Job 1

Job 1:1

I. THE PROLOGUE: THE TESTING OF JOB (Chaps. 1, 2) A. Scene I: The Land of Uz (1:1-5)1:1-3 Job was a wealthy man who lived in the land of Uz. From Lam_4:21 it appears that Uz was located in Edom, southeast of Palestine. The upright and God-fearing Job had seven sons and three daughters. So vast were his holdings of livestock that he was the greatest man in the East. 1:4, 5 One of the strong arguments that the events of Job took place in the patriarchal era is the fact that Job, as father of the family, acted as priest and sacrificed burnt offerings for his sons. The danger of frivolous and even sacrilegious talk when even generally devout people are feasting and making merry is ever present. In his evening meditation for Christmas Day, C. H. Spurgeon makes a good application for us in the Christian dispensation: What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself ere he rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household gatherings it is easy to slide into sinful levities, and to forget our avowed character as Christians. It ought not to be so, but so it is, that our days of feasting are very seldom days of sanctified enjoyment, but too frequently degenerate into unhallowed mirth. . . . Holy gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas! for our poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. Come, believer, in what have you sinned to-day?

Have you been even as others in idle words and loose speeches? Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The sacrifice sanctifies. The precious blood of the Lamb slain removes the guilt, and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance and carelessness.

Job 1:6

B. Scene II: HeavenThe Lord’s Presence (1:6-12)As the story unfolds we are told of a scene in heaven when the sons of God (angels) appeared before the LORD. Satan (the word is Hebrew for Accuser) also was present. When God spoke to Satan concerning the uprightness of His servant Job, Satan implied that the only reason Job feared God was that He had been so good to him. According to Satan, if the Lord had not put a protective hedge around Job, then he would have cursed his Creator to His face.

Job 1:13

C. Scene III: The Land of UzCalamity to Job’s Property and Prosperity (1:13-22)1:13-19 The LORD, thereupon, granted Satan permission to test Job by robbing him of his possessions. However, the devil was not permitted to touch Job’s person. Then followed a series of dreadful calamities in rapid succession:

1. The Sabeans stole five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred female donkeys, and killed the servants who were in charge of these animals.
2. Lightning destroyed seven thousand sheep, as well as the servants who were tending them.
3. The Chaldeans stole three thousand camels and killed the servants who cared for them.
4. A great wind caused the collapse of the house in which Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine, killing all of them. 1:20-22 In spite of these terrible losses, Job was enabled to worship God, saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”