Job 2:1-13

Adversity is a test of our character and demonstrates who and what we are before the Lord.  Job and his wife have suffered great loss within their family and face an adversity that few others have even come close to experiencing.  As readers, we are given insight as to what is truly going on behind the scene in the throne room of heaven.  We understand that all of this adversity is being permitted by God in order to demonstrate His glory and the faithfulness of Job, his follower.  Job and his wife do not have this information.  Even so, Job remains steadfast in his commitment to the Lord and continues to worship Him.  We must not allow our worship of God to become conditional upon the blessings of God.  We worship Him because of who He is; not because of what He has done for us.  God calls us to be thankful for His blessings but not to base our worship on the blessings He grants.

JOB IS CONFRONTED WITH MORE PAIN: Once again Satan comes before God and God brags about Job’s faithfulness in the midst of suffering.  Satan again accuses God of protecting Job’s health and asserts that if that were taken away; Job would turn from God.  The Lord allows Satan to inflict Job with sores and boils all over his body.  The pain was intense, the smell must have been grotesque and Job simply sits down in the dirt and scrapes his body with a piece of tile.  As if this pain were not enough, Job’s wife comes to him and tells him to curse God and die.  She has given up on life but Job stands firm on the truth that God has the authority to do what He pleases with our lives and our circumstances.  We must be willing to worship the Lord both in the face of adversity and blessing.  How much are we willing to suffer in order to bring glory to our Lord?  We must not use illness as an excuse for being faithless.

JOB IS COMFORTED BY HIS FRIENDS: Three of Job’s friends hear of his plight and they gather to come and try to bring comfort to Job.  The remainder of the book will be a debate between Job and these friends, but I feel it is important to note that when they arrived with Job they spent a week just sitting with him and crying with him in his pain.  This is certainly the first step in striving to help someone who is hurting.  We must simply learn to “be there” for the people around us that may be going through a time of testing.  We do not need to “fix” everything or try to discover the reason behind the trial.  Sometimes people just need to know that we love them and that we are there to lean on.