Mrs. Job

    I have been reading Job lately for my daily devotions. Of course. Job is practically a textbook for anyone suffering loss. It is not a soft, cuddly comfort animal for those in pain, it is a prickly porcupine of worst case scenario. No matter how bad your circumstances may be, Job's are worse. You feel better by comparison. But that is not the point of Job or why God made it one of the first scriptures written. The pervasive principle in Job is that circumstances are not what they appear. Suffering is not always the result of personal sin. Job callous "comforters" were so certain in their assumption that Job's suffering was the result of his sinfulness that they, his friends, made up sins they knew he had not committed to justify their belief. They would hardly have been friends with someone of the low character they ascribed to him.

    God vindicates Job in the end, but Mrs. Job has been vilified in almost every Job message I have ever heard. This is based on four words in scripture recorded at the worst time of her life, "Curse God and die." Job, on the other hand, sang eleven chapters worth of  "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me." 11 chapters, 274 verses, versus 4 words spoken after losing 10 children and most of their livelihood. Having recently lost one of our three children, I think Mrs. J showed remarkable restraint. Besides that, the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva, seven days of quiet support for the grieving, was not just for men. Job's fickle friends probably brought their wives along and, if the men were being that judgmental, their wives were probably worse. And what if Job, instead of replying to his grieving wife's, Curse God and die statement by calling her a foolish woman, said "I know it's hard, honey, but we must trust God." Why doesn't the compassion to the suffering Job claims in later chapters to be part of his upright character, extend to his own wife?

    Job is considered one of the earliest Bible books written. It not only reveals the unseen back story between heavenly powers and human events, it records the battle between our assumptions and God's truth. Job's friends had so firmly fastened prosperity to blessing, suffering to sin, and God's judgment with earthly circumstances that they could not comprehend the truth until God thundered it from heaven and condemned them by name. Why did we need to know these things early in human history? Because we are just the same. It is nearly impossible not to see what we are expect to. If you have ever heard someone else embellish an event you were a part of, you know what I'm talking about.

    That brings us back to the much maligned Mrs. Job. Just because she was not afflicted with the physical pain and sores her husband was, does not mean she was not suffering. His losses were hers. His restored blessings of wealth and children were also hers. She must have been a smokin' hot mama because, after giving birth to, raising and losing ten children, she bore Job ten more, including three devastatingly beautiful daughters. (Who probably took after her.) It is ironic that judging the Mrs. based on four words of the thousands she must have spoken during her lifetime is the same small minded presumption that got Job's friends in so much trouble. Having lost all ten of her children in one day, it is amazing she could compose herself enough to articulate anything. Here are my four words from one mourning mother to another, "You're amazing, Mrs. Job."