Job 1 · a question people ask
Why did Job offer burnt offerings for his children?
He says why, in his own words: "It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts" (1:5). He doesn't say they had; he says "It may be". So when the days of their feasting were over, "Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all" (1:5), and "Job did so continually" (1:5). The chapter doesn't say whether any of them had sinned, and it draws no link between the feasting of 1:4-5 and what the fourth messenger tells in 1:18-19. These notes don't draw one either.
The verses
“His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.”
“While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.””