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
Didymus the Blind
AD 398
It is remarkable how the news from the second [messenger] increases Job’s pain. “Fire fell from heaven,” he says, “and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them.” Even if Job thoroughly knew the teachings of the truth and understood that afflictions did not occur without God’s permission, the incident still brought him great suffering for the people’s sake. They were confused by what occurred. It was as if God had turned against Job. That the intruders during the attack took the cattle and killed the servants could be interpreted by the less intelligent as if the intruders were simply acting in accordance with the hostile customs of battle. They had attacked and behaved in that way due to lack of discipline and hate. Therefore [one might conclude] that the event was not sent from God. But when the fire that had fallen from heaven was reported, one might have feared that the weak would believe that virtue was nothing admirable, if God even punishes the one who possesses it. Yet even during this incident the holy man did not fall down but focused his entire attention on God’s work.