Bad Advice from a Well-Meaning Wife

ByPastor Wynn

Scripture Reading:  Job 2:9-10

Job’s wife could no longer stand the sight of Job’s afflictions.  Obviously, she was hurting also with the loss of all her children.  The lack of security that had arisen from the massive financial and societal loss was most certainly weighing on her.  She was ready to “throw in the towel” and see it all end.

Job’s integrity is now under question.  It is not that it is faltering or failing, for it has stood like the Rock of Gibraltar (cf. Job 1:21-22).  Rather, it is the age-old question of “Is it worth it?”   This is not a foreign question to mankind.  David, the man after God’s own heart, pondered the value of serving God (Psa. 73:1-16).   David’s basic summation was that he had wasted his life in serving God (Psa. 73:13-14).   Of course, the next verse changed his perspective and he stated, “Until I went into the santuary of God. . .” (Psa. 73:17).

The people of Malachi’s day also questioned the value of serving God (Mal. 3:14).  They believed that life was supposed to yield bounty and blessing if they served the Lord faithfully.  They too had a wrong perspective about God and His working in their lives.

Twice in the first two chapters of Job, Satan had proposed that Job would curse God if life’s circumstances were bad enough.  Twice, God had given Satan permission to afflict Job.  First in his possessions and then in his person.  Yet, both times had proven Satan wrong.  In the loss of his possessions, Job declared the absolute sovereignty of God (Job 1:21-22).  In the loss of his health, Job would declare the absolute goodness of God.

In the midst of the second affliction, Satan uses the wife of Job to try and persuade him to curse God (Job 2:9).  It is interesting that when Satan took everything Job owned, he spared Job’s wife.  He murdered his children, but spared his wife.  Why?  Matthew Henry suggests that, “If Satan leaves any thing that he has permission to take away, it is with a design of mischief.”  How true!  John Butler writes, “Satan used Job’s wife to hang crepe, to encourage pessimism.”  Yet, his integrity prevailed!  If he had listened to his wife, he would have missed the greater blessings of God, and we would not have the Book of Job as our encouragement today.  How wonderful it is to be blessed with an encouraging helpmeet for life.

Unlike Job’s wife, Martin Luther had a wife who encouraged.  On one occasion when he was greatly discouraged, he was forcefully reminded of this by his wife, Katharine. Seeing him unresponsive to any word of encouragement, one morning she appeared dressed in black mourning clothes. No word of explanation was forthcoming, and so Luther, who had heard nothing of a bereavement, asked her: “Katharine, why are you dressed in mourning black?” Someone has died,” she replied. “Died?” said Luther, “I have not heard of anyone dying. Whoever can have died?” “It seems,” his wife replied, “that God must have died!”  Luther took the point. He, a believer, a Christian, with such a great God to call his Father, was living like a practical atheist. But Luther knew that God was not dead. God was living, reigning, active in the events of history and in Luther’s own life. How foolish he had been! Discouragement was immediately banished.

How many men lose their integrity because of a wife who is ready to “throw in the towel” concerning their service for God?  Sadly, the numbers are great!

Yet, Job proved that integrity can be maintained.  The Holy Spirit of God recorded that “In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10c).  May we have the integrity of Job in our daily lives.

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38 Comments

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