Job's Wife - Nameless, Faceless Suffering

Take your Bible this morning, go ahead and turn to the book of Job. The little book of Job. If you have trouble finding this book, you can find your way to Ezra or Nehemiah. You should be familiar with where those books are because of our studies on Sunday nights in Ezra and Nehemiah. You can go to the right to Esther and then one more book is Job. To help you out, if you get to the book of Psalms or Proverbs, you've gone a little too far. Go back to the left. Now like you've heard through the music and through Brother Keith and like you heard at the welcome today, we are celebrating Mother's Day.

Now of course Mother's Day is celebrated in our culture as well as celebrated in the church. Some of you might not know but this holiday did not originate within the church but it originated from our American culture. If you know your history, it was President Woodrow Wilson that signed the proclamation setting Mother's Day as the second Sunday in May and it was set up as a national holiday. That's why we observe Mother's Day. Now there are several reasons why we're going to look at a special message pertaining to Mother's and Mother's Day. Let me give you several reasons that have been on my heart this week.

First of all, it is a good thing to do. This is part of our culture which is assimilated into the church and that is good. Motherhood originated with God. God's Word gives us instructions as to how a Christian mother should act and how she should be. So even though this originated within culture, we should take times like this to exalt what God's Word says about the subject that is at hand. And of course the subject this morning is Mother's and Motherhood. Now the second reason and it's a more personal reason, we have some mothers among us who are struggling and even suffering.

I think it is not just okay but good for me to be honest with you. We have some mothers who are suffering and maybe even struggling in a great way in handling the circumstances that God has dealt them. I'm not trying to single anyone out. I know this is difficult for some but for some of you, your suffering is obvious to some of us but for some of you, your suffering is suppressed. Your suffering is concealed. Your suffering could be hidden really from everyone that is around you. Now the third reason, for some of you mothers here this morning, suffering is down the street from you and it is headed your way.

Your day of suffering might be several city blocks away from you or quite a few country miles from your doorstep but hear me well, suffering will land on your front porch and suffering will knock on your front door. It will come. It will come. This morning I want us to look at a picture of suffering in the face of a suffering wife and mother and that is the wife of the Old Testament figure, Job. Now in looking at Job's wife, we get very little biblical information. Nowhere in the Old Testament or the New Testament is this woman ever named. There's only one verse where she speaks and that is in Job chapter 2 verse 9.

Although many Bible commentators condemn her for her actions, God never does. God never does. Truthfully, she acted no different than some great men and women in the Scriptures. She acted no different than Abraham's wife Sarah. She acted no different than the disciple Peter. We even see her blessed in a great way at the end of the book, chapter 42. Now I feel that it is necessary to give you at least a sketch of what has taken place in Job's life. He is the main character of the book of Job. According to chapter 1 verse 1, Job was a blameless and upright man. This means he was living an upright and godly life for all to see.

Then Satan presents himself before God in chapter 1 beginning in verse 6 and surprisingly to many of us, God gives Satan permission to attack Job's life. First, he takes all of his possessions. Second, he kills his 10 children. And third, he gives him a horrible, horrible disease. Even if that is not bad enough, he endures a long sickness with three friends who bring upon him all sorts of discouragement and accusations. But finally, there is relief. In the last chapter, God works in Job personally, then restores Job personally, and then he blesses Job in a new way. But this morning, I want to focus on Job's wife.

In doing so, we will look at Job as well. We have to. He was at the center of all of these calamities. But we have to see that every difficulty Job endured, his wife must have been the faithful wife right by his side. She must have felt all that he felt in a very similar fashion. She had to have been right by his side. Otherwise, he would not have been seen as a man upright before God and even blameless and the greatest in the land. Now that leads us to the title of the message. We're looking at Job's wife, nameless and faceless suffering. Job's wife, nameless and faceless suffering. We're going to be in chapter one, chapter two.

We're not going to read all of the chapter and we're going to observe, examine three truths. She experienced great financial loss. She watched all of her children die and she was the caretaker of a very sick and diseased husband. And again, as I always say, I encourage you to take notes so that you can study and pray all during the week. And just let the Lord continue to teach what he is attempting to teach us this morning. Well, like I said earlier, all of what we're going to look at will be out of chapter one and chapter two. I'm going to read some of these verses and then I'm going to paraphrase or touch on some of the others.

Now, we see in chapter one, verse one, who this book is about, this man Job. And we see in verse one that he was a very godly man, an upright man, righteous in the sight of God. And then we see in chapter two, or excuse me, verse two, all of the wealth that he had accumulated and then we go on down and we see all about his family, his sons and his daughters. But like I said earlier, Satan presented himself before God and somehow, someway, God allowed Satan to attack his life. Some people might say he touched his life. I don't think that word touched is strong enough because this was a downright attack instigated by Satan and allowed by God.

