Can we grieve deeply and still trust God? Job’s prosperity and his adversity are behind us. This lesson looks at his integrity and his misery — and at four voices that show up not just in Job’s story, but in ours, whenever we are in a season of real distress.
Job’s integrity
The host of heaven and hell watched to see how Job would respond to losing his wealth and his children — two of the most sensitive nerves in anyone’s life. And Job’s response was not stoic silence. He tore his robe. He shaved his head. He fell to the ground. Grief is not sin; Jesus Himself experienced real loss and real temptation, and “is able to succor them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). God does not expect us to be robots.
What was extraordinary was what Job did in his grief.
“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”Job 1:21–22
He looked back to his birth and saw everything as a gift. He looked ahead to his death and knew none of it would go with him. And he looked up to the God who gave it all in the first place — and worshiped. Think about the character it takes to hold that perspective the moment the worst phone call of your life arrives.
Job’s misery: four voices
From here the book moves into Job’s misery, and four voices we can expect to hear in our own hard days, whatever they turn out to be.
1. The voice of the accuser
Chapter two opens with a second conversation between God and Satan, almost identical to the first.
“Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man… and still he holdeth fast his integrity?”Job 2:3
Satan answers with a proverb: “skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2:4) — in other words, everyone has a price, and Job’s is his own health. God permits it, short of Job’s life, and Job is struck with painful sores from head to foot. Satan is “the accuser of the brethren” (Revelation 12:10), and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1) — so when an accusing voice tells us we are worthless or beyond use, that voice is not God’s.
2. The voice of the quitter
Job’s wife, who had lost every one of the same ten children, tells him plainly: “dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). It is exactly what Satan predicted Job would do. Job’s answer is firm but not unkind toward her — both of them were grieving.
“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.”Job 2:10
There is a New Testament parallel worth noticing: when Peter told Jesus He would not really have to die, Jesus said, “get thee behind me, Satan… for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:22–23). Peter was not evil, but in that moment he was aligned with the wrong voice. In times of testing, our first instinct is often how do I get out of this? when the better question is what can I get out of this?
3. The voice of the mourners
Job’s three friends heard what happened and traveled a real distance to come mourn with him. When they arrived, they barely recognized him. And for seven days and seven nights, “none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great” (Job 2:13). That was, at this point, exactly right. The best comfort is often simply showing up and saying very little. Their trouble starts later, when they decide they need to explain Job’s suffering to him.
4. The voice of the sufferer
After seven silent days, Job finally speaks — not to curse God, but to curse the day he was born.
“Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?”Job 3:11
Job asks honest questions that never get answered. That is worth sitting with: understanding rarely changes a circumstance. A broken leg is still broken whether or not you have seen the X-ray. There is a real difference between bringing our questions to God — casting our cares on Him — and questioning His character. Job did the first. He never did the second.
Where we go from here
Next week we start four lessons on Job’s friends themselves — what each of them got right, where they went wrong, and how not to repeat their mistakes with people in our own lives who are hurting.