Finish this sentence. “If you don’t succeed at first…try, try again.” Do you know who besides God best exemplifies that kind of perseverance? Satan. If there is one thing I admire about Satan, and I know that’s a shocking thing to say, but if there is something we can learn from him, it’s perseverance. Satan doesn’t give up easily. Last week we heard how he was given permission to test Job for the purpose of getting Job to curse God. Although Satan engineered the loss of Job’s oxen and donkeys, then his sheep, then his camels and most of his servants, and then although he killed Job’s ten children all at once, he could not get that believer to curse God. Instead, Job praised God!
Job seemed unbreakable. But Satan wasn’t deterred. In our sermon text this morning, we see how Satan returned to God’s presence. This time he received permission to afflict Job himself with terrible sores. Even then Job did not curse God. But there was collateral damage: Job’s wife. She cried out to her husband as he sat in dust and ashes with a broken piece of pottery to scrape his sores: “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) How do you find peace on life’s already unpredictable path when even your own family can turn against you? That’s what we want to consider together this morning—we want to find out how faith should interact with family.
Job’s wife has been treated rather harshly. She’s been called a traitor to Job and the devil’s ally. No, what she said to her husband was not God pleasing. But before we talk about that, let’s consider what she had been through. When Job learned about the loss of his wealth—the news hitting him like the quick punches from a championship boxer, Job’s wife was clobbered too. The wealth she had known, the comforts that she had enjoyed—that was all gone before she could even ask her husband, “Honey, what’s happening?” And then add to that the shock of the death of her ten children. No, it wasn’t just Job who suffered, so did his wife.
Although we don’t hear Job’s wife praising God like Job did in the midst of their calamity at the end of chapter one, consider how some time must have elapsed between Satan’s first and second visits with God. Chapter two begins, “On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came…” (Job 2:1). It doesn’t say, “the next day” Satan came back, but “on another day.” It could have been days, maybe even weeks between Satan’s first and second visits with God. What’s my point? My point is that Job’s wife had stood with her husband through the first calamity. She hadn’t left him. She was still there at his side during the second round of trials. She too had persevered as Job had.
It’s only after her dear husband himself is afflicted that she “loses it.” Job was plagued with swollen joints and festering sores from head to toe. He burned with fever. An irritating itching moved him to scrape himself with a piece of broken pottery. He withered away to nothing more than skin and bones, and a rancid odor emanated from his tortured body, for Job said: “My breath is offensive to my wife” (Job 19:17).
It’s in this context that Job’s wife speaks, and in the original Hebrew she says six words—the only words of hers recorded in the book of Job. How would you like to be judged on the basis of six words? I suppose I wouldn’t mind if you remembered me based on six words from a sermon I preached or a Bible study I taught, but not from six words that went through my mind when I drove in Phoenix for the first time. I would not want my daughters to remember me for the six words (and more!) that I have spoken to them in anger. And there are no doubt more than six words you have spoken that you wish could be expunged from your life’s record! Don’t you think we should cut Job’s wife some slack?
Here’s the thing though, Job doesn’t! He points out that his wife is talking like a “foolish” woman. We don’t know if that’s the only thing Job said to his wife, or in what tone of voice he said it. I hope he did so in the most loving way he could, and I hope he spoke other words of encouragement to her. But here’s what we need to take to heart: Job was illustrating what God thinks about our “foolish” words, every one of them. Jesus himself once declared: “I tell you that people will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37). Oh boy. I’m in trouble. And so are you. Just as many think that Job’s wife is the devil’s ally for her six words, that’s what God should think about me for any number of careless, sinful words I have spoken!
Job, in contrast to his wife, continued to honor God with his words so that our text concludes: “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said” (Job 2:10b). That’s not to say that Job was sinless. As we will see in subsequent sermons, he did speak carelessly against God. Still, the Bible holds up Job as an example of a great believer. What made Job so great was his humility. When he said too much, he acknowledged his sin and he received forgiveness.
Likewise, we too can acknowledge our careless words—not covering them up, not blaming others for them, but taking responsibility and crying out to God for mercy. And for the sake of Jesus, we do have forgiveness. Jesus is like an interpreter who takes our insensitive comments and translates them in such a way to our heavenly Father that he only hears words that put a smile on his face. That of course isn’t an excuse for us to be careless with our words. No. As forgiven children of God, we strive to be gentle and kind in the way that we speak to all.
Let’s get back to Job and his wife. I admit, Job seems harsh with his wife when he tells her that she is speaking like a foolish woman, but he was being honest with her. Here’s one way in which faith and family should intersect. Faith will not let sin go unchallenged in our families. If our spouse is doing something that is not right, we will, in love, speak up and call him or her to repentance. We’ll want to do the same with our children. (We’ll talk more about how to speak the truth in love in our next sermon.)