We see that beginning in verse six. But I want to pick up in verse 13. Now it happened on the day. This is after Satan had permission when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house that a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkey's feeding beside them and the Sabeans attacked and took them.

They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another messenger also came and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I am the only one who has escaped." Verse 17, "While he was still speaking, yet another messenger also came and said, 'The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone escaped to tell you.'" Verse 18, "While he was still speaking, another messenger also came and said, 'Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house and behold a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell on the young people and they died.

I alone have escaped to tell you.'" Then verse 20, "Then Job arose and he tore his robe, he shaved his head and he fell to the ground and worshipped and he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.' And through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God." And we see at the beginning of chapter 2 what happens? Satan again presents himself before God and there is that wrangling between the two and now God allows Satan to do something else. Now God allows Satan to attack Job's very being, to attack his body starting in verse 7.

"Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smoked Job, or struck Job, with sore boils from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head and he took a pot shared," that is a broken piece of pottery, "to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes." And here's the only words uttered by Job's wife that we have recorded. "Then his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.' But he said to her, 'You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.

How we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?' In all this Job did not sin with his lips." Now you see the truths that are before us that we're going to divide. We're going to look at our first main truth, truth number 1. She - this is Job's wife - experienced great financial loss. Job is described in verse 3 of chapter 1 as a very, very rich man. More than likely he was the richest man in the region. As a matter of fact, one translator or Bible commentator that I looked at said he could have been the richest man in the world. No doubt Job's wife would have had everything she needed, most all, of what she wanted.

She would have been right in the middle of Job's wealth. We even see that her children were able to live a life of luxury. They had very lavish lifestyles because in verses 4 through 5 they were able to take turns having these grand feasts in their homes. But I want us to notice two specifics concerning her great financial loss. First of all, I want us to see that their wealth was great. Their wealth was great. Now if you look at verse 3, you will notice something strange. There's all these numbers of sheep and camels and oxen and female donkeys.

Now this is because in that day wealth was not measured in money or lands, but it was measured in animals and servants. That was a common way a man's wealth was measured. Also his wealth was diversified if you pay very close attention. Not only did he have livestock, but he had oxen and they were used for farming as well as servants to tend to his livestock and his crops. So all of that language tells us that his wealth was very, very great. Second, I want you to notice that their wealth was all destroyed. Now I read those verses earlier starting in verse 14 of chapter 1 all the way down to verse 17.

These verses teach that all of their possessions were taken from them in one day. Possibly the only possessions that they had remaining might have been three servants because it says that there were three messengers who came, but the text reads messenger, not servants. So that's just speculation on my part. If his wealth was like today, he would have had everything in the stock market and he would have experienced what we would call a total financial collapse or a stock market crash. So here we see that Job's wife loses all the wealth that she and her husband enjoyed. In a single day it was all gone.

The wealthiest family in town became the most destitute in town. If we speed over to chapter 2 verse 8, we see that Job was among the ashes. Now this indicates that he was in the ash heap outside of the city and that was traditionally referred to as the city garbage dump where lepers would have associated or have been confined. This would have been worse than our city dump in our day and time. So we see she experienced great, great financial loss. Now in application, we see that financial loss comes to people in our day in various ways. Now it's hard for us to get our minds around this. God, a loving God, a good God.

Obviously, Job was a great man of God, but somehow, someway, that great loving God allowed Satan in one quick swipe to take everything that this family owned and we see that this kind of loss happens to people lost and saved, good and bad, even today. Some people are victims of circumstances. Sometimes people lose their jobs. Sometimes they invest in the wrong business, but sometimes people are victims of circumstances. Maybe one spouse is a victim of another spouse's bad financial choices and some are victims and they incur great financial loss. Some make these bad decisions before they come to faith in Christ.

Many times people come to faith in Christ and they must suffer the consequences of bad decision after bad decision after bad decision and they come into a relationship with the Lord with great financial loss. And some make bad decisions even after they come to faith in Christ. But the Scriptures here are silent. And what I mean by silent, we have lots of information about what happened to Job in that day, what happened to that family, and what happened to Job's wife, but the Scriptures are silent as to how she handled this tragedy. I do not have a problem believing that she handled it well, but we really don't know.

