitted assault that stripped him in a moment of all he possessed, with flocks and herds, servants, houses and children swept away by one trouble following another. Satan works through the elements as far as God allows, for it is God who hedges His creatures from the destroyer, and when His protecting care is withdrawn Satan gains control to bring disaster while leading men to charge it upon God. The taking of his children proves that severe suffering is not always the fruit of a sinful life, for even one closely joined to God may be so tried, and Job maintained his integrity and loyalty under the unjust charge that his own guilt had brought it upon him. He did not swerve, and in God's time he was lifted up and shown greater favor than before, bearing witness that faith can rest in God in the darkest hour with the promise of an inheritance of greater value than earthly riches.

Setting and Sudden Loss

The verse records another messenger coming in while the previous messenger was still speaking. His report was that Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. They were gathered together there when the calamity fell upon them.

It belongs to Satan's permitted attack upon Job and his family. It was a stroke aimed at destroying his children. In it is seen Satan's indignation vented in calamity against God's servant. The taking of the children was part of sweeping away all that Job possessed — flocks and herds, servants, houses, and children. He was stripped of everything, with one trouble succeeding another as in a moment and all swept away in rapid succession. His sudden losses show how all that a person possesses can be taken away.

Satan's Power and Limits

The loss of the children gathered in the eldest brother's house shows Satan working through the elements to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature and uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. It is God who shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer, so Satan could sweep away flocks and herds, servants, houses, and children with one trouble succeeding another as in a moment only when suffered to afflict.

When God's blessings and protecting care are withdrawn from those rebelling against His law, contempt for His law leaves all whom God does not especially guard under Satan's control, for favor or for trouble, disease, and disaster. Then Satan brings trouble and disaster, and disease, famine, pestilence, and destruction upon man and beast, while leading men to believe it is God who is afflicting them. The same power seen in Job's calamities is at work in accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in conflagrations, tornadoes, hailstorms, tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, and in ruined harvests, famine, distress, and pestilence, which are to become more and more frequent and disastrous upon the inhabitants of the world.

Faithfulness Under Trial

The taking of the children proves that all suffering is not the result of a perverted, sinful life. A faithful person may suffer severe loss without being forsaken by God. Such sore trial and affliction can come even to those who closely connect with God. As God's appointed witnesses exposed to reproach and persecution for the truth's sake, they may be deprived of worldly possessions, so violence and sudden loss of all a person possesses is not to be treated as unexpected or unprecedented.

Along with being deprived of worldly possessions, Job's family ties were broken by the taking of his children. He was afflicted in body for a time with loathsome sores and severe suffering, so that he was abhorred by relatives and friends. Through these trials he maintained his integrity, loyalty, and faithfulness to God. He denied his friends' unjust charge that his sinful course made him guilty before God and deserving of punishment, a grievous test that placed God in a false light.

He did not swerve from loyalty, and in God's time he was lifted up, rewarded, and shown greater favor than before. His steadfastness proves human steadfastness in the might of divine power. It bears witness to the faithfulness of God's promises and to His abiding presence and sustaining grace. It testifies to the power of faith to withstand the powers of the world and to rest in God in the darkest hour, knowing that however sorely tried and tempest-tossed the Father is at the helm. It points to the promise of an inheritance of greater value than any earthly riches to satisfy the soul's longings and an enduring eternal weight of glory. The verse presents Job as an example of one whom the Lord proved, tested, and tried.