Jun 7 2019 - Job 2 – Loss of health

Job has lost his wealth and his children. Satan the Accuser now says that if Job were to be deprived of his health, then he would surely curse God to his face. Again God allows this accusation to be put to the test. Job was afflicted with painful sores from head to toe. He seems to have been exiled from his house – his wife, perhaps, seeking to ensure that she did not contract any infection from him. We now meet him sitting on a heap of rubbish, scraping his skin with a piece of broken pottery.

This must have been a terrible trial for Job, particularly on top of all that had recently happened to him. But his situation is then exacerbated by his wife seeming to side with the unseen Accuser as she urges Job to "Curse God and die!" (v. 9).

We should be careful not to be too quick in condemning Job's wife. Thus far she had suffered the same losses as her husband and she must have been grieving deeply for the loss of her children. It is sobering to ask how we might have responded in such circumstances. But Job's response was  unhesitating: "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" (v. 10). We are told that, "In all this, Job did not sin in what he said." The apostle James may have been thinking of Job when he wrote, "Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check" (James 3:2). Job shows remarkable faith in God in the face of all that he is suffering.

The chapter we have read then concludes with the account of three of Job's friends turning up to, "sympathise with him and comfort him" (v.11). As they approached the place where Job lived they saw a man sitting on a rubbish heap. At first they did not recognise that this was Job. When they did, "they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was." (vv. 12-13).

This was sympathy indeed. They felt Job's plight and joined him in his exile in dust and ashes. Job must surely have felt some measure of comfort from such friends who were willing to come and share his humiliation. The problem starts when they cease to sit in silence and open their mouths.

How have we responded to times of loss, perhaps particularly loss of health? Have we complained against God as if we have a right always to be healthy and strong or have we replied with Job, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" Such acceptance of loss and suffering is not a form of fatalism but recognition that suffering is common in a fallen world and that we can trust God even at such times. When we hear of friends who face times of suffering and loss, how do we show our love and support for them?

Our precious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, looked down upon us in all our suffering and need. He took pity upon us in our humiliation, when we were facing death. He came and identified with us – he sat where we sit and felt what we feel. But he did not merely come to share our suffering, he came to save us. He died for us, breaking the power of sin and removing its sentence upon us. He rose again from the dead as the author and giver of eternal life. He does more than sympathise with us, he gives us the sure and certain hope that beyond any suffering we may experience now, there is the prospect of an eternal weight of glory.

I have witnessed the powerful testimony of those who have lost children and health and are facing a lingering and cruel death, who have yet spoken of God's unfailing goodness to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their lives are a living demonstration that it is our gracious God and not the cruel Accuser who has the last word.

Father God, teach me to trust you in all circumstances and to be a genuine comforter to those who are facing suffering and loss. May we be more than conquerors through Christ who has loved us.

Peter Misselbrook