But truthfully, we will see how she does come to the surface. But for you, for me, my question for you is how would we handle such a calamity? What would we do if all that we had and all that we hoped to hold on to was gone? I don't know what that feels like. I've known people and I've heard stories, but I don't know what this feels like. The closest thing that I can relate to is because of difficult circumstances in my life when I left full-time student ministry. My nice salary was taken away. My retirement it was contributed to was taken away. My health insurance was taken away. My job security was gone.

I'll never forget the day I walked into the door of my home and my wife was sitting on our green and white couch holding a six-month-old. And I looked at her and I said, "I've lost my job." And I'm thankful that her reaction was, "It'll be okay." My pay was cut in half right down the middle. No health insurance, no retirement, no job security. As a matter of fact, if it rained, I didn't get to work the next day. Now this is nothing like what Job's wife and Job went through, but she experienced great financial loss. Maybe some of you are facing that right now, just like Job's wife. Let's move on. I want us to see truth number two.

I want us to see that she watched all of her children die. Now glance back at verse two of chapter one. It says that God had given him seven sons and three daughters. And then we see starting in verse 18 and 19 that all of those children and one day and one moment were taken away. But we see that Job's wife had 10 children, seven boys and three girls. No doubt their children were a great blessing to both Job and his wife. It is obvious that they were a close family. Now how can you say that? If you look at chapter one, verse five, we see that Job acted like a priest for his children when they are grown.

This tells us that Job dearly loved his children and no doubt his wife would have been right in the middle of that family activity. Again this must have been the case for him to be an upright man and to be the greatest in the east, his family would have had to be in good working order. But two observations I want to make here. First of all, I want you to notice that they had the perfect family. They had the perfect family. You might say, "Well pastor, how can you say that?" You must see that in that day numbers meant something. In the scriptures, the number seven was the number of perfection.

And in the scriptures, the number 10 was the number of completion. So they had a perfect and complete family. They had the family that people would dream of. He had many sons. She had many sons to work and to inherit the great estate. And then they had many daughters to give them many, many grandchildren. So they had the perfect family. Then second, I want you to see that they lost all of their children. I've already read those verses, verses 18 through 19. All of their children were taken from them in one moment in one day with one message from one messenger.

They were all in one place and they were destroyed in this horrific natural disaster, but it was ordained by God. So here we see the pain of a mother losing all of her children in one day. Again, we have much of how Job reacted, but nothing of how his wife reacted. She must have been just as David stated as her husband. She had experienced the pain and joy of childbearing, but on that day she experienced the pain of death. Now an application, we must see that there are some mothers who experience loss that is just as deep, just as difficult, and just as devastating.

I think of three circumstances that can be just as tragic and just as life altering. First, of course, the loss of a child. I've never experienced anything of that nature, but I would imagine that if a mother loses a child today, they would go through exactly what Job's wife and this mother would have gone through. I can think of a second circumstance that could be equally as devastating, and that is the great pain of divorce. My wife and I have ministered to many people in the life of the church who have gone through this pain of divorce.

And then the third circumstance that I think could be equally as devastating, and that is the death of a spouse. And again, I have ministered to different people who have gone through these difficulties. But what do we see? I believe there are three circumstances that could be just as devastating. The loss of a child, bitter, bitter divorce, and the death of a spouse. I know that Brother Keith ministered to a neighbor. Some of you ministered to his neighbor. I ministered to his neighbor as they mourn the death of a little girl. They mourn the death of cancer taking their child away. I think about my friend Ray.

Brother Keith and I have a friend named Ray, and you've prayed for him as he walked down that road of losing his spouse. Ten years of fighting cancer. Ten years of chemotherapy. Ten years of doctor's visits. And then finally, before the age of 50, he lost his wife to the battle of cancer. But again, the Scriptures are silent as to how she handled this tragedy. I do not have a problem believing that she handled it well, but the Scriptures are silent. We really don't know. But what do we see? She watched all of her children die. Then let's move on. I want us to notice truth number three.

I want us to notice that she was the caretaker of a very sick husband. She was the caretaker of a very sick husband. We see this in chapter two, starting in verse seven. This was after Satan, again, had permission from God really and truly to turn up the heat. Although determining this exact sickness here is impossible, it was obviously very difficult, and it was very painful. As a matter of fact, if you scour the Scriptures, it's hard to find anything that can compare to what Job was going through. Now, there are three observations that I want to make here. First of all, I want you to see that Job was covered from head to toe.

What does the Scripture say? Satan struck Job with boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Again, we do not know what this disease was. Maybe it was boils similar to what the Egyptians suffered in Exodus chapter nine when they were judged by God. But he was covered and was relegated to scraping the sores with a broken piece of pottery there in the ash heap. One writer that I came across speculated that he was breaking open and releasing the infection of pus as he scraped those sores from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. He was covered head to toe. Second, I want you to see that he seemed cast out of the city.

