Job 1:13–2:10 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, Satan said to the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:9). The LORD set a limit: “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand” (Job 1:12).
Those words were spoken in heaven. We readers heard them; Job did not. In this lesson, on earth, in a single day, he receives four messages.
13It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
14that a messenger came to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,
15and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
16While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
17While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
18While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
19and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped.
21He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the LORD’s name.”
22In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.
On another day, Satan came again before the LORD. The LORD allowed him to strike Job’s body, only sparing his life. Job was covered with sores from the sole of his foot to his head, and sat among the ashes, scraping himself with a piece of broken pottery. His wife urged him to renounce God, and Job answered her. (Job 2:1-10)
To read the whole passage: Job 1:13–2:10.
One after another. The passage links the four messages with the same phrase: “While he was still speaking, another also came and said” (vv. 16, 17). Each messenger ends with the same words: “I alone have escaped to tell you” (v. 15). Oxen and donkeys, servants, sheep, camels, and last of all, ten children. Job had no time to catch his breath.
Grief first. When he had heard it all, “Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped” (v. 20). Tearing the robe and shaving the head are signs of mourning. The passage does not rebuke him for this. Job did not pretend not to hurt; he mourned first, and then worshiped.
Gave and taken away. Job says, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there” (v. 21). He acknowledges that what he had was received: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away” (v. 21). This is not saying he felt no pain; he said it while in pain.
Didn’t sin. The passage gives its verdict on the first round: “In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing” (v. 22). Satan said Job would “renounce you to your face” (Job 1:11). This time he did not.
Without cause. In the second conversation in heaven, the LORD says to Satan, “He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause” (Job 2:3). These are God’s own words, and the passage does not explain them further. Job’s suffering was not because he had done something wrong. Readers hear this from God’s own mouth; Job does not know it.
Job among the ashes. With permission, Satan “struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head” (Job 2:7). Job “took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes” (Job 2:8). His wife said, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die” (Job 2:9). The passage does not tell us what was in her heart; it records only her words. We know just one thing the passage makes plain: the ten children who died were her children too.
Good, and also evil. Job answered her, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Once more the passage gives its verdict: “In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). After Job lost everything, Satan’s question received its first answer. But Job’s story is not over; what is in his heart only begins to come out in the next lesson.
Behind Satan’s question lies an idea: people fear God because he has “made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side” (Job 1:10); take the hedge away, and the fear of God goes with it.
From the very start the passage tells us that Job was “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1), and God himself says Satan moved him “to ruin him without cause” (Job 2:3). The hedge was taken away, yet the passage records: “In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). From here on, the book of Job answers Satan’s question.
You may be in a season when bad news comes one piece after another. Job first tore his robe and fell to the ground, and then said, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away” (v. 21). In him, grief and worship happened together.
You can come to God with your tears; there is no need to stop crying first.
This week: Find a quiet time and write down what you have lost recently, or what you most fear losing. Then, as Job did, bring it to God in one sentence — even if that sentence is only ‘It hurts.’
Scripture: World English Bible.