His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” Job replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. (Job 2:9-10)
Job’s wife is often painted as an evil or quarrelsome wife because of her statement to Job–”Curse God and die!” It certainly wasn’t the best thing to say but we can’t forget that she felt the stinging pain of the tragedy as well. She lost all her children in the course of one day and was now living a life of grief, pain and profound loss. So I am sympathetic to her even though her words to Job are far off the mark. She is basically saying, “Why are you still worshipping and focusing on God? He has afflicted you and abandoned you so abandon Him! He obviously hates you so hate him back. Just curse Him and die!” Her mindset is a common one, perhaps the natural one. If life ain’t working for you, then God either is not real or not good so find something else to occupy your time and attention.
Job’s response is gracious. He does not appear to have anger in his voice when he tells her that she is talking foolishly. He merely points her to a different way of looking at the situation. “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?”
Here is a man experiencing the most profound loss in all of history, scraping scabs off his afflicted body, saying with tears in his eyes and sorrow in his heart, “God has been good to me and I have praised Him. Now He has brought trouble into my life yet I will still praise Him and trust Him.”
To be honest, I cannot even fathom that response. I see why Job is held forth by God as the absolute model of faithfulness. It is one thing to serve God for the blessings you might receive; it is another to serve Him simply because you love Him and trust Him, no matter what happens. There is a world of difference between those two motives for serving God yet they are often hard to discern…until suffering comes.
Why do I serve God? Is it just to get good stuff from Him? Is it an attempt to “earn” His blessing or to protect myself from bad things? Or do I serve Him because I love Him and trust Him? I almost hate to ask the question because I fear that my motives may be more selfish than I would like to believe. God often allows suffering into our lives to purify our motives and draw us to new depths in our relationship to Him.
Job has no idea that his life is the battleground between God and Satan. He has no idea that the entire heavenly realm is focused on watching his life and his response to suffering. All he knows is that his life is in a tailspin, his body aches, and his heart grieves…yet he also knows that God is good and there must be a reason for his suffering. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?
Lord, strengthen my faith and deepen my love for You.