Text: Job 2:1-10
With Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video and the like, you can now spend a whole weekend binge-watching. Ever do that? Maybe gotten so engaged that you could not stop? Well, in this article, we are back to the book of Job and episode two, just waiting to find out what happens.
When we started this series, I had not thought about tariffs, job loss or the stock market. Since then, trillions have evaporated and our economy may be in for a hit. So it seems somewhat fitting, to consider Job, when times are tough and getting tougher.
But things were a lot worse for Job than they are for us. He didn’t just have a bad day on the stock market, he lost everything. His assets vanished, and along with them his ability to earn a living. Perhaps just as important to Job, he lost the respect of the community. His hired help were all dead and their families, devastated. People wanted nothing to do with him. They no doubt blamed him for their misfortune and wished that they had never known him.
When the markets crashed in 1929, suicide was everywhere and every day. Perfectly healthy people saw the chaos ‘out there’ – and it got to them. It got to them – even though the world kept turning, crops kept growing and day followed night. They did not have Job’s faith. They did not trust in Job’s God, so their whole world crashed, as paper-millionaires became paupers, overnight.
But Job had lost more than even that. He had also lost every one of his 10 children. A whole family was dead, children whom he had loved and raised to adulthood. There was no warning, no head’s up, no sign from above or time to brace for the worst. And perhaps that was part of what made the worst.
As it turned out, there was no good thing that Job could have done to avoid it. Instead, as we read in chapter one…it was precisely because Job had been doing everything right, that everything went so badly wrong
It was by his righteousness, and all by himself…that Job qualified for this test. It was a dubious honour of suffering and shame, of pain and agony. It was the price of being ‘worthy to suffer’…for righteousness sake. And for that reason, it did not make any sense – at all.
But before looking at chapter 2, let’s consider two things…starting with Job’s children. We are shocked by their death and especially that God would allow it. They were living, breathing people whose young lives were snuffed out. We can’t help but think, that they were entitled to so much more, and so are we.
But are we? Entitled, I mean. After all, our lives have been given to us by God…to whom they still belong. We live for a time on His earth, and while God is Holy, we are anything but. So we may need to think twice and to choose thankfulness over entitlement.
The other aspect of Job’s children is their relationship with God. Let’s suppose for a moment that having been raised in a godly home, they were godly. And knowing what was about to happen to their father, God allowed Satan to take their lives. Perhaps he knew that their faith would not survive what was about to happen. Thus, by allowing Satan to end their lives, God actually delivered them. Satan took them away from Job, and handed them to God for eternal safe-keeping. All at once, their lives were permanently beyond the power of Satan, and in that moment, they became permanent residents of God’s heavenly kingdom
Could it be then, that instead of delivering them from death, God delivered them through death? And instead of defeating God’s plans, Satan played right into His hand?
Consider the alternative. Which of us does not have a child, a sibling, a member of our family, who is a convert of Satan’s? They are still alive, but not spiritually alive to God. In both cases, Satan has caused a separation…but when it comes to the children of Job, it may not have been forever. Job would one day join them through death and in life eternal.
When all of this happened to Job, he was no ‘spring chicken’. He was married – with grown kids and had a reputation for wisdom and integrity. This means, that Satan’s attack came later in life. Satan is willing to wait. He does not give up – after the first try. He will wait for the idealism of youth to pass…until the spit and vinegar is out of our system. He’ll give us an easy win or two. And about the time we hit our stride and know what’s what – he will show up.
He will come when we no longerhave our whole lives ahead of us and are not expecting it. When we are satisfied with a job well done and maybe even complacent. We may even think... that there is less at stake than before. We could not be more wrong. For even when there is frost on the roof, our souls is forever young. God created them for eternity – and we are not yet eternally safe.
There is a reason why Jesus said “…be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life”. (Rev 2:10) Our lives are not over until they are. Just because Satan didn’t get us out of the starting blocks, is no reason to let down our guard. How much more satisfying for him to win, after a lifetime of faithfulness? To see us give up and fall, just short of the finish line.
That’s where Job was. He has been faithful, but he is not finished yet. There is more to do – and this book is all about – what still lies ahead. It is therefore an implicit warning for us not to quit, until we quit this world.
Coming – at last – to chapter 2 – and to episode two, what do we find?
- Will Satan let up?
- Will he throw in the towel?
- Will he ever say “God, you were right’…I take it all back”?
- Or will he just keep stomping Job and kicking him when he’s down?
The answer in Chapter 2 is, that those are really dumb questions. With Satan, there are no rules and no boundaries except those set by God. There is no mercy.
Now we left Job in chapter 1, he was on his knees and in worship to God. So it makes sense that chapter 2 begins with a worship scene. The sons of God are again gathered in the presence of God. On earth, they were all over, yet they were assembled spiritually in the presence of God
This is by the way a great way to understand what happens each Lord’s day. When Christians all over the world meet…we are at the same time, gathered in the presence of God. We are one assembly, sharing one faith.
Satan showed up,..once again, and God said: what have you been up to. And Satan answered I am just back “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.
