A View of
Job’s Wife
(Job 2:9)
Then his (Job) wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity?
Curse God and die!”
Because of
this statement, Job’s wife has gotten a lot of bad press. She is probably one
the most berated women in the Bible. She
is most often looked upon as being selfish, uncaring, nagging, and over all, a
poor example of a wife. However, I think
we should take a closer look and Mrs. Job.
She may not be as “bad” as she has been presented in countless sermons
through the centuries. When you read chapter 1 of Job, you see that God allowed
Satan to attack Job. Satan could attack him, but not kill him. We see that Job lost sheep, oxen, camels,
servants and finally, his children.
Soon, Satan was also allowed to strike Job with boils on his skin. We
know that Job lost a great deal.
Whenever Job is preached or taught about, HIS loss is stressed. But, for ever sheep Job lost, his wife lost a
sheep; for every ox Job lost, his wife lost an ox; for every camel Job lost,
his wife lost a camel; for every servant Job lost, his wife lost a servant; for
every child that Job lost, his wife lost a child.
While she
did not get attacked with the skin boils, she still suffered great loss. While Job may have tried to comfort her at
some point, there is no mention of him doing so. She was in pain. She is hurting as much or more than he was,
except for the boils. They were both
grieving. While Job is going on about
his condition and ignoring hers, she utters the infamous statement, “Do you still
hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” This was said out the deepest of pain and
grief. It was said out a feeling of
abandonment. Job was too much involved
with his own pain to be concerned about hers.
At least, that is how she felt or she would not have said those fateful
words. Words spoken out of deep grief
can sometimes come out angry and bitter.
Job’s
response to her was, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we
indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this
Job did not sin with his lips. (Job
2:10). While Job did not sin when
he spoke to his wife, his words were no more comforting to her than hers were
to him. Now as then, spouses, in times
of great loss, sometimes turn against each other, blame each other, grow apart
from one another.
But, that is
not the end of the story. The Word says
that after all was said and done, God restored all that Job had lost and
more. He was even blessed with more
children. Chapter 42:12-16 says that Job
was blessed with animals, more children and grandchildren and long life. However, it did not say that he got a new
wife. No, he had the same wife as
before. So, if he was declared to be right before God so was she. God understands our pain and sees us through
it. He did with Mrs. Job. God did not
judge her by one statement spoken out of pain.
Neither did Job. God blessed Job with the same wife and blessed her with
the same husband. And they lived happily
ever after…No, really, they did.
