Job's Feasting Sons

by G. Jarvie, Glasgow | Category: General | Dec 1968

"His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one

upon his day" (Job 1.4).

We know much about the man Job, and the lessons from his life and experiences are very helpful to us. How much poorer we would be without the book of Job! We thank God for his faith. We delight in some of the gems that came from the deep mine of his tribulation:

"Though He slay me, yet will I wait for (or trust in) Him" (13.15). "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand up at the last upon earth: Whom I shall see for myself... and not another" (19.25-27). "He knoweth the way that I take: when He bath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (23.10).

These are gems of faith, and they show us the heart of the man. How well the Lord knew His servant! And how thankful we are that Job was tried as he was!

We know little about the first sons and daughters of Job, except that they were in the habit of having feasts in each other's homes. They had plenty, because their father was the greatest of all the children of the East (1.3). But despite his wealth, Job was a wise and godly man. So when his sons and daughters had been feasting, he sent and sanctified them, offering burnt offerings for them all. "Thus did Job continually" (1.5). This feasting seems to have been a habit with his sons and daughters.

One day tragedy struck Job and his feasting sons, while the sons were in the home of the eldest brother. By three successive strokes Job's property, his servants, and his sons, were taken from him in one day. Job's reaction was immediate, and worthy of the man. He "fell down upon the ground, and worshipped" (1.20), and said "The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD".

We pass over the rest of the story, and the part that Satan had in his afflictions. The Adversary could only do what he was permitted to do against Job, and so also against us. We notice that, in the end, God doubled Job's possessions, and gave him again seven sons and three daughters. His daughters he named Jemimah (dove), Keziab (cassia), and Keren-happuch (splendour). They were very fair, we read.

We hear much in our day of the affluent state, and of the advances of science. In these there are dangers. It is probably true that some young brethren and sisters are more likely to be dazzled and blinded by conditions of ease and affluence than those who are older, but none of us is really immune to such conditions, and we need to be watchful unto prayer.

We are not our own, we have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6.19-20). Our lives are not given to us to be spent in ease or in pleasure. We have been saved to serve, and our possessions have been given to us to be used again in the Lord's service. Any other view of life is wrong. The book of Job teaches us that God may step into the lives of the most godly, or the most careless of His people, for His own glory.

"The fashion of this world passeth away" (1 Corinthians 7.31). Let us see that our spiritual lives and our possessions are not swept away with it.

G. Jarvie, Glasgow | Dec 1968
General