[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 1:18-19 - The Death of Job’s Children   18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: 19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. (KJV).   This was, as the fourth and last, so the greatest of all Satan’s assaults, the most fierce and terrible charge that Job had all the day, and Satan reserves this until the evening, till Job was spent and spiritless as he hoped. I shall note this in general from it: That Satan usually keeps his greatest strength and most violent temptations to the last. When he thinks we are at the weakest, then he comes with his strongest assaults. If Satan had sent Job word of the death of his children first, all the rest would have been as nothing to him. He would not have regarded the loss of his cattle when he heard that all his children were crushed to death by the fall of the house. As someone great evil falling upon us, takes the heart off from having any sense or joy in a lesser good. So, one great evil swallows up the sense and feeling of a lesser evil. That great evil which fell upon the wife of Phineas, when she heard that the Ark of God was taken, afflicted her so extremely, that she could not at all rejoice in the birth of her son. She had no sense of that. Here was therefore the cunning of Satan, lest Job should have lost the smart of the lesser afflictions. Lest they should have been all swallowed up in the greater, he brings them out in order: the least first, the greatest is reserved for the last. We observe in war, that when once the great ordinance are discharged, the soldiers are not afraid of the musket; so when a great battery is made by some thundering terrible judgment upon the soul or upon the body or estate of any man, the noise and fears of lesser evils are drowned and abated. Therefore, Satan keeps his greatest shot to the last, that the small might be heard and felt, and that the last coming in greater strength might find the least strength to resist it. And that this was a greater affliction than any of, or than all the former, is so clear that I shall not need to stay long in the confirming of it, only to quicken the point a little, take notice of the greatness of it in five respects: First, it appears without controversy to be the greatest of all, because it was upon his children. A man’s children are more than all that he had in the world; a man’s children are himself; every child is the father multiplied. A son is the father’s bowels, and therefore when Paul wrote to Philemon concerning Onesimus, “whom” (he said) “I have begotten in my bonds” (i.e., to the faith of Christ). “Receive him who is mine own bowels”. A spiritual son is the very bowels of a minister. He does but allude to a natural son; a son is the very bowels of the father. This affliction reached into the very bowels of Job himself. Satan had no leave to afflict the body of Job, and yet you see he afflicts him in his very bowels. Secondly, the greatness of it is seen in this, his children were all taken away. To lose all our children is as grievous as to lose an only child. Now that is made a cause of the highest sorrows: “They shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth for an only son” (Zech. 12:10); that is, they shall mourn most bitterly. Now, as the measure of mercies may be taken by the comforts which they produce, so we may take the measure of an affliction by the sorrow which it produces. And the loss of a child is the greatest affliction which causes the greatest sorrow. Thirdly, it was a further greatening of the affliction, that they were all taken away suddenly. Had death sent them summons, by its usual messenger sickness, but a day before to prepare themselves, it had much sweetened the bitterness of this cup; but to hear they were dead before he knew they were sick; yea when he thought they were merry and rejoicing, how sad was this. Fourthly, that they died a violent death, by a mighty wind casting the house down upon them. Had they died in their beds (though suddenly) it had been some ease to the fathers heart. Violent death has an impression of wrath upon it, and men can hardly judge well of those who fall by such judgments. Suspicion will arise, if censure pass not, from better men than Barbarians, if they see a viper on the hand of a Paul (see Acts 28). It is more than probable from our Savior’s question, that those eighteen upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell, and slew them, were commonly supposed greater sinners, or sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem (see Luke 18:4). Fifthly, they were all taken away when they were feasting; and this did exceedingly aggravate the affliction upon Job, that his children were all destroyed feasting; for you know what the thoughts of Job were concerning his children at their feasting; after they had done, he offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all, for he said, “It may be my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts” (Job 1:5). Now, at this time, when Satan knew that Job was most solicitous lest his children should sin, at that time does he destroy them; that so their father might be afflicted with the thought that his children died unreconciled to God, that they died with sin upon them unrepented of:  That they died a double death, death at once seizing upon both soul and body. This then was a further degree of Satan’s malice, to wound, vex, and grieve the spirit of Job unto the utmost. How sadly and passionately did David lament Absalom’s death? Some conceive this was the head of the arrow that pierced him, because he feared his son died in a sinful condition, he was suddenly taken away in his rebellion, unreconciled either to God or man. Such a thought might fall upon Job’s heart; my children are suddenly dead, and dead feasting, and cursed God in their hearts. Alas my children died before they could so much as think of death. I fear they are gone rejoicing to hell, where they shall weep for evermore. Doubtless Satan did or might fasten such a temptation upon his heart who was so tender of his