August 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Job 2:1-13

¹Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
²And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
³And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
⁴And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
⁵But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
⁶And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
⁷So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
⁸And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
⁹Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
¹⁰But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
¹¹Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
¹²And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
¹³So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

Devotional:

Job was sitting down among the ashes trying desperately to get relief from his discomfort by scraping with a piece of broken pottery the sore boils which covered him from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. His physical distress, coming so soon after the death of his children, was almost more than he could bear.

Who on earth could be expected to minister to a person with such a revolting physical appearance and malady? Who indeed but his wife? She should have been the one who would dress his sores. She should have been the one who would assure him of her continuing love, and of God's love. But what does she do? She shows a complete lack of understanding of his deep trouble. 'Dost thou still retain thine integrity?', she asks bitterly; 'Curse God and die' (2:9).

Job, hurt to the quick, rebukes her, 'Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?' In all his distress we read that Job 'did not sin with his lips' (2:10).

As wives and husbands, how understanding are we of the physical limitations and problems of our loved ones? And of the spiritual problems? We should 'sit where they sit' and try to understand their situation. Or, to use a familiar figure, we should try walking in their moccasins!

God wants the wife to be a helper and a support. He also wants the husband to 'give honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel' (I Peter 3:7). Many of us have promised at marriage to take each other 'for better and for worse, in sickness and in health.' Do we really enter into the problems of our spouse?