A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

It was then that the first servant arrived looking tired and deeply disturbed. The Sabeans
had attacked the men while they were plowing, killing all the other servants and stealing the
entire herd of oxen and she-asses. What a thing to learn on the birthday of his son. But as he
listened to the report of the servant, he noticed another servant arriving looking just as tired and
more deeply disturbed.
He too was the bearer of bad tidings. “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the
sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” (v. 16) But
there was not time to clarify this “fire of God,” for as the second servant completed his report,
there was a third arriving and he looked much like the first two. It was becoming obvious he too
bore bad news.
“The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and
killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you” (v. 17). But
that was not all, for there was a fourth servant arriving and his countenance betrayed he too had a
message Job would prefer not to hear.
This time it was his family. A tornado had destroyed his son’s house. Everyone was there
at the time. No one survived the devastation except the one who was now making the report.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Job was a giant success by anybody’s standards. Now he had
nothing but four servants who could remind him how much he had lost. He tore his clothes and
shaved his head in mourning for his children.. Then he worshiped the Lord. “The Lord gave, and
the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (v. 21).
The final assault of Satan (2:1-13)
Job was just too godly to be overlooked in heaven. It was not long before the accuser
again stood before God ready to accuse Job. But God had a question for Satan first. “Have you
considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man,
one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited
Me against him, to destroy him without cause” (v. 3).
But Satan was not yet willing to admit defeat. It was Job’s health. Who wouldn’t serve
God if their health was as good as Job’s. If Job ever faced any sort of serious illness, he would
curse God to His face.
Again the Lord decided to prove Satan wrong. He was free to do anything he wanted to
Job short of taking his life. Again Satan left the assembly of angels with evil intentions. Again,
no one bothered to warn Job.
Satan “struck Job with painful, boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head”
(v. 7). Commentators are divided over the exact nature of the illness of Job. Some argue it was
elephantiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic roundworm and transmitted to humans by the
mosquito. The disease is rarely found in persons under thirty and the common symptoms are
usually not manifest unless the person has been repeatedly infected over a long period of time.
The complex infections which accompany the disease together with the abnormal proliferation of
connective tissues result in the legs becoming abnormally large like those of an elephant.
Job’s symptoms are more characteristic of another disease transmitted to humans by
sandflies known as Leishmania tropica var major. Leishmania cases have been reported in which
the victim had as many as a hundred weeping boil-like lesions. They are initially purple in
appearance but later are covered with dark, crusty scales. At this stage, they itch intensely which
explains why Job would scrape himself with a broken piece of pottery (v. 8). In extreme cases,