I've Been Thinking About Mrs. Job

I have a confession to make. For the last three days, I’ve been thinking about another man’s wife. It has not been in any lustful or covetous way, but more of mysterious nature.  The wife I’ve been thinking about is Mrs. Job.

When God pointed His servant Job out to Satan, and how blameless he was, Satan said to the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?. . .Put forth your hand and touch ALL that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face” (Job 1:9,11).

God then replied to Satan:   “Behold, ALL that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him” (v. 12).

God told Satan, you can touch ALL that he has, just don’t touch his life. God gave to Satan the power to take whatever he wanted from Job, except his own life.

So Satan went to work. He took away Job’s possessions and hired hands (vv. 13-17).

Then Satan went deeper. He took away both Job’s sons and daughters and had them all killed (vv. 18-19).  No son or daughter of Job was left.

Job’s whole immediate family was wiped out – except one – “His wife.”

Satan spared Job’s wife! Why did he do that? Satan went as far as to kill all of Job’s children. God gave to Satan the power to take away “all that he has” (v. 12). So when given the opportunity, Satan let Mrs. Job live. Why?

Proverbs 12:4 may provide an answer: “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who shames him is as rottenness in his bones.”

You see, Satan’s goal was to get Job to curse God to His face (v. 11).  Satan therefore took away everything that was a blessing to Job except one – His wife who must have been like “rottenness to his bones.”

Why do I say this? First, because all the terrible things Job experienced, his wife’s best counsel to him is to tell her husband to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9).

Second, Job says to her in reply, “You are talking like a foolish woman” (v. 10). The word, “foolish” is better rendered, “senseless.” She most likely had the bad habit of talking without first thinking. So when she did talk, her words were like “rottenness to her husband’s bones.”

Third, Satan kept her alive. That says something folks! Satan took away everything in Job’s life that meant a lot to him, but he spared his wife. Don’t you think for one moment that there was a touch of “compassion” on the part of the devil.  Satan knew that by keeping Job’s wife alive, she would be more of a help to the devil alive than dead!

Fourth, when God pointed Job out to Satan twice for special recognition, He did not in include his wife.

Fifth, say what you will about Job’s friends and their rotten counsel, but at least they were there sitting with him during his time of deep physical and emotional pain. Where was his wife after chapter 2?

For Job, his wife was like a disease that eats away at a person’s bones, weakening his life from the inside out.

In this story, those whom Satan had killed were the good ones.  Those whom he spared were to become his personal agent to get Job to curse God to His face.

Sadly, some wives are like this to their husbands. They nag, complain, display a negative spirit, unforgiving, self-centered, domineering, overly aggressive, ungrateful, not submissive, foolish, and are like decay to their husband’s bones.

Job cursed the day he was born (3:1).  Some husbands may curse the day they got married.  I wonder, did God do Lot a favor when He turned his wife into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26)?  I know this can be turned around and apply to husbands as well.

I come away learning this wonderful principle:

“Knowing God is better than knowing answers.”  

When we suffer, we want answers as to WHY! What we really need is to use the times we suffer to get to know God more and seek for answers less.