Job 2:9–10 (ESV)
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
You said that Job’s wife is about to bring on the next big test. How?
She’s totally not on board with his attitude. She actually argues against his approach.
“Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Wow. What a piece of work.
At first glance, Job’s wife’s response seems stupid, even evil. But it’s not really all that abnormal. Think how you’d react. Don’t forget, she’d just lost all her children.
I don’t know how I’d react. Job’s wife has obviously cracked under the strain, and she’s consumed by anger at God.
Yeah, it’s easy to sit back reading this and think that we’d be stronger, but would we? C. S. Lewis has a beautiful explanation of a similar issue in his discussion of forgiveness in Mere Christianity. He addresses those who challenge the concept of biblical forgiveness in the context of World War II.
And half of you already want to ask me, “I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?”
So do I. I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point. I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do—I can do precious little—I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.”
So, you’re saying that you’d react like Job’s wife, not like Job?
I think everybody would.
Sometimes the simplest sayings are the most profound—supernatural strength is supernatural. Mrs. Job’s reaction is normal. It’s Job’s reaction that isn’t.
Job’s blamelessness and uprightness is a gift.
And Mrs. Job’s reaction is a test for Job?
I can’t see how it wouldn’t be. He loves her. He feels her pain. She says something in the heat of the moment that she surely regrets later. It’s wrong, and it puts pressure on Job.
The woman he loves is arguing that he’s not standing up to God. Job patiently responds by condemning her speech, but avoids condemning her directly.
But then we get another twist. This is the last mention of Job’s wife in the whole book. In the end, she has ten more children, so she’s apparently still around.
So, God not only doesn’t strike her dead for her loose tongue, He blesses her.
But her attitude and her tongue are a short-term test, and, just like we saw with Satan, the action moves on to more important things.
So, an even bigger test is coming?
Yes, and it’s one that Job will ultimately flunk.
What could that possibly be?
His friends trying to be helpful.
Of course! His friends try to “help” by telling him how to “fix” it.
Hmmm, let me guess. In this case, they’ve “figured out” that Job actually caused all this by doing something that ticked off God. So, they start saying something like, “What’d you do , man?”
Am I right?
Pretty much.
And you said that Job eventually fails this test. So, given what we’ve already seen, it probably took a while for them to wear him down. Are we even a quarter of the way through the book?
We’re finishing up chapter two of a 42 chapter book.
Wait. What? Job’s friends take up how many chapters?
Three through 28.
Yikes. He must have had the patience of … I’m not going to say it.
Ha ha. Actually, for all of chapter three, Job’s friends do the right thing and just comfort him without afflicting him with any of their “wisdom.”
I’m guessing that’s the next lesson.
See you tomorrow.