children’s souls, and so fearful of their sinning in feasting. So then, it is clear from all these particular considerations, that this was the greatest affliction. Be prepared then, not only to receive another affliction, but to receive a greater affliction, and have thoughts of receiving the greatest affliction at the last. Satan will come with his strongest assaults when you are weakest. At the time of death, when he sees he can do no more, but that he must then do it, or never do it, then you will be sure to have the strongest temptations. It should therefore stir up the people of God, still to look for more and more strength to bear afflictions and temptations, and to beg from Christ the greatest strength at last, because they may justly fear the greatest temptations at last. If as Satan greatens his temptations, Christ greatens his assistance, we shall be able to bear them and be more than conquerors over them. So much of this fourth charge in the general, I shall now open the words more particularly. (For those in the 18 th  verse, I shall not need to say anything of them, they have been handled before at the 13 th  verse, which runs thus, “And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house”). The 19 th  verse describes the manner of this trial, “And behold there come a great wind from the wilderness,” etc. “And behold…” – Behold, in Scripture, ever notes more than ordinary matter following. 1. Great things call for attention; 2. That which is sudden and unexpected, calls us to behold; 3. Rare things, things seldom seen invite all to see and wonder at them. Here is the matter of admiration. What God threatens in the Law, he seems to fulfill upon Job, “I will make their plagues wonderful” (Deut. 28:59). There is no “Behold” prefixed to any of the former three afflictions; but this as being the most strange and terrible, comes with a “Behold”:  “And behold…” “There came a great wind…” – It was a wind, and a great wind that came. The wind is elegantly said to come (as the sun) out of his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race (see Ps. 19:5). Hence the word which the Latins use for the wind is derived from a word that signifies to come, because the wind comes with force and violence. The wind (in the nature of it) is an exhalation arising from the earth, drawn upwards by the power of the sun and other heavenly bodies: but meeting and conflicting a while with the cold of the middle region of the air, is beaten back again. And being so light that naturally it cannot descend, and so resisted that it cannot peaceably ascend. It takes a course between both, slanting with mighty violence through the air. Thus Philosophers teach. This wind is said to have been a great wind, great in quantity, much wind, a large wind, great also in quality, a vehement, boisterous, angry wind. Further, this wind is described by the coast or quarter from which it breathed: “…from the wilderness…” – Or as the Hebrew is, from beyond the wilderness, from the other side of the wilderness this wind came. Winds are differenced by the quarters or points of the Heavens out of which they blow. This wind is described by the place from whence it came, from the coast out of which it was raised, it was from beyond the wilderness. There were many wildernesses. Here wilderness is set down indefinitely. There was the wilderness of Maon, and the wilderness of Ziph, and many other wildernesses spoken of in Scripture. What wilderness was this? It is conceived, that this was either the wilderness of Idumea, or Edom, spoken of in II Kings 3:8, or else it was Arabia the Desert, which is by way of eminency called The Wilderness. It came from the wilderness, that is, it came over that part which is called Arabia Desert, or Arabia the wild. When it is said, this wind came from the wilderness, the coast is cleared, but the cause and stirrer up of this wind is concealed. A wind came from the wilderness; but how this wind was raised, and this storm was blown up, there is no mention. We must charge it on him who was the contriver and director of all this mischief. Satan, prince of the air, raised up this mighty wind. Winds are said sometimes to come from God, as in Exodus 10:13: “The Lord brought an east-wind upon the Land of Egypt that it was covered with locusts” (one of the plagues of Egypt). And verse 19: “The Lord turned a mighty west-wind which took away the locusts.” And in Num. 11:31: “There went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea.” And in Jonah 1:4: “The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea.” The heathens (who divided the world among sundry gods) gave the winds to Aeolus, whom they supposed to have them all shut up and locked close in his lodge, till he gave them command to fly abroad. It is an argument of a divine power to rule the winds. Who is this, say those seamen in Matt. 8:27, that even the winds and the sea obey him. As God only causes the sun to shine, and the rain to fall, so the winds to blow. The wind is originally in the hand of God. “He gathers the wind in his fists” (said Agur of God), “and sendeth it which way he pleaseth” (Prov. 30:4). But the winds were put for that present into the hand of Satan, and he had leave to raise a storm for this special purpose. So then, “There came a great wind from beyond the wilderness”, that is, Satan stirred up a mighty wind in those parts and quarters, which came… “…and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead” – Here we see what was the work of this wind. As it is described by the region from whence the wind came, so by the effects which it wrought being come, “It smote the four corners of the house.” The Hebrew word is the same used in verse 11, “Touch all that he hath.” According to Satan’s sense, this wind touched the four corners of the house. The corners of the house are the strength of the house, and the four corners are all the strength. Christ is called the corner stone, because he is the strength and binding of the Church; he holds all together. This wind smote the four corners at once. It may seem very strange, that one wind, a