In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East…Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” (Job 1:1-3, 8-12 NIV)
…The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.. And he also had seven sons and three daughters…After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years. (Job 42:13, 16-17 NIV)
[Although I do not know anything about the author of this piece I saw on social media, its thoughts have been mine. Yes, Job is the hero of the story, but his wife was there, too. She saw it all, experienced it all, suffered it all.]
Almost everyone calls Job’s wife a villain. Almost no one talks about her pain. We know her for one sentence. She is the woman who looked at her suffering husband and said, “Curse God and die.”
We read that and think, “Wow, what a terrible wife. Job is suffering, and she just wants him to give up.”
But wait a second. We forget that she was standing in the exact same pile of ashes as Job.She didn’t just lose the financial security. She was a mother. She had to bury ten children. TEN! in one afternoon. Ten grown sons and daughters. Gone in an instant.
Think about that for a minute. Ten coffins. One funeral.
Take a look at her again. I can’t even process the noise of that grief, or the silence in the house afterwards. She was probably holding onto their childhood clothes and shoes, with deep agony.
So she’s grieving from losing ten children, and now she has to watch her husband, literally the only thing she has left to this earth, rotting alive. Covered in sores. Scraping his own skin off with pieces of broken pottery just to get relief. That’s not “evil” for crying out loud. That is a woman at her absolute breaking point.
When she told him to “Curse God and die,” that wasn’t hate. She wasn’t trying to damn his soul. She was trying to put him out of his misery. She couldn’t watch him suffer anymore. It was a plea for mercy, wrapped in despair. She was invariably screaming, “I cannot watch you bleed anymore. Please, just let it end.”
While Job’s friends sat around debating theology and “why bad things happen,” she was the one actually feeling the agony.
And you know what’s interesting? God never yells at her. He rebukes the friends. He tears into them for their terrible advice. But He never says a word against her grief.
He knew her heart was shattered.
And later, when God restores Job? He restores her, too. She’s the one who bears the next ten children. She’s the one who had to build a life again from zero. – Ellis Enobun
God,
Your infinite wisdom amazes us, and your heart of love surrounds us. When our hearts are shattered by the circumstances of our lives, restore us. In all our ways we will acknowledge you, trust you, and look to you for life, peace, and purpose. We ask this of you in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)