[Here we continue a reprint of a small portion of Joseph Caryl’s study in Job.  Mr. Caryl wrote twelve volumes on the book of Job.  His study is a great example of how deep one can dig into the truths of the Bible.]   A Study by Joseph Caryl (1644) Job 1:16-17 - The Fire of the Chaldeans   16  While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 17  While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.  (KJV) In verse 16, we have the second charge which this great enemy gives Job, “While he was yet speaking there came also another.” Afflictions seldom go alone, and therefore, when one affliction is ended, look!, another should begin and one should labor to prepare for it. Job having received this message of the loss of his cattle and death of his servants, while the messenger was yet speaking, a second comes with a sadder story than that.  Satan was yet speaking; one evil treads upon the heel of another; as wave overtakes wave in the sea, so it was here; here was wave after wave to overwhelm his spirit. And as it is said in the Revelation, concerning him that sat on the white horse, that he rode out conquering and to conquer, there was no intermission of his victories; so Satan goes forth afflicting and to afflict, vexing and to vex, tempting and to tempt; he will never give over. “While he was yet speaking there come also another, and said the fire of God is fallen upon the sheep.” “The fire of God” – Why is it here called the fire of God? Some conceive it is called the fire of God, because sent from God: that is ascribed to God, which comes from God, as that in Gen. 19:24, where it is said that the Lord did rain fire and brimstone upon Sodom out of heaven from the Lord, or Jehovah did rain from Jehovah fire upon Sodom to consume it. And in Lev. 10:2, it is said that a fire went out from the Lord and consumed Nadab and Abihu. Elijah procures fire from Heaven to consume the captains that came from the King to take him (see II Kings 1:10, 12). The Psalmist speaking of the plagues of Egypt (in Ps. 105:32) said that the Lord sent flames of fire in the land. So some expound in Ps. 104:3: He maketh his Angel’s spirits and his ministers a flame of fire, that is, he uses flames of fire for his ministers, for his messengers. God sometimes sends a fire on his errands, though we know that place is applied to the angels by the Apostle (see Heb. 1:7). But here rather it is called the fire of God in another regard; for howsoever this fire was sent of God, as all afflictions are, yet because the immediate kindler of it was Satan, he had the power put into his hand. Therefore, this was not a fire (in that sense as those other fires are said to be) sent from God. But it may be called (as usually in Scripture) because of the strangeness of the fire; it was a wonderful, an extraordinary fire; and so it is very ordinary in the Hebrew to use the name of God—El, Elohim or  Jehovah—as an Epithite, as an additional word to heighten the excellence or rareness of things. We find that phrase often, A man of God, the Hebrews say, to call one a man of God, is as much as to say, he is an extraordinary man, a man of an excellent spirit, a Prophet, a holy man. In that Psalm where the church is shadowed under the similitude of a vine, it is said, “She did send forth her branches like the goodly cedars” (Ps. 8:10), so we translate it. The original word is, She sent forth her branches as the cedars of God, that is, excellent cedars, tall and extraordinary cedars. In Psalm 36:6, comparing the love of God to great mountains: “Thy loving kindness is as the great mountains,” the word is, like the mountains of God. In Psalm 65:9, “Thou refreshest it with the river of God,” that is, with an excellent river. In Song of Solomon 8:6, speaking of love and of jealousy: “Love is strong as death, jealous is cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame,” the word in the original is, a flame of God, the coals thereof are coals of fire, the flame of God, that is, a strange fire, an unheard of, an unusual fire, a vehement fire, such a fire as had not been seen nor observed before. Therefore, the Hebrews call extraordinary things the things of God; because indeed all the wonders and excellencies, all the glory and goodness that is in creatures, is but a footstep, a print or drop of that excellency and glory and power that is in God; therefore everything that is most excellent, is ascribed unto God. It is most equal that his name should be stamped upon all excellent things in the creature, who is the cause of all creature excellency. This fire being a strange and extraordinary fire is said to be the fire of God. This fire of God is conceived to have been some terrible flash of lightning, which in a moment destroyed and consumed the sheep and shepherds. And this is more probable, because it is said, to fall down from heaven, that is, out of the air; for so often in Scripture, heaven is put for the air, the middle region of the air, where Satan has great power, therefore he is called, the prince of the air. And he can do mighty things, command much in that magazine of heaven, where that dreadful artillery, which makes men tremble, those fiery meteors, thunder and lightning, are lodged