wind described to come out of one quarter, a southern wind, as this is conceived to have been, coming from the wilderness, that this one wind should strike all the four parts of the house together. Must it not be a wind from the four quarters of heaven which strikes the four corners of a house? I answer, this was extraordinary wind; there was a wonder carried on the wings of this wind, therefore you have a behold of admiration, a behold set in the beginning of this relation. This wind did not work according to the ordinary rate of winds. Or we may say, it was a whirlwind, that tempestuous whirlwind, which philosophers call typhoon. Such a wind, as whirls about in a circle, and so it might fetch in or assault all the parts and corners of the house with one blast. Further, we must take notice, that Satan was in this wind. He acted and wrought mightily with it for the sure and sudden effecting of this dreadful overthrow; the devil spirited this wind. The wind (though for the quickness and power of it, called a spirit) is a dull and weak thing compared to a spirit. “And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead”  (vs. 19) But what became of his three daughters? Did they escape? They are not named, but they also were involved. It is usual in Scripture, under one sex, the superior sex to comprise both. All Job’s children perished under the ruins of that falling house. Hence observe, First, That Satan being left at his own disposal, can raise and enrage storms and tempests. It is said, that “storms, winds and tempests fulfill the will of God” (Ps. 148:8). The winds go often on God’s errand; but, as often as the Lord gives leave, these stormy winds and tempests fulfill Satan’s will; not his alone, much less against the will of God. Satan cannot raise so much wind by his own power as will wave a feather, but when God says go do such and such things, then the winds likewise fulfill his will. Then also, he can raise wind enough to move mountains, and raze the foundations of the proudest and strongest buildings. It is reported that some wicked wretches trade with watches for wind; they buy winds of the devil; a most abominable merchandise. And the Lord answers them justly, to let them have what they pay for, winds of the devil; as he speaks in the prophet, “I also will choose their delusion” (Isa. 66:4), when men will be deluded, and go down to hell for help. God will choose their delusions, saying in his wrath: You that think the devil can give you a wind, the devil shall give you a wind: A wind by which you shall say at once to the port of your hope, and to the pit of desperation. A wind which (unless you repent) will carry you into that lake wherein there is no water, a lake burning forever. “And the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone kindling it” (Isa. 30:33). Secondly, observe here, from the effect of this wind, That a violent and sudden death is no argument of God’s anger or disfavor. Here all Job’s children were destroyed suddenly and violently, yet it was not in wrath towards the children, but for a trial unto the father. When they told Christ of some, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. “Think not” (said he) “that either these or those upon whom the Tower of Shiloh fell and slew them, were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem, I tell you except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1). As there is no judging of the sins of men, by such kind of exigents and events, so neither of the wrath of God; yet how many by such appearances judge unrighteous judgments, being as barbarous, as those Barbarians of Malta, who seeing a viper coming out of the heat and fastening on Paul’s hand, they (concluding he must die presently) censured him to be a murderer, whom though he had escaped the sea, yet vengeance followed on shore, and would not suffer to live. We must not ground our judgment upon the works of God, but upon His Word. In externals, there is the same event to all (see Eccl. 9). Men cannot be distinguished for eternity by what they suffer, but by what they do not by the manner of their death, but by the tenor of their lives. This is a certain truth, that man can never die an evil death, who hath led a good life. There is nothing makes death evil, but the evil which follows death, or the evil that goes before death. Thirdly, here was death, a strange and sudden death surprised the children of Job, and this when they were feasting, when they were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house. We may observe from that also by way of admonition. Christians had need to take heed, and be holy in feasting. While we are eating and drinking, we may be dying; therefore eating and drinking, we had need be holy. “Take heed to yourselves” (said Christ) “lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness; take heed lest at any time, because at any time the day may come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34). That day, whether it be a day of general calamity or personal, may come upon you unawares. It becomes us to be holy in all manner of conversation, though we had an assurance of our lives. But seeing in what manner of conversing so ever we be, death may surprise us, and we have no assurance of our lives in our greatest joys, how holy should we be? “Whether you eat or drink” (said the Apostle) “or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31). Have God in your eye, let him be your aim. It is prophesied concerning latter times, “That every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord” (Zech. 14:21). The very pots in Jerusalem shall be holy, that is, men at their pots shall be holy, to note that they should be holy in their eatings, in their drinkings: not holy only when they were praying, and holy when they were hearing, but holy in those ordinary natural actions of eating and drinking; holy at their tables, and in all their refreshings with the creature. Then indeed, there is holiness in the heart, when there is holiness at the pot; and ’tis but need, there should be holiness in the pot, when there may be