There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job…
Summary: The Book of Job is very instructive when it comes to being tested by God. We can learn a lot from listening in on Job’s conversation with his three friends.
Years ago, when I began reading through the Bible every year, I didn’t like the Book of Job. It is a tough read the first time through. At first, it doesn’t make much sense. After almost two decades of reading through the Bible every year, my opinion about the book has changed. Job is now one of my favorite Bible stories!
Why is it hard to read? The style of writing is similar to a Shakespearean play. It is a series of long speeches between Job and the people around him. Each of Job’s three friends must have been attorneys because they structure elaborate arguments. Each speech by Job’s friends is like a tower of cards. On the surface, they look impressive, but there is no strength to them because they did not “speak the truth” about God the way Job did (Job 42:7). That is not to say that there is no truth in what they said because there is. You have to look deep into their arguments to see how they subtly undermine God’s sovereignty.
Why is it one of my favorite books in the Bible? It has depth to it and humor. My favorite line in the whole book is the part in chapter two where Job’s wife, apparently disgusted with her husband’s refusal to admit that God has it in for him, says:
“Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9)
Wow! That is brutal!
Fortunately for the story, Job doesn’t listen to his wife as Adam did. He responds with equal candor:
“You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10)
What a great point! Do we expect blessing after blessing without testing after testing?
Our Creator is not like a child who winds up his toy car and sends it off to see if it makes it down the hall or crashes into the wall. Our God is intimately involved in our lives and interested in what we do. He wants the best for us, and that means he wants us to be the best we can be.
Job is tested because the Accuser, Satan, casts doubt on his integrity. Job’s wife tempts him to take the easy way out. Job survives both of these trials. He maintains his integrity and rejects all efforts to cast doubt on God.
God doesn’t cause Job’s problems, but he allows them to happen.
Why?
Both Job and God know that human existence is a dual existence. Job understands that he has a spiritual nature separate from his physical existence. At one point Job says:
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19: 26-27)
After his skin is destroyed, Job knows he will still have eyes. They are spiritual eyes, but eyes nonetheless. More than that, they are eyes that can behold the Creator of All Things. This is something that the flesh is not capable of (Exodus 33:20). Knowing this is foundational for Job’s faith. What happens to the flesh, while painful at the moment, is only a passing inconvenience in the grand scheme of things.
Application: Consider the reason for Job’s faith.
Food for Thought: How is Job’s wife’s view of life after death different from Job’s?
I am not sure that it is. We hear very little from Job’s wife. She said curse God and die, but is silent toward what would come next. Her statement comes out of great grief and heartache – she did just lose all of her children. And while God replaces all that was lost, He did not replace Job’s wife. So we don’t have a full statement of faith by which to draw many conclusions. And who hasn’t at some point said something that they later regretted?
All this to say that we can only know what we are told, and we are not told much. Nevertheless, Job’s statement in 19: 26 – 27 is very encouraging and attests to truths of life after death from an Old Testament perspective.
Thank you, Rich.
You are right that we know very little about Job’s wife. In that sense the question is a bit unfair. Yet you make a good case for why she might have made a rash statement. Grief, heartache and maybe anger are all emotional wells of pain that could foster such a statement.
I think the question is fair. It makes us think. You are doing a great job.
Thank you, brother!
I appreciate your encouragement!! 🙂
It’s hard for me to tell the intent of Job’s wife’s heart when she made her infamous statement. Was she angry with God for the loss of her children, wealth and her husband’s health or was she moved by Job’s intense suffering? Did she understand the eternal comfort provided to the redeemed after physical death? As R mentioned, we are not told much about Job’s wife, which leaves me only to speculate. I also agree with R about regret, thinking about Peter’s denials of Christ and, closer to home, my own periods of lacking in faith.
Thank you JEC. I like that you personalized this truth, which I can also relate to.
JEC —
You bring another dimension to this question by reminding us of Peter’s denials. That episode in Peter’s life was a trial of a different kind, yet still a trial. It also shows us the depth of God’s capacity to forgive and our need to remain in prayer if we are to avoid falling into temptation.
01-15-2023, How is Job’s wife’s view of life after death different from Job’s?
This is a battle between the flesh and the spirit. Job’s wife has also lost her seven sons and three daughters, as well as all their belongings in one day. She was no longer the wife of the greatest man of the East.
Job 1:-3, Tells us, There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that THIS MAN WAS THE GREATEST OF ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EAST. There is no mention of his wife.
Job 1:11, God allows Satan to take all Job has, away from him.
Job 1:13-19, Job loses all he has been given by God.
Job’s response was, Job 1:20-21, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.
“ JOB IS LIVING IN THE SPIRIT, EXPERIENCING LIFE WITH GOD NOW! ”
Job 2:7-8, Satan afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
Job 2:9, His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!
“ THE WIFE OF JOB IS LIVING IN THE FLESH, BELIEVING SHE CAN CURSE GOD WHO SHE BELIEVES HAS CURSED HER! “
Job 2:10, And Job reply’s, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
Job’s wife characterizes his unconditional devotion to God as an act of cowardice. He replies, she speaks foolishness.
Ron,
You are pointing us to something very important. She is wanting to curse God in response to what has happened to her and her husband. Her response is from the flesh while Job is seeing the situation from the spirit.
Well said!
Yes! She is seeing her life on earth as important and Job, the head of her household is making a fool of himself as he sits in ashes, probably dressed in tore rags, scraping his body of sores with a broken pice of pottery. How very far she has fallen.
How is Job’s wife’s view of life after death different from Job’s?
The only things we know about his wife are:
One statement, “curse God and die”
And many implied things based off of Job’s situation
Many kids
Many possessions
High standing in society
She’s still there in the end
God doesn’t reprimand her
The statement she makes could come from various different thoughts. Curse God and die, so that all of these terrible things stop. Curse God and die, because my life is ruined because of you. Curse God and die, so that your pain will be over. Curse God and die, because I hurt too much to even think about what to do now.
I’m sure there’s more.
We also see in the end she’s still there. A woman who has really given up on life, on God, or on her husband, would not have waited through all of this with him. She could’ve sought out a family member or friend to take her in. She could have considered his disease state as death and sought remarriage. She could have been desperate enough to try to live on her own. Each of these choices will tell us about her character. She’s faithful to go through all of those trials with him. She’s not flighty, she’s not irrational.
A big clue, I think, is that she is not reprimanded by God. She is not scorned for having emotions, whichever mixture of them she was experiencing. She is blessed with children again. Her husband is made well.
Another clue is in Job’s response to her. He says she is speaking LIKE a foolish woman. Such an important word there. He could have just called her foolish, but instead the implication is that this is not her normal, and he gives his plea. She doesn’t seem to push back, we never hear her speak again and I think that’s because she took that correction.
Angela,
Thank you for your insightful comments! There is nothing in your words that I would disagree with. I appreciate how you have imagined the different reasons why she might have said what she did. You are absolutely right about (A) her faithfulness, and (B) how Job treated her. Even in reprimanding her he was respectful.
I find myself thinking about how God sees man and wife as “one flesh” (Mark 8:10) and so he treated them as one. I also think about Paul’s instructions on husband and wives (Ephesians 5:23). She is not addressed directly by God but is through her husband.
The one thing I see in her that is different from her husband is that in saying what she says she reveals a belief that dying will end the pain and suffering. In fact, cursing God and dying would be a fate far worse than what Job was suffering because it would likely end him in hell. Job understood that the spiritual nature was more important than the flesh. I think she was seeing things from the perspective of the flesh only.
🍎