While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God has fallen from heaven, and has burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone am escaped to tell you.
All Commentaries on Job 1:16 Go To Job 1
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
51. All, who held the office of preaching in the Synagogue, were rightly named, 'the heavens,' plainly because they were supposed to be imbued with heavenly wisdom; and for this reason, when Moses was urging the Priests and the people to take heed of his words of admonition, he exclaimed, Give ear, O ye Heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth; [Deut. 32, 1] evidently signifying by the Heavens the order of rulers, and by the earth the people under them. There is then in this place no unfitness in interpreting the Heavens to mean either the Priests or the Pharisees, or the Doctors of the Law, who, to the eyes of men, while they attended on heavenly duties, seemed as it were to shed light from on high. Now because they were greatly stirred up in opposition to our Redeemer, it was as though ‘fire fell from heaven;’ whilst from those very men, who were accounted teachers of the truth, the flames of envy burst out, to the deceiving of the ignorant people. For we know from the testimony of the Gospel, that through envy at the truths which He taught they sought an opportunity for His betrayal, but that from fear of the people they dared not make known what they went about. Hence too it is therein written, that in order to dissuade the people they say, Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him? but this people, who knoweth not the Law, are cursed. [John 7, 48. 49.] But what do we understand by the sheep and the servants, save all inoffensive, but still as yet fainthearted persons, who, while they feared to undergo the persecution of the Pharisees and the Rulers, were devoured by the fires of infidelity. So let it be said; The fire of God is fallen from Heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants; i.e. the flame of envy hath come down from the hearts of the rulers, and burnt up all that there was of good springing up in the people; for while the wicked rulers are claiming honour to themselves in opposition to the Truth, the hearts of their followers are turned from every right way. And here too it is well added, And I only am escaped alone to tell thee; for whereas the predicted case of wickedness is fulfilled, that word of prophecy escapes the extinction of falsehood, wherein it is said, yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them [Is. 26, 11]; as though it were plainly expressed, ‘not only are the wicked afterwards tormented by fire sent in vengeance, but even now they are consumed therewith through envy;’ in that they who are hereafter to be visited with the punishment of just retribution, inflict upon themselves here the tortures of envy. And thus the servant flies and returns alone, and announces that the sheep and the servants have been destroyed by fire, when Prophecy in forsaking the Jewish people shews that she has declared the truth, saying, Jealousy has taken hold of a people without knowledge; as though it said in plain words, ‘when the people would not make out the words of the Prophets, but gave their belief to the words of the envious, the fire of jealousy consumed them, seeing that they were burnt in the fire of other men's envy.’
