Job's Wife
- Job 2:9 “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
- vs. 10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”
Let’s notice some important observations about Job’s wife, and then we can make a helpful application for our own lives.
First, the observations:
- – The Scripture does not speak positively of Job’s wife’s character as it does of Job.
- – When the devil approached God, God touted Job but did not mention Job’s wife.
- – When Satan was given the freedom from God to take everything from Job except Job’s life, why did Satan leave Job’s wife behind? (One suggestion has been that the two were one flesh so she couldn’t have been killed. This could be, but it could also be true that the devil banked on her being a burden on Job to cause him to sin.)
- – Job’s wife went through the same awful trials that Job experienced (losing her children, etc…). Yet, both responded differently.
- – Job’s wife recognized her husband’s integrity (vs. 9), yet still prodded her husband to curse God and die.
- – Job’s wife was speaking as one of the “foolish women”.
Finally, the application:
Husbands and wives are “one flesh”. We greatly affect each other whether for good or bad. Job and his wife were in terrible pain. They should have been lifting each other up in their God rather than encouraging sin and death. Some statistics reveal that over 80% of marriages fall apart as a result of prolonged trials. Marriages aren’t just “for better” but also “for worse”.
- Proverbs 24:10 “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.”
Of course, no marriage can withstand the storms of life unless it is built on the enabling Rock of Jesus and obeying His Word. (Lk. 6:47-49) Christ our Husband is the Strength every Christian marriage needs to uphold each other through the trials of life.