The Patience of Mrs. Job

I am intrigued by the lives of women in the Bible about whom we know very little. I like to imagine what it must have been like for these women who are our foremothers in faith. Job’s wife is one of them. Many of us are familiar with the story of Job himself, for his patience is legendary. But mostly what we remember about Mrs. Job is that in his terrible time of suffering, she told him, “Why don’t you just give up—curse God and die?” I think there is more to the story than that, for she too must have learned patience.

Job had it all: huge flocks and herds, a great many servants, a family of seven sons and three daughters. And he was a good man too, truly fearing God. He had no early warning when trouble came. It was just a normal day, but in a matter of minutes, one messenger interrupting another, Job learned that he had lost everything: livestock driven away by raiding bands, servants killed, sheepfolds and flocks burned, all his children crushed in a terrible windstorm. Mrs. Job must have heard her husband’s loud wails as he prayed with his face to the ground, “You gave me all I had, O Lord, and, all of a sudden, You have taken it away. I don’t understand, but still I bless Your name. You do all things well.”

And what about Mrs. Job? Calamity had emptied her life too of everything that was dear to her. Probably, since she would be pretty much like us, she was suffocating with heartache and desperately hoping that what Job believed was true. But the trouble wasn’t over. Job was struck with fever and a terrible, festering disease of the skin. He sat in the ashes of the fire pit, scraping the oozing sores with a piece of broken pottery. Seeing this suffering was intolerable for Mrs. Job.

We know, all these centuries later, why all of this was happening because we have the whole story of Satan’s attempt to make Job forsake his faith in God. But Mrs. Job did not know. There seemed to be no reason at all for this suffering other than a capricious, uncaring God. It is then that she decided her husband would be better off to give up on God and die, and so we have her famous discouraging words. I can imagine that Mrs. Job stormed away, angry with God that He should so afflict an undeserving man, angry at Job that he so patiently submitted to the suffering.

Word spread of the sorry spectacle to be seen at the home of Job in Uz. Several acquaintances came from a distance to see him. At first, they sat quietly with Job, sharing his grief. (A wonderful idea!) But one by one, and with a great many words, they began to criticize and rebuke him. Job defended himself, knowing that he was not deserving of God’s wrath. On and on the arguing went with many accusations and denials, long speeches and equally long rebuttals. In his anguish, Job even had words with God! The final insult thrown at Job was, “Don’t expect that the majestic Creator of all the earth is going to respond to your pitiful whimpering, Job. Your pleas are in vain.”

Just then a furious whirlwind descended on them, and at last God spoke to Job. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” He asked. He questioned Job thoroughly. “Did you lay the boundaries of the seas? Can you tell where daylight dwells and where is the place of darkness? Who do you think you are?”

“Oh Lord God,” Job answered humbly, “I was wrong to question you, insisting that You had to explain everything to me, that You had to give me reasons for all that has happened in my life. You are God! God! Who did I think I was, calling on you to justify your purposes?”

That wind-tossed night was the turning point in their experience of loss and restoration. Job’s family members gathered around him, and his acquaintances came to visit, bringing words of encouragement and sharing their prosperity. With wise management, Job rebuilt his flocks and herds, and God blessed the latter days more than the beginning, giving Job twice as much as he had before! But it seems that while they lived, God never did give them an explanation for the losses they had suffered, nor could they see why, suddenly, He began answering every prayer. The reasons were not nearly as important as their surrender of the need to have a reason for everything. They waited patiently for the Lord, without knowing.

But the greatest loss was the children. “You are still young,” the other women may have told Mrs. Job. (That’s what unknowing people sometimes say.) “You can have more babies.” They could, of course, and they did. Job did not put his wife away for her unbelieving words, even though he could have as many a man did when his wife displeased him in some way. Seven sons and three daughters were born to them, just as they’d had in the first family. But even with the restoration of their wealth and with the new family, I believe Mrs. Job always felt the loss of the children that were gone.

“How wonderful that God gave you these seven beautiful children after—well, you know, losing the others,” the neighbor women may have said. Yes, it was wonderful, and yes, no doubt they were beautiful. What those well-meaning friends could not see was the awful chasm in Mrs. Job’s heart where the other family had been.

So then, you need never be ashamed of the still-tender places in your life where once there were cruel gashes, just now barely healed. To be sure, God brings wonderful new blessings into our lives after tragedy has taken its toll. Others see the evidence of God’s outpoured love, and they marvel at how especially good He is to you. You don’t need to tell them that your heart still aches. Tell God, and let Him kiss the scars.

MaryMartha
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Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com