But Job's Wife

by Lowell Blasingame

Job lived in the land of Uz and was an upright man that feared God and turned away from evil. God blessed Job with 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys and many servants so that “he became the greatest of all the people of the east” (Job 1:1-3). He also was a deeply religious man who regularly offered sacrifices for his children. He said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts” (Job 1:5) and this he did regularly.

One day when the sons of God presented themselves before the Lord, Satan came among them. God asked him where he had been and he answered “going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” God, then, asked him if he had considered his servant Job, that he was an honorable, upright man who turned away from evil. Satan challenged the integrity of Job by insinuating that his service was because God richly rewarded him by causing all that he did to prosper and if this were removed, Job would renounce Jehovah. The Lord replied, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord” (Job 1:6-12).

Satan acted swiftly and furiously against Job by taking away his possessions, first his donkeys, then sheep, and after that his camels. Then came the cruelest blow up till this point in his trial, the loss of all of his children in a great storm (Job 1:13-19). “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:20-22).

A day when the sons of God presented themselves to the Lord came and Satan was there again. God asked and received from him the same answer as before. Then God asked him if he had taken note that Job continued to serve Him and “holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason” (Job 2:1-3). Satan isn’t about to admit that he was wrong about Job and replied that a man will give anything to save his own skin but if he were allowed to get to Job personally, that Job would “curse you to your face.” The Lord replied, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life” (Job 2:6).

Satan went from the presence of the Lord and smote Job “with loathsome sores from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head” and he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. “Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). Job’s response was that she was speaking as one of the foolish women would speak. He points out to her that we should be ready to receive bad things that befall us in life as well as good things. “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).

Job had three friends who learned of his misfortune and set a time for coming to comfort him. Seeing him from a distance, they did not recognize him because his disease had so disfigured him. They wept, rent their garments and sprinkled dust upon their heads as a sign of their grief for him, then sat in silence for seven days. It was Job who broke the silence by lamenting the day of his birth and asking why God continued to give light to him that is in misery (Job 3:20) and to one “whose way is hidden” (Job 3:23).

In our reading the book of Job, we are given background information or are told of the conversation between God and Satan and of Satan’s impugning Job’s motive for serving God. Satan’s accusation is that he serves Jehovah only because God had rewarded him so handsomely for doing so and because God had put “a hedge around him and his house” and if what he had been given were taken away, “he will curse you to your face” (Job 1:9-11). This was why Satan was allowed to take away all that Job had and when he remained faithful to God Satan’s response was, “All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and flesh, and he will curse you to your face” (Job 2:3-5). So, after taking away his possessions and children, Satan is now allowed to strike Job but he isn’t allowed to take his life. But Job is unaware of these accusations filed against him by Satan as being the reason for the things which he is suffering or why his possessions have been taken.

Job’s wife offers no encouragement for faithfulness to God. Her solution to his problem is renounce God and let him slay you. Death may end one’s suffering here; but what about the hereafter? I’ve heard people say regarding the death of one suffering great pain, “He’s better off.” Well, that depends, one can be worse for there is suffering far greater than any physical pain that one can endure in life (Matthew 13: 41-42). Its only the death of the Lord’s saint that is precious in His sight (Psalms 116:16). Wives are to be helps meet or suitable for man (Genesis 2:18) and to find a wife is to find a good thing (Proverbs 18:22) but this is true only of a prudent wife (Proverbs 19:14). It was Adam’s wife that induced him to sin (Genesis 3:16). Solomon’s wives turned his heart after other gods (I Kings 11:3-4) and it was Jezebel that plotted Naboth’s death that her husband might have his vineyard (I Kings 21). Athaliah was her son’s “counselor to do wickedly” (II Chronicles 22:3). Job’s wife was of no comfort or support to him in his time of trial.

Nor were Job’s friends of help. Solomon said, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). And, “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so does the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel” (Proverbs 27:9). In times of adversity we expect wise counsel and comfort from friends but Job didn’t receive this of his. They accused him of hypocritical living that he had been able to conceal even from them but had not been able to hide from God and that the calamities that had befallen him had come as punishment for these. Job steadfastly maintained his innocence and faith in God, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him” (Job 13: 15). In the end Job was vindicated, his friends were rebuked, his property was restored two-fold and he was given another family (Job 42). Many lessons may be learned from Job but none more clearly taught than that fidelity to God is sometimes attained at the expense of not having the support of those who should be the dearest to us in life … one’s marital companion and friends. Where Job succeeded without the support of these, others have faltered and failed.