Job 1:13-15

וַיְהִי הַיּוֹם וּבָנָיו וּבְנֹתָיו אֹכְלִים וְשֹׁתִים יַיִן בְּבֵית אֲחִיהֶם הַבְּכוֹר

וּמַלְאָךְ בָּא אֶל אִיּוֹב וַיֹּאמַר הַבָּקָר הָיוּ חֹרְשׁוֹת וְהָאֲתֹנוֹת רֹעוֹת עַל יְדֵיהֶם

וַתִּפֹּל שְׁבָא וַתִּקָּחֵם וְאֶת הַנְּעָרִים הִכּוּ לְפִי חָרֶב וָאִמָּלְטָה רַק אֲנִי לְבַדִּי לְהַגִּיד לָךְ

13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” (NIV)

Verse 13 foreshadows something that is still on the way. Ominously, we are told that just as the devil begins to strike at Job's world, all of Job's children are together at one of their regular events.We don't need to be told what Job was doing; we already know. When his children got together, he didn't know whether any of them sinned, but he always made a burnt offering on their behalf. We can all but smell the roasting meat with Job as the hurried footsteps of a running servant approach. The Sabeans attacked! The oxen and the donkeys are all gone! The servants are all killed!

It seems best to equate these Sabeans with the nation we will later call Sheba when their queen goes to visit Solomon and is left breathless. Sheba was located in the southern tip of what we call the Arabian peninsula. The modern nation there is Yemen. It's probable that the Sabeans did not come all the way from the far south to Job, but from the north of Saudi Arabia. Later on they are associated with Tema, an oasis not far from the modern Muslim city of Medina. There is even a river bed there called the Wadi eš-Šaba (Sabean Creek) close to Medina. Later in Job the Sabeans are described as "traveling merchants" (Job 6:19); Isaiah 45:14 calls them "those tall Sabeans," and we recall that several African tribes were known for remarkable height, such as the Watusi and the nearby Meroë of Nubia.

Job's world was beginning to be struck by Satan. The blows would continue. The attacks would grow worse.

When God permits us to be tested, how will we react? Will we become angry? Depressed? Will we turn to him for help and support? The Sabean raid cost Job a huge percentage of his possessions and about a third of his servants were murdered. How will he react?

Lord God, help us to look to you for help in the cold, whether we have colds or whether we are cold, Never let our love run cold. Amen.

Luther:

When God gives us a purse full of money, a field full of grain, and a cellar full of wine, and when He lets us be without cross and temptation and enjoy ourselves, then we have a good time and come to think that everything is rosy and that we are sitting in God’s lap. But when God conceals and hides himself and lets the devil do with us what he pleases, then there is trouble and sorrow, yes, there is death itself. From the example of Job one can understand to some extent what it is to be forsaken of God.