Sounds pretty harmless – right? Just out for a stroll and taking in the sights…the same old same old.
But the apostle Peter says – don’t you believe it. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”. (1 Pet 5:8)
We can know that Satan is up to no good. And it appears, that in our story…Satan has in fact been waiting. He knocked Job down and left him ‘stew in his juices’. In the meantime, he has been out making life miserable for others, but he had not forgotten Job
It is at this second gathering ..God again raises the same question about Job, for the second time, asking:
“Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds firm to his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.
In other words, I was right and Satan, you were wrong. You have ‘ruined’ Job about as much as a man can be. But despite that, he is still blameless and upright, still rejecting evil day in and day out.
Well, Satan just acted as if he had anticipated that very thing. He had a quick come-back – a pat answer – a ready explanation. To Satan, nothing ever is, the way it seems. So Satan answered saying:
…“Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has, he will give for his life. However, reach out with Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face!” (verses 4-6)
The way that Satan looks at it is, that a man will do anything to save his life. Everything else is on the outside– but let me get up under his skin, then we will see the real Job. So the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.
Here again we come back to – the permissive will of God. On this earth and for a time, God permits what he does not will. He allows each of us to do that which goes beyond what he approves. Were this not so, we could not choose to obey or to disobey. God wants obedience, but does not take away our power to sin.
This is also true of Satan. It was not God’s will for Satan to sin. Nor is it his will for that Satan should keep on sinning and preaching his own gospel
The good news according to Satan is – that sin pays and righteousness does not. Sin pays right away – it’s not pie in the sky in the sweet by and by. It pay well; there are a lot more rich sinners out there than saints. And it pays those with the guts to run their own lives. Those who don’t take guff from anyone, who take what they want when they want it. And it especially pays those who don’t just get even, but get revenge. Satan’s good news sounds good to a great many and they don’t all live in Hollywood.
But coming back to Job…God responded by removed another boundary. The first time, God told Satan to keep his hands off of Job.. This time, Satan only has to let Job keep on living.
So we read in Job: 2:7-8
“Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with severe boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. And Job took a piece of pottery to scrape himself while he was sitting in the ashes.”
Back in Job’s day, when you got an infection like that, it usually killed you. Life got miserable, and then it was over very quickly. But in Job’s case, the misery was not short. The problem was that he kept on living and living – with no relief in sight. The boils and sores were everywhere. There were no pain killers…or antibiotics. There no sleep – no way to get comfortable as his condition became chronic.
Anyone who has ever been really sick, knows what that does to your mind. It is hard to think straight, and at some point, we have had enough. We are a lot more prone to lash out and say things we regret
That’s why James the brother of Jesus wrote:
For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to rein in the whole body as well (3:2)
Job comes about as close to that perfection as we might hope to be. He continued to mourn…in dust and ashes. He suffered in silence, scraping his sores with a broken piece of pottery. And most important of all…he did not blame God.
Jesus was the only one to reach complete perfection in this area. He was beaten, spit upon and crucified, but he did not revile or curse. The apostle Peter, who saw it for himself, wrote:
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was brought to the grave, but he did not open his mouth. By his wounds we are healed.” 1 Peter 2:23-24:
What Jesus actually said was“…’Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:24)
We don’t know how long Job did that – how long he sat and suffered. But there is something about his suffering that is worth noticing. it was very real…and he did not know how it would end. For a long time, he was right in the middle of it and did not know if he would ever get better or just die.
And if he lived, how long would the suffering last? Would he be handicapped or scarred for life? And would life at the end of sickness…be worth living at all?
So Job lacked the perspective that only time could provide. Things look very different when you are in the middle of them. Time drags…and minutes – take forever.
When Pat and I started our family, there was a point where we had 3 kids, under the age of 4. There was night feeding, 2 in diapers and all in need of constant attention. Nights were short and days were long. People used to say…’this too will pass’. “they won’t be toddlers forever’. We thought; yeah right, easy for you to say. But it was true.
So as we read this account, let’s bear in mind that Job was stuck in the middle. It was a lot like living a nightmare that just went on and on. At the same time, let’s be reassured that when we face suffering – no matter the sort, that this too will end.
And let’s also remember that suffering for righteousness is not a thing of the past. Satan is still the enemy – and we are surrounded by his friends. The world is in the hands of ‘the prince of this world’ who will not allow righteousness to go unpunished.
So, when you try to share the good news about salvation in Jesus, don’t be surprised by the push-back. Some will say: “take a hike” – ‘mind your own business”. And by the way, all that Bible stuff about sin…is actually ‘hate-speech’. It is just cultural colonialism all dressed up as religion.
When the gospel was first preached, Satan made it illegal. He has persecuted the church from day one…and is still at it. He wants to take away the keys to God’s kingdom, so that no one can be saved. What we are talking about is outside pressure.
But Satan never has just worked from the world ‘out there’. He ramps up the pressure from inside of our own families. That’s what he did next…as we read in verses 9-10
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold firm your integrity? Curse God and die!”