Verse eight tells us that he was there at the ash heap, which is what I've already said. He was there at the city dump. He was there where lepers would have congregated or maybe they were confined. He was cast out much like lepers in that day. Was it the only place that he could have gone since he had lost all of his possessions? Possibly. Was it a voluntary or was this an involuntary cast away to the city dump? Maybe this was more like a city sanatorium and he was cast out there with those sick and diseased people. But whether it was voluntary or involuntary, he was cast out of the city.

And then third, I want you to notice that he ended up unrecognizable. He ended up unrecognizable. Now I did not read these verses, but at the end of the chapter, starting in verse 12, we see that his friends came to see him. As a matter of fact, when they came to see him at a distance, they did not even recognize their friend Job. And then when they finally arrived at his side, he was in such a pitiful shape that they just sat with him in the ashes for seven days and nights without saying one word. So here we see Job enduring a terrible sickness. His sickness covers him from head to toe. His sickness excludes him into the city dump.

His sickness inflicts him with great pain. His sickness commands great sympathy from his friends. And no doubt, his wife was right beside him through the difficulty of this sickness. But notice, finally, we have a reaction. Finally, through these great tragedies, we have words from this nameless and faceless mother. Verse 9, "Then his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.'" Here in this verse, we see that she gives Job terrible advice. She is telling him to let go of your faith in God. She is telling him to blaspheme God. She is basically saying, "Job, let go of your faith.

Curse God, blaspheme God, and then maybe, maybe God will kill you and put you out of your misery." But let me ask you a question. This is one that we might not can answer, but I think it needs pondering. Is Job's wife abandoning her faith in God, or was she simply wanting to end her husband's misery? Was her obvious, faithless statement a desire to see her husband finally get some relief? We really can't answer those questions. But this is a statement that she made calling her husband to abandon the faith, curse God, and die.

But to help us in this matter, if we go all the way to chapter 42, we see that not only does God restore Job, but God blesses Job. And not only does God bless Job, God blesses his wife, because God blesses him with great riches, but again, he blesses him with children. So we see at the end of the book, God blesses Job's wife, this woman who does issue a faithless statement because he blesses her with children again. But I also want us to notice Job's reaction to his wife's terrible spiritual advice. Chapter 2, verse 10, Job uses the word "foolish." Go back to verse 10. "But he said to her, 'You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.

Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?'" He is not calling his wife here a fool, but he is saying that her advice is foolish. Job seems to even wish something similar in chapter 3, because in chapter 3, starting in verse 20, he wishes that he could die. So here we see Job's wife resorting to losing faith in God. She resorts to believing and giving bad advice to a suffering husband. No doubt a husband she cared for. No doubt this had to have come from a heart full of pain and suffering as she had been suffering, he had been suffering, and now she is watching her loving husband suffer as well. So what do we see here?

The burden of a wife, the burden of a mother, the burden of a caregiver. And finally she is pushed to the brink of losing her faith. So my question for you is this. Could you be to the place of losing your faith? Could you be to the place of just looking up to heaven and saying, "God, where are you? You seem a million miles away." Could you be to the place where your circumstances are enveloping you and enveloping you and enveloping you and you find yourself uttering things that are just like Job's wife? I mentioned my friend Ray and his wife Amanda. I'll never forget the long conversations that I would have with him. And sure, he lamented.

Sure he hurt. Sure he explained how difficult it was. He never lost sight of the God that he loved in the midst of caring for a sick wife. As a matter of fact, his wife even made statements like this. "If cancer will do a work in the body of Christ, I will receive it." So Job's wife was the caregiver of a very sick husband. Now what have we looked at this morning? We've looked at Job's wife, nameless and faceless suffering. Job's wife was nameless in the Scriptures. What I mean by faceless, we have very little description about who she was. We know very, very little about her. She was nameless and faceless, but her suffering was not.

It most definitely had a name, and her suffering most definitely had a face. Now a couple of questions and then some deeper application. What is the name of your suffering? What is the name of the suffering that is coming your way? The name of your suffering could be called breast cancer. The name of your suffering could be called a car accident. The name of your suffering could be years of a difficult marriage or even divorce. The name of your suffering could be drug addiction or alcoholism. The name of your suffering could be teenage rebellion or teenage pregnancy or infertility. The list goes on and on.