Is that easy to do? No. Even a high priest in the Old Testament failed in this regard. Eli was the high priest shortly before King David’s rise to power about 1000 years before the time of Christ. He had two sons who were priests, but they didn’t treat their privileged positions with respect. They took advantage of the worshippers—stealing from them portions of their sacrifices that were meant for God. They also slept with the women who were helping out around the tabernacle. Eli knew about these things and he did tell these grown sons of his to behave themselves…but that’s all he did. He didn’t discipline his sons as he could have as the high priest. As a result, God asked Eli: “Why do you honor your sons more than you honor me?” (1 Samuel 2:29) Jesus put it as bluntly when he said, “Whoever does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters…cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). God demands that we put him first, even first before our own family.
God wants us to do this for our own good and for the good of our family. Eli ended up losing his sons when they died in battle as a consequence of their sin. It’s hard to imagine that we’ll see those two in heaven based on their attitude towards God. Friends, how do matters stand in your family? What difficult but necessary conversations do you need to have with family members to call them to repentance? Look again at Job. He continued to be so concerned about his children that he regularly offered sacrifices for them and no doubt with them. I suppose we might compare that to praying for our children today and having devotions with them. That’s certainly something that we can and should do, but we also want to speak with them if they are straying from the truth.
But what if you have done that and it doesn’t seem to have made a difference? Remember this: your God loves those children more than you ever could. So don’t give up. Continue to pray for them. Continue to ask God to give you and others the opportunity to help them remember the truths you taught them from God’s Word. One reason that Job may have been able to handle the death of his children “so well” was that he knew he had taught them faithfully. Although Job wouldn’t have known these words because they were spoken hundreds of years after his time, he would have taken comfort in them as we can. “The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. 2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (Isaiah 57:1-2). Our faith needs to interact with our family so that they too can find peace in death through faith in Jesus.
So what happened to Job’s wife? She’s only mentioned two more times and only in passing. What we do know is that God blessed Job with more children when all his suffering ended. Some think that Job had these children with a second wife, but the Bible doesn’t mention a second wife. Job lived for another 140 years after his affliction (Job 42:16), and one tradition says he was 70 when the afflictions came. If God could give Abraham and his wife Sarah children in their old age, he could have done that with Job and his wife. If so, it would mean that Job’s wife must have taken the rebuke and repented. She must have continued to stand by her husband’s side and was present for his suffering. That’s another way faith interacts with family—it doesn’t cut and run. Though neither will those who are filled with faith say to their families: “See, you have to stay with me because that’s what God says.” Sure, it is God’s will that families stick together, but it’s not his will that you use those words as a weapon to manipulate or to excuse your own poor behavior towards family.
Life is unpredictable enough as it is. One way we find peace on this path is by living our God-given roles as servant-leader husbands and as strong-helping wives. Those who do will find that faith always receives a reward of grace. For Job and his wife, it meant more children and more riches. God hasn’t promised that to all the faithful—he promises something much better—a life in heaven with him where all your relationship with others will be perfect. Keep encouraging each other—especially family members to stay on that path. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Finish this sentence. “If you don’t succeed at first ________________________________.”
Who, besides God, best exemplifies that kind of perseverance?
Job’s wife has been treated rather harshly for her cutting words to her husband Job. Why might we want to “cut her some slack”? (List at least two reasons.) Why shouldn’t we cut her (our ourselves) any slack for her hurtful words?
We too have spoken careless words as did Job’s wife. How did the sermon illustrate the saving work of Jesus to cover up those words and offer us forgiveness?
When Job rebuked his wife, he teaches us one way in which faith and family should intersect. Faith will not __________________________.
(to do at home) The sermon pointed out how the high priest Eli failed to let faith intersect with family and he lost his sons as a result. Think of two more biblical examples where faith and family failed to intersect.
But what if you have shared your faith with your family and it hasn’t seemed to make a difference. What then? What can you continue to do? How will you do those things THIS week?
God blessed Job with more children when all his suffering ended. Some think that Job had these children with a second wife, but the Bible doesn’t mention a second wife. Therefore Job’s wife must have taken the rebuke and repented. She must have continued to stand by her husband’s side and was present for his suffering. That’s another way faith interacts with family—it doesn’t _______________.
How should the above-words not be used?
One way we find peace on this unpredictable path of life is by living our God-given roles as _____________ husbands and as ______________ wives. Those who do will find that faith always receives a reward of ___________. For Job and his wife, it meant more children and more riches. God hasn’t promised that to all the faithful—he promises something much better: ____________________________________.
