M-G: 5.2.11 // Faithfulness Under Fire, Job 1:19

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"A great wind” suggests a tornado had struck the four corners of the house where Job’s ten children were having a feast. In a heartbeat Job went from riches (Job 1:3) to rags and lost his 10 kids to a killer tornado. The terrible news of different disasters came in waves one behind the other that fateful day.

• First wave (Job 1:14-15): Job lost 500 oxen and 500 female donkeys and servants tending them.

• Second wave (Job 1:16): Job lost 7,000 sheep and the servants in charge of them.

• Third wave (Job 1:17): Job lost 3,000 camels and the servants caring for them.

• Fourth wave (Job 1:18-19): Job lost three daughters and seven sons.

The phrase “while he was still speaking” (Job 1:16, 17, 18) and the clause “I alone have escaped to tell you" (Job 1:15, 16, 17, 19) indicate that these events were not merely coincidental or random acts of evil men or some weather anomalies, an “act of God.” Both were related and orchestrated by Satan (Job 1:8-12) and permitted by the sovereign LORD (Job 1:12). Satan used Sabeans (Job 1:15), lightning (“the fire of God,” Job 1:16), Chaldeans (Job 1:17), and a tornado (“a great wind,” Job 1:19), synchronized by a demonic strike force, in a concentrated attempt to cause Job to curse God (Job 1:11). 

Satan allowed one person to escape from each attack, not out of mercy for that word holds no meaning to him, to choreograph a series of blows to take Job down spiritually. He knew what Job feared most (Job 1:5). And the enemy of God and Job saved that morsel for the last.  

Job’s response to this devastating news was not what we might expect; he did not automatically ask – why but "worshiped" God instead (Job 1:20) and did just the opposite predicted by the overly confident adversary – he “blessed the name of the LORD,” (Job 1:21). There are several things I am reminded by this situation of Job. 

First, we are in a spiritual warfare that will never stop this side of eternity (Eph 6:11-12; 2 Cor 10:4; 1 Pet 5:8). 

Second, nothing enters our life without God’s approval (Job 1:12). 

Third, only a life of godliness and reverential trust in God (Job 1:1) can respond to adversity in this manner and not lose faith in Him. 

Fourth, the realization that everything including our loved ones belong to God (Job 1:21). 

Fifth, unless we trust in God, no matter what the circumstances may be (Job 13:15), the whys may cause us to succumb to the enemy’s agenda (Job 1:22).  

Job never did find out the why of all of this. And the attacks were not over. Job's health would be broken, and his wife would break under the strain of all this adversity by crying out to her husband to curse God and die. Satan is despicable and absolutely void of mercy and grace. But in all of this, the sovereign LORD knows our frame, 

"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it"(1 Cor 10:13). 

Could God have prevented all of this? The answer is yes; He gave permission for this to happen to Job and his family. The general doesn't tell his ground troops the reason behind this campaign or that campaign. Every soldier knows that the underlying purpose behind every campaign is to defeat the enemy here and there. 

Job's contribution to the war effort was nothing less than monumental. For many battles over the centuries have been won because of Job's inspiring victory over Satan, and many more will be victorious in the future because of his example of faithfulness to God under fire. It wasn’t without collateral damage but that is realistic in a never-ending war this side of heaven, but even the scope of destruction is under the sovereign control of God, as well as the blessings that follow (cf. Job 42:12-17). 

Every born again believer living on this planet is involved in an inescapable spiritual war. We don’t have the luxury to opt out. We are all a part of it whether we like it or not. But how we engage the enemy and defend ourselves are faith-based decisions. For Job it boiled down to this common denominator - "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15a). This is our base of operations living in a world fraught with conflict. <><