When we lived on the Gulf Coast, we visited the beach often. Adam was afraid of the waves and would try to beat them back with Sally’s snorkel. He eventually outgrew that fear and would rush into the waves and let them carry him on his little surfboard.
I used to stand in the waves and see how long I could stand there without the waves knocking me down. Waves are funny things. Sometimes they are gentle and just barely come up to your knees, but then other times, when the sea is angry, they are huge and wild. They crash one after another, barely giving you time to catch your breath or secure your footing. While the waves come up over you, the ground beneath is sucked out from under you.
One angry wave is hard enough to withstand, but the dangers come when you are trying to survive one wave, another hits you and then another. You get weak and you feel like you are drowning….because you are.
It sometimes take someone stepping into the waves to save you. Someone that has been in the waves with you can’t save you, you both get pulled under. It takes someone stronger than the waves…someone that hasn’t been beaten down by them.
Job was a man of great wealth and great blessings. He lost it all in one day.
Job (and his wife!) were blessed with 10 children that all loved each other. As their children grew and created their own families and homes, they would gather on a regular basis and fellowship with each other. More than likely, their children were married with children of their own. It’s very feasible that not just 10 children gathered together that fateful day, but up to 20 or 50 family members (spouses and children). Job 1:4
I’ve been reading several different commentaries and none of them broach the subject that there were more than just the 10 children that died that day….this is my own conjecture based on the fact that they were in homes separate from their parents.
While Job (and I’m assuming his wife) are in their home, servants come from outlying parts of his estate.
The waves start crashing….the sea is angry.
The first servant tells of enemy attacks which captured part of his livestock and killed all the other servants. While those words are still hanging in the air, another servant comes to report that “fire of God” had fallen from the sky and killed livestock and servants. Again, while those words are barely out of the servant’s mouth, another servant comes running in to report that another attack from a different enemy has taken the rest of his livestock and killed the rest of his servants.
Job is barely able to catch his breath, his footing is slipping, he’s going under. Satan knows that the worst way to hit a man is through his ability to take care of his family….that’s all gone now.
I imagine Job’s wife at his side, telling him that it will be okay, they can rebuild, she’s trying to be his steady force while the waves crash around them.
(Step back for just a moment….consider your own marriage, a time when your husband lost his job….how many wives have stepped into the workforce because her husband couldn’t? I imagine Job’s wife would have done the same. Remember I consider her to be a woman of integrity too.)
But the waves aren’t done, another one comes crashing down and this time, takes them both.
Another servant, running, panting, out of breath, crying, interrupts the last message with news of his own…a terrible wind, worse then ever experienced before caused the house where the children were gathered to collapse and they are dead.
The waves pull them under…they are drowning.
There was only One that was strong enough to pull them up….God. Job grabbed hold and hung on for dear life.
And then he worshiped. Job 1:20
How? How does he worship when all is lost, when his babies are gone?
He was a man of perfect integrity, who feared God, and turned away from evil.
I’ve seen that lived out too.
For one summer my dad worked to do twice the amount of hay that he normally did in a summer. At the end of the summer all those beautiful round bales of hay were stacked up behind the barn, enough to last for two winters. My brother was going to take over the farm the next summer and Daddy wanted to make it a little easier for him by giving him a headstart with the hay.
But Satan was roaming through the earth, seeking to do evil. Someone, under Satan’s evil influence, set all that hay on fire.
We all rushed to the fire, but it was too late, all the hay was lost. Later, my mother told how she and my dad dressed hurriedly and rushed out to the barn, but before they even got to the fire, Daddy stopped, took her hand and worshiped.
He prayed.
He prayed for the one that set the fire.
That’s what a man of integrity does. He leads his family even when the waves are crashing and they can’t stand on their own. He stands on his faith and pulls the rest up with him to Him.
I fully believe that Job’s wife was right by his side when he worshiped as the waves of grief crashed around them.
