I started preaching through Job 3 weeks ago. This week I handled 2:1-13 in three points (of course). My second point was as follows:

The temptation to sin against God in the midst of trials can come from unlikely sources 2:7-10

In 2:7-8 Satan, with God’s permission, smote Job with terrible boils leaving him to scrape them off with pieces of broken pottery. Job has lost his wealth, his servants, his 10 children, and now his health. Job is a pathetic sight to see (2:12). Then in 2:9, Job’s wife urges him to curse God and die. History has not been kind to Job’s wife. She suffered the loss of all that Job suffered save one: her health. But as many can attest, it is often worse for the loved one to watch their beloved suffer than to suffer themselves. By the way, she is never later rebuked by God as are Job’s three friends. She knew that if Job cursed God, God would smite him and take his life, thereby ending his suffering. She thought this was a merciful way out of his suffering which she could bear no longer. Job very gently rebukes her (2:10).

But it is the strategy of Satan that is most shocking of all in the passage. In chapter 1 Satan challenged God, declaring that God only bribed his creatures to worship him. He said God won praise from his creatures because he gave them possessions. But Satan claimed that man would curse God if his stuff was taken away from him. Sadly, Satan was right about most of us; he just happened to be wrong about Job! Satan just wants Job to curse God so he could rub it in God’s face and say, “See, I told you! No one loves you just for you!” God accepted the challenge and gives Satan power to take away all he possessed, but he does not allow Satan to touch him physically. That happened in the second challenge. Satan then takes everything away from Job; his wealth, his servants, and his 10 beloved children. But he leaves his wife, the one closest to him. Why? He needs her. He is hoping that if he inflicts enough torment on Job, in time his wife will urge Job to do exactly what Satan told God he would do: Curse God! Satan is a maniacal, ruthless, merciless, nasty, mean, cunning, calculating enemy. He will use anyone he can to get us to sin against God, even those closest to us.

Categories: Christian living, Satan, sin, temptation