The Lessons of Job: Don’t Be a “Foolish Woman” or a “Miserable Comforter”
[Job’s] wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
Job 2:9-10
Exit stage left Satan, off to do mischief somewhere else.
Job had indeed passed Satan’s tests without sinning (1:22; 2:10), but the suffering he continued to experience was surreal. His children had been crushed in a whirlwind (1:19), his livestock raided or burned by fire from the sky (1:15-17), his servants put to the sword (1:15,17), his skin afflicted with sores from head to toe (2:7).
Mrs. Job had lost as much as her husband. Fortunate for her, her health had been spared. But at the sight of Job’s sores, whatever comfort she might have given him dissolved: “Curse God and die!”—stop defending God, Job; God doesn’t care.
I’ve been there too, haven’t you—where are you God; what do you care? Job was a better man than I. He trusted God with the bad along with the good. Truth is, it is foolish for another, even your wife, to suggest you curse God. It is foolish for any of us to compromise our integrity.
When Job’s three friends…heard all about the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.
Job 2:11
To their credit Job’s three friends came and grieved in sympathy, sitting in silence for seven days and nights. But what started off well, quickly went downhill in their version of retribution theology: surely you did something wrong Job; you deserve to be punished. Relief comes from words that encourage and comfort (16:5), not blame. Job’s “miserable comforters are you all!” (16:2) becomes our warning.
God was “angry” with the three: “you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (42:7). Interestingly, He did not chide the fourth. Although young in years Elihu had figured out that why was not the right question, rather where to find rest from the load of grief. And in turning to God Job saw just how great He was.
In addition to the how-not-to comfort lessons, we see that it’s not only Satan who perverts our right thinking. The friends we keep, the misguided theology we read or watch or listen to, the ways of the world do their best to keep us from solace in the splendor and majesty of the Almighty (37:22).
Nancy P