If that sounds like a quote from Satan…it is. That was Satan’s prediction to God, when he said: “…touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face! The devil knows that we don’t care much for what strangers say. But when it is a voice that we love and a face that we trust…look out.
Jesus warned his disciples that families would break up over faith in him. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I came to turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a person’s enemies will be the members of his household.
So Job’s wife reasoned: that integrity was not paying off. If anything, he was worse off than before. So, why not give the Lord a piece of your mind? Tell him off once and for all. Be a man, and go out with a bang
Now – it is easy to be hard on Job’s wife. It’s easy to find fault when the fault is obvious. But there is a side to what she did and said that is very human. Let me explain.
On some level, each of us may find it easier to suffer than to see our loved ones suffer. We hate having to accept that there are things well beyond our control. We may not say it out loud, but we may feel that we can protect our loved ones. That the force of our personality has power beyond itself. Or that if we just love someone enough, it will keep them from harm.
So, while we may not be provoked by our own suffering, we take the bait, when it comes to our families…and reach a tipping point. The point where anger wins and unbelief, makes us allies of Satan
Now the text does not say it…but she may have immediately regretted what she said. Especially after Job said: “You are speaking as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity?
Job never lost his composure. He didn’t lash out – with a personal attack. He just pointed out that her reasoning was foolish.
It was foolish, because she got one thing right and another one wrong. She was right when she said that Job had held onto his integrity. That he stuck to his guns, and to his faith in the goodness of God. But she was wrong, to conclude that integrity does not pay.
And she was wrong to even suggest that it should – in the sense that God owes us. That was the very thing that Satan accused God of doing. He said that God was buying loyalty, instead of receiving it from people who honoured him simply because he was worthy.
So Job renounced that kind of thinking when we said: “Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity?”
In other words, everything that we have is already from God. We have been paid in full.
- All of our lives we have been more than willing to accept blessings.
- We never pleaded with God to take them away
- And since we live on God’s earth – how can we not…take the bad with the good.
Job even hints… that some blessings can only be bestowed, through adversity. God tests and allows us to suffer – to refine our faith and make us stronger. There is no substitute for spiritual resistance training.
James wrote:
Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
We didn’t learn to walk without falling…or to run before walking. It was sometimes painful, but completely necessary
The same thing is true spiritually. Maturity does not come without pain…and it does not happen in a moment. It takes time and struggle and perseverance.
We also know that there’s a parallel danger of sin when things are going well. They may go so well that we want to cut loose to celebrate. We might go so far as to think that just a little bit of sin…is the reward we deserve. And then, later, maybe much later, we can always make things right with God.
We are immersed in a sinful world – in which we used to be – active sinners. We changed sides. Satan has been betrayed. So while God wants to make us, Satan wants break us. God wants to make us again in his image – but Satan has been smashing that image for thousands of years. .
God tests, Satan tempts. He piggy-backs a temptation …on top of every divine test. So, we need to keep our hold of God and let loose of Satan…once and for all. That does not mean that Satan will give up. But it does mean that we are drawing closer to God as he draws us closer to Him
It worked for Job…for our author observes…that “despite all this, Job did not sin with his lips”. I think that the ‘all this’, includes what his wife said and how disappointing that must have been to Job.
But at least, she did not deny his integrity. She just said that it was not doing any good. When Job’s friends started in on him…it was a different story. They attacked Job’s integrity – but we’ll save that for another time.
Let’s conclude with three thoughts.
A very important phrase is, “and in all of this Job did not send with his lips.” This implies that God was listening and always is. And no matter what Job was suffering at the moment, it was no excuse for what he said and did. Sin is not less sinful, just because we’re under duress.
Most of this book is taken up with conversation about God and God’s ways. Surely that suggests, that there is nothing more important for us to do than that. We can never think too much, dwell too long, or sustain more effort…than God wants. There is no more important thing than for us to understand than God and his ways.
No one after reading the book, can accuse Job of ‘under-thinking’ his situation. He did not just ‘let it go’, or say…”it is what it is”. Or, I have my truth and you have yours…so let’s leave it there.
Job knew that there was truth to be known and that it was the only way to truly know God. The book of Job is God’s answer to those who want to skip the necessity of thinking and reasoning, and base their faith upon something else. Faith always has been and always will be…more than a feeling.
And finally, Job suffered without knowing why. He suffered for righteousness sake – but was not allowed to know it. How much easier it would have been, had he known.
The disciples of Jesus were warned…to counted the cost. Jesus told them that they would be persecuted. So when the Sanhedrin beat them up – they were honoured to suffer for Jesus. When the apostle Paul was stoned, he was suffering for the sake of the gospel. But when Job suffered for being God’s man, he did it without the strength of that insight
Which raises the very real possibility that that – can happen to us. Not all suffering for the sake of righteousness – has an obvious connection. But it can still be real.
So let’s resolve to trust God with our souls…when suffering comes. Let’s not assume that we have done something horribly wrong. And let us find our answers in scripture, instead of reading the tea-leaves of our lives.
Barrie ON