up and stored up. Satan let loose by God can do wonders in the air. He can raise storms; he can discharge the ordinance of heaven, thunder and lightning, and by his art, he can make them more terrible and dreadful than they are in nature. If the skill and art of man can heighten natural things, then much more the skill of Satan. I doubt not but many fearful impressions are made in the air by devils, carrying nature (by God’s permission) far above its own course, and these are properly marvels or wonders (such as the magicians wrought in Egypt by the help of Satan), for miracles are quite out of the devil’s sphere. But he can do wonders, and such was this fire falling from heaven, etc. A marvel or wonder is nature mightily improved; a miracle is nature totally crossed, if not contradicted. Observe this for the nature of that fire; the effect of it follows in the next words. “It hath burnt up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them”:  The word in the original is, It did burn them and eat them up. Fire is a devouring element. Devouring fire, as before a devouring sword, these were devouring judgments upon Job. Yet it does not necessarily infer that the sheep were all burnt to ashes; but that the sheep were all killed by that flame of lightning that came from heaven, for it is said of Nadab and Abihu (of which we spoke before) that a fire went out from God, and did consume them. It is the same original word that is here in the text, a fire went out from God, and did eat them up, yet we know their bodies were not consumed, for they were carried out to their burial and their garments were upon them. So that this consuming does not note the burning of things to ashes, but a striking of them to death; it is a devouring fire, because it is a destroying fire; it takes away life; and thus lightnings kill rather by piercing and penetrating than by consuming and devouring. But now here it will be questioned for the further opening of this, why Satan chooses thus to consume the sheep with fire? Why does he not rather use spoilers to take them away? He could doubtless have got the Sabeans to have fetched away the flocks of sheep, as well as the droves of greater cattle; he could have procured them easily; why then does he cause fire from heaven to come down, the fire of God to consume them. I answer, his reason for this was to put the greater sting into the affliction. He would not have the sheep taken away after the same manner that the oxen and camels were, that he might aggravate Job’s trouble, and provoke him if he could to be passionate against God, yea and (for that was his great design) to blaspheme God; therefore he procures fire from heaven to fall upon the sheep, thereby to beget an opinion in Job that God had now become his enemy, as well as man. When we suffer from man, then the afflicted soul flies to God, makes his complaint and moans to him, as doubtless Job did when he heard of those cruel Sabeans, and what they had done; but lest Job should resort in his thoughts to heaven, and comfort himself in God again, the next messenger tells him that God is his enemy too, that the fire of God is fallen upon the sheep, an extraordinary fire; as if he should say, God fights against thee as well as the Sabeans. Alas now to whom should Job make his moan! That speech of Eli concerning sin may well be applied to suffering, “If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him, but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?” (I Sam. 2:25). So if a man suffer from men, he may go to God, but if God himself appears to be an enemy and to fight against us, to whom shall we go? Indeed, Job knew how to go to God, though he did appear as an enemy; but that is the greatest strait, and to do thus denotes great spiritual skill and strength. Hence observe, That Satan’s great design against the people of God or any servant of God is to provoke them to ill thoughts of God, to persuade them that God is their enemy, to bring the love and good will of God into suspicion; therefore he causes this great fire, and formed the servants language in that cutting phrase, “The fire of God is fallen upon the sheep.” You cannot put this off, as you might do the other, and say, this is but the malice or the covetousness of the Sabeans that robbed me of my goods and slew my servants. No, you shall see now that God himself is angry, heaven frowns upon you, the fire of God from heaven consumes you. Turn over the records of all antiquity, and see whether God ever dealt thus with any, but those cursed Sodomites upon whom God rained fire from heaven. You who come so near them in the punishment, has reason to judge yourself not far behind them in sin. Secondly observe, Those afflictions are most grievous wherein God appears to be against us. The malice of devils and the rage of men may be endured, but who can stand before God, when he is angry. If God but withdraws his comforts, the soul sinks under smallest trials, how then can it stand if God should reveal his wrath against us, when we are in great trials. It may here be questioned, why the sheep were consumed with fire, rather than any other of his cattle, rather than any other of his substance? There are two things