The suffering that you're enduring and the suffering that will come your way, "Oh, it has a name." And, oh, you, some of you know its name. I want to give you some very needed personal instruction as a mother in helping you deal with suffering. Now I said earlier in the message that for some of you suffering will come, and I would challenge you to write down what I'm going to share. Now what is the goal? What is the goal in this instruction that I'm going to give you? Not that the suffering would go away, but that you would not lose faith in God as Job's wife seemed to have done. So number one, make sure you recognize the sovereignty of God.

Make sure you recognize the sovereignty of God. Because verse 20 of chapter 1 says, "Job arose, he tore his robe, he shaved his head." That is a picture of mourning, and what does it say? He fell on the ground and he worshiped. And then what does he say? "Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." All Job was doing is he was recognizing the sovereignty of God in his life, and he said, "My God is a loving God and a good God and if calamity comes or if goodness comes, I accept it." And what do we see? He mourned, he worshiped and he praised.

That is living under the sovereignty of God, people. And you must learn to live under the sovereignty of God. Because listen, if you do not hold on to the sovereignty of God, you will be tossed to and thrown by your circumstances, you will be enveloped by your emotions, you will be destroyed by your circumstances, you will be up, you will be down, you will be good, you will be bad, you will have faith one minute and you will be in despair in the next because you must recognize and operate under the sovereignty of God. Second, I want you to see, trust God in the pain and the suffering. Trust God in the pain and the suffering.

What does Job say? The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He's operating under the sovereignty of God, but he's trusting God even in his pain and suffering. If you cannot trust God in your pain and your suffering, then you never will trust God when things are good. You must learn to trust God when it is the deepest and the darkest pain, when it is the most suffering, when you feel like I can't go on, when you feel like Lord, I cannot make it another day. And you might not can make it another day, but you can make it another minute. You learn to trust God in the pain and suffering.

The third piece of advice is to ignore the wrong voices. Ignore the wrong voices. I'll point you to these voices. The first wrong voice was his wife in verse 9. And the second wrong voices were his three friends starting in chapter 3 and basically going all the way through chapter 41. This long lengthy illness and he has these three friends and I'm telling you it's bad advice, it's accusations and it's bad theology. He had to ignore the wrong voices. And I want you to notice these voices were those who were the closest to him. You must do the same thing. You must do the same thing. You must cultivate a discernment.

You must ask God to help you to ignore the wrong voices because if you listen to the wrong voices, you will make the wrong choices. And many times the wrong voices are those who can be the closest. Then the fourth thing I want us to see is look for an inner work from God. Look for an inner work from God. Now you don't have to turn there, but I'd like you to write this verse down. Job chapter 42 starting in verse 6. All along we've seen where Job had not sinned. But now in verse 6 Job says, "Therefore I retract and I repent in dust and ashes." Still in the garbage heap, still out there with the lepers and now we see repentance in Job.

Now why is that the case? Because the trial, the difficulties, the calamity was used by a sovereign God. The pain, the suffering, the calamity was used by a sovereign God to show Job hidden sin that would have never been exposed if it were not for the tragedy. I was doing a little reading this week and I read what the pastor John Piper said about Job. He said Job's wife was like, Job was like a clear glass of water. Clear is a Christable, pure, upright, holy, walking with God. But in the very bottom there was a little bit of sediment.

And all of a sudden these circumstances came along and shook up the glass and all of a sudden that clear water was tainted. And see this work, this work that was allowed, this calamity that was allowed brought about, brought this pride, brought this self dependence, brought this up and therefore he had to repent. This inner work of God. I give you a quotation by John Piper. He says this, "God may be permitting this calamity to come into your life just to refine very beautiful faith. Your faith is like gold but it does have straw in it and God loves you so much that he is now going to burn out a little more straw.

Learn to look for an inner work from God." And then the last thing, number five. Do not always expect God to take it away. Now God did take Job's calamity away. God restored all of his riches. As a matter of fact, God restored ten more children. Think about it. Job's wife had 20 children. Ten were deceased and ten at the end. God did bless Job and his wife and gave him everything back and then some. But the difficult reality is this. God doesn't always take away difficult circumstances. Sometimes the cancer is not healed. Sometimes the good job never comes back. Sometimes the marriage does not work out.

You see, if we hold our breath always expecting that God would take it away, sometimes we miss God and his perfect will and plan for our life. But what are we looking at? Job's wife. She was nameless and faceless, but her suffering was not. It is very detailed names, very detailed descriptions. There are some of you here, you can name your calamity, you can name your difficulty, you can describe your suffering. And for some of you, you might even be struggling to walk with God in your suffering. But for some of you, remember, suffering is around the corner.

It's a few blocks away and it will end up on your porch and it will knock on your door and it will come into your life. Let's pray.