In Shakespeare's hamlet, Claudius a character in the play says, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions." This was certainly true of Job's experience, one messenger after another came bringing him news of devastating loss.
Rapid-fire reports of devastating loss ripped into Job's heart. Servants practically fell all over each other as they brought fresh reports of further disaster.
In Job's era wealth was determined by the number of servants and the amount of property that you owned. Both were weapons in the assault on Job's heart. First, it was the loss of donkeys and oxen and then the death of servants, (1:14-15). Soon after that came word that the "fire of God fell from heaven," consuming Job's sheep and some of his much loved servants (1:16). Not long after this came the message that the Chaldean raiders had stolen the camels and killed even more of his loyal ranch hands(1:17). With every announcement, the stakes rose as the losses were staggering. But the greatest losses came when the messenger arrived with the heart-wrenching news that Job's sons and daughters had been killed (1:18-19).
When waves of heartache wash over us, whether single spies or whole battalions, their sheer weight and relentless nature can be suffocating. Suffering simply overwhelms us.
Satan's final assault was on Job's health (2:1-8). After that, Job sat in the dust scratching painful sores, bewildered by the turn his life had taken. Job's wife and friends were with him, but in reality he was alone in his pain, alone but for the presence of his God.
The sense of isolation in seasons of suffering was given voice in the grief-stricken wail that left the lips of Christ on the cross: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?.....My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? I believe that would have been the cry of Job's heart, as he sat in the dust, suffering from his circumstances.
Over the thousands of years of human kind,, neither the nature nor the causes of suffering have changed. For some, suffering will never approach the horrors of Job's experience. For others, it may actually surpass them. But in every case, our suffering is uniquely our own and we feel the weight of that suffering because it is mysterious, overwhelming, and ultimately experienced alone.