death in the pot. We may observe somewhat more generally from all these four sore afflictions considered together. As first, we see how quickly the beauty of all worldly blessings may be blasted. Job in the morning had an estate, as great and as good as his heart could desire in worldly things, there was luster and strength in and upon all he had, but before night he had nothing but sorrow to sup upon. He had no retinue of servants left, but four, reserved only to report his losses. In one day all’s gone. It is added as an aggravation of Babylon’s downfall, that “her judgements shall come upon her in one day” (Rev. 18:8). “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” In one day, all the beauty of Babylon shall be blasted. We need not now trouble ourselves to think Babylon is in a great deal of strength and beauty and glory; surely there must be a long time spent in contriving and acting the destruction of Babylon; no, the Lord can blast her beauty and destroy her power in a day; and the text says, he will do so, in one day all her plagues shall come upon her. That which Babylon has been gathering many years shall be scattered in a moment. She thinks that by her wisdom and policy she laid such a foundation of her own greatness as shall never be shaken; and therefore concludes, I fit a Queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Yet all her strength shall not hold out one day, when God in his displeasure shall lay siege against her walls. So when you look upon other great and mighty, prosperous and flourishing enemies, such as flourish like green by trees, remember the Lord in one day can wither their branches and kill their roots, you root them up. Certainly the strength of the Lord is as mighty for the destroying of his enemies, as it is for the afflicting of his own people. If he sometimes gives commission to take away all their comforts in a day, when their estates are highest and strongest built. Surely he will at last give commissions for as speedy a dispatch against the estates of his greatest enemies. And this may be unto us all, a matter of admonition, to prepare for changes, to esteem creatures as they are, perishing substance. Whoever had an estate better gotten, better bottomed, or better managed than Job? Yet all was overthrown and swept away in a moment. We can never expect too much from God, nor too little from the creature. Lastly, we may learn from the foregoing story of these afflictions, considering that Satan was the contriver and engineer who set all a-work: That Satan is mighty both in power and policy for the effecting of his designs, if God give him liberty and leave.  You see he does not fail or miss in the least, he brings every affliction upon Job in the perfection of it, and he does not bungle at it, or do his work by halves; but he is quick and speedy, both in laying the plot and executing it. There is nothing in this inferior world able to stand before him, no creature, no man, if God let him alone. The good angels can match, yea and master devils, there is no doubt of that: but if God stop his angels and withdraw his hand, the devil would quickly overrun all the world. “We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers”  (Eph. 6:12). Evil spirits are called powers in the abstract, they have not only a power, they are not only powerful (hence called principalities, such as have great authority and sovereignty, as it were, over others), but they are called powers. It is not an empty title or a naked name that is given them, but they are filled and clothed with strength proportional. Satan is a mighty prince commanding in the spirits of wicked men. He can kindle their lusts and enflame their spirits, set them on fire from hell, and then cause them to go on with a rage (in doing mischief) as high as heaven. He can lead men captive at his will, though not against their own will: Yet to show the efficacy of this actings, he is said to lead them  captive at his will, to do his will and execute his devilships designs. It is admirable what Satan can do upon wicked men, who are his willing vassals and bond-slaves; if he speak the word, they go; if he suggest, they submit; if he move, they obey. And likewise, we see what a mighty prince he is in the air, all the elements and the meteors stoop to his direction. He cannot only command men who have reason, but he can command the fire, the water, the winds, the thunders, therefore he is called the prince of the power of the air; those powers that are in the air, he can command. For though it be a truth that Satan of himself cannot make one spark of fire, or so much as one breath of wind, yet if he be let loose and unchained, he can go to God’s storehouse of wind and fire, he can go to God’s magazine of thunder, storms and tempests; he can fetch out such store of all these, and so enrage them, that no man is able to withstand their violence. The apostle taxes all natural men, that they live without God in the world, that is, they live without a sensible apprehension of the majesty, of the power, and holiness of God; they are not affected with God in the world. I may say, in a sense to many godly men (and it may be a reproof to them) that they live without the devil in the world, that is, they have not such apprehensions of the power and policy and sleights of Satan, as they ought to have. We do not know, or apprehend as we ought, and as we might, who the devil is, or what his power is. I do not speak this as if I would have any meditate and pore on the power of Satan, so as to be afraid of him; that’s no part of my intent. But it is for this end, that our hearts might be raised up to bless God, who binds up such an enemy, and bounds such a power; who if he were let alone would do us mischief a hundred times a day. Nay he would unquiet and unsettle the whole world. This is the reason why we should consider the power and policy of Satan: to bless God, who stops the mouth of this lion, so that he cannot stir to do that mischief, unto which his nature does at once incline and enable him. 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