This man Job is amazing to me. He's lost everything except his wife and yet he's still not blaming God. He was the only upright and blameless man of his day.....and what happened to him in losing everything, including his kids, was unfair. We as humans always want things fair. How often do we cry...."that's not fair.....it's not fair". No most things in this life aren't fair, and since we all think we are good people most of the things that come our way aren't fair to us because of our goodness, but there is purpose for them. However, God has other plans. Plans we may never understand. We don't need to understand them, but trust Him during that time.
So now in chapter 2 Job satan is still at work in Job's sad life. God and satan have another conversation and God asks if he considered Job (a second time). He was told not to take his life, so he is now stricken with sores head to toe. My Notes say they are boils. Now I'm familiar with boils, or abscesses. These are very common and people come to emergency all the time to get these taken care of. My husband has had surgery to remove them. If abscesses aren't Taken care of so the infection can be drained out, other problems like sepsis can occur. These are swollen, red, pus filled bumps on the body. They can be internal as well. They can be in your mouth too. They are very painful and can't really be touched without feeling pain. For Job to have these head to toe must have been excruciating. How could he sit or lay or even walk? Top all this with losing his family and the physical and emotional stress must have been overwhelming. Verse 8 says he took pieces of pottery to scrape them.....probably to drain them so they could heal.
Look at his wife's response in verse 9.....she wants him to curse God and die. She feels death for him would be better than living with all this pain. I'm thinking of her and wondering how she use look at him with all those sores on him? She probably couldn't, so for her death of him would save her from looking at him or having to take care of him? Just a thought. But satan tempts her to say that as the goal of satan is to have Job curse God. Satan hates God and wants to see us hate Him too. It's possible the wife didn't know satan was putting this idea in her head about cursing God. It's possible she was just a vessel he could use to make Job feel worse.
Jobs response to her in verse 10 is good. He tells her she's crazy and asks if we should only accept Good from God and not trouble? Job still has not sinned against his God.
This makes me think of how I am. When everything is going good....I praise Him for his goodness. But when trouble hits I want It fixed fast.....and get back to good things. I've learned over the years I don't question God and what he does.....whether good or trouble. I do trust him, but would rather the trouble get over with sooner rather than later. That's my preference. I'm still learning patience......slowly learning patience. We need to praise God in troubled times too. What I've seen over to years is the troubled times is when we have the most growth. It's the times when we come out on the other side we can be better people. It's the times when I can relate to situations others can't because I've been there. That's what we don't see when we are in our "down" time. All we see int he moment is unfairness and want it to be done. I'm thankful for our God as he does things in His time and not mine. If my time was how he did things.....oh golly.....not good.
After this....3 of Jobs friends come to visit him. For 7 days none of them spoke. They just sat with Job and were silent. They knew his suffering was great and just sat to comfort him. Sometimes saying nothing at all is a blessing. Sometimes just "being there" for someone in their times of trouble is all they need.
My mother in law died in 2004. A few weeks before she died, one of our elders from church came to visit us. We knew it wasn't going to be long before the Lord took her home and my husband was having a hard time. This man said no words when he came over. He simply sat with Dustin as they cried together. The compassion he had through the tears spoke more than any verbal words could have. I will always remember this as sometimes the best thing we can do is not speak anything. Just like Jobs friends we need not always be saying things because most times we don't know what to say and our words are meaningless and empty. But love and compassion need not be said.....these are actions....and actions always speak louder than words.
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