in that. First, the sheep were used in sacrifice. When the days of their feasting were ended, Job offered sacrifice, and the sheep chiefly were offered in sacrifice. Now Satan, by consuming the sheep, hoped to fasten this upon Job, if possibly he could, that God was angry with his very sacrifices, that God was angry with his services. As if he should say, Doest thou think that the offering up of thy sheep in sacrifice hath been pleasing to God? Certainly if the fire of those sacrifices had delighted God, if he had smelt a savor of rest in them (as he is said to have done, when Noah offered sacrifice after the flood, see Gen. 8:21) he would never have sent a fire from heaven to consume them. That is conceived by expositors to be a special reason why the sheep were consumed, namely to cast Job upon this apprehension, that his very sacrifices were rejected of God: that he might conclude of himself (as Solomon said of the wicked) that his sacrifices were an abomination to the Lord, and to show that God would now have no more of his sacrifices, God himself made one sacrifice of them all. But Origen brings in Job excellently retorting this suggestion upon Satan. I sacrificed now one and then another of my sheep to God, but now blessed be God, who has accepted all my flock as one burnt-offering. Again, the sheep were consumed by fire, as to make Job conceive that his former services were rejected, so to take him off and discourage him from offering any more such services; to make him despair of ever thriving in the way of those duties: and conclude surely God is so angry now, that all my services, all my sacrifices will never appease him nor profit me. Therefore, I were as good lay by these duties as perform them, when I get no good. This is a dangerous temptation; if Satan by such prejudices against holy duties, can cause us to lay them by, the day is won: for then the soul is left naked and unarmed. We have not then so much as a bulrush in our hands to smite him, or a paper breastplate to secure ourselves. If we give over praying and seeking, we have no ground to expect Christ either assisting or protecting us. That for the second affliction. “While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee” (vs. 18) This is the third affliction, the taking away of the camels, and the destroying of the servants that waited upon them. There is not much to stay upon in this, having before opened most of the passages of it in the 15 th  verse. “While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands.” Chaldeans sometimes note a condition or a rank of men, such as were diviners, soothsayers and astrologers. These are in Scripture called Chaldeans. As the Indians called such skillful persons Gymnosophistes, and the Persians called them their Magi, and the Romans called them Augurs, so the Assyrians called them Chaldeans. When Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream, it is said, that he sent for the diviners and the astrologers, and the Chaldeans; and afterward the Chaldeans take up all. The term Chaldeans was used for all those that undertook the art of divining and interpreting dreams. But here by the Chaldeans, are to be understood, not a condition of men, but a nation of men, or the people inhabiting Chaldea, which was a land frequently spoken of by the Prophets, and described to the life by the Prophet Habakkuk (in Hab. 1), where the Lord threatened to send the Chaldeans against his people, and then describes them, “That hasty and bitter nation, their horses are swifter than the leopard, and more ravening than the evening wolves” (Hab. 1:6-8, KJV). Such a kind of people they were who were stirred up by Satan to take away the camels of Job. These are said to make out three bands to spoil. They were a people like the Sabeans, delighting in war and robbery; so much the etymology of their name Chasdim  (which is the word in the original) implies, being derived from Sadad, which signifies to rob and spoil. These were a wicked generation, yet these prevail over the estate of Job; victory does not always attend a just cause. The way of the wicked often prospers, and the way of these wicked Chaldeans prospered so often, that the Prophet Habakkuk complains to God as one scandalized at it: “Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity, wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he” (vs. 13). If ever we should be brought upon a like case, to argue it thus with God, or (as Jeremiah did, in Jer. 12:1) to plead with God about his judgments, let us remember to establish our hearts (before we open our mouths) with the Prophet Jeremiah’s conclusion in that place, righteous art thou O Lord, though the wicked devour the man that is more righteous than he. It is very rare that God makes one good man his rod to scourge his sword, to inflict either trials or judgments upon his people. The dirty scullion scours the silver vessel, and makes it both clean and bright for his master’s use. This article is taken from:  Caryl, Joseph.  An Exposition with Practical Observations upon the Book of Job. London: G. Miller, 1644.  A PDF file of this book can be downloaded, free of charge, at http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com