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 would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
— Job 2:9-10
I would like to list a few things about Job’s wife here:
- Job, the “blameless and upright [one] who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1), married this woman, so chances are she was a virtuous wife (recall, also, that she had just lost everything alongside of Job).
- Unfortunately for her legacy, the Bible only records one statement from her made in a time of weakness (think of how many repulsive things you’ve said over the years).
- The Word of God uses her for the sake of contrast to amplify Job’s faithfulness to God (the conversation gives us proof of the depth of Job’s resilience and “obedience of faith” - ala the bookends of the Book of Romans, 1:5 and 16:26).
- The exchange in Job 2:9-10 gives us perspective on godly patience (this is the point of this blog).
As the Spirit continues to train us to think with a godly perspective, we discover that things are not always as they seem. For example, when I first read the Book of Job as a new believer, I suffered a knee-jerk reaction to the statement made by Job’s wife. I’m not going to lie; I judged her wrongly for many years. Isn’t that the hallmark of immaturity?
Immaturity always judges wrongly, except for those times when, by chance, it happens to align with godly judgment. As the old proverb goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day!
The truth is that Job’s wife was having a moment of obvious weakness and, for purposes of edifying generations long afterwards, her awful words are recorded in Holy Scripture. I’m supremely confident that, if she’s in Heaven, she has no objection to those words remaining on full display. Why? Because she knows the value of them to folks like us, who continue to learn from her mistakes, as well as our own. She happened to play the fool in that moment. So be it. Who among us can say we’ve never been that person??? Why doesn’t God just throw up His tremendous arms and say, “You are wretched, I’m taking you out!”?
Patience.
It’s possible that patience is one of the most misunderstood facets of our God. In our immaturity, we can be nearsighted and think of God's patience only in terms of tolerance or mercy (as transactional, not transcendent). While these things keep the righteous wrath of God at bay, upon closer inspection, through a godly lens, we discover that God overlooks our sinful thinking to accomplish a greater purpose. From His perspective, patience brings glory to Him because His purposes are ultimately met. The greatest example of all is regarding salvation. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about this very topic.
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
— 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Paul wrote, “for this reason” (v16), to anchor this passage to the fact that God uses patience in order to accomplish His will. If He didn’t, we’d all perish, as Paul wrote of himself.
My grandmother lived into her nineties and clung to a religion that blasphemes the Word of God. She had a stroke that kept her bed bound for the last two years of her life; she remained nonverbal for a time, as well. When we weren’t sure if she was going to survive, my mom asked me to come with her and pray over her. I would like to believe that the Gospel I gave her that day planted a seed that bore righteous fruit unto salvation, but God only knows. Before she had her stroke, she asked me, “Why am I still here? I’m so old.” I was too weak then to tell her that I thought God was keeping her alive the same way He did with Paul, to give her time to believe the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whenever someone asks me about her nowadays, I say that she is a testimony to God’s patience.
We mustn’t slight God’s patience by thinking of it only in terms of mercy or tolerance. From God’s perspective, it’s there to bring about something even greater, beginning with salvation, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Without His divine patience, we’d all be in Hell by now.
Let’s consider our opening thoughts regarding Job’s wife and how we might relate to her, specifically, through our own failures. The objective of sanctification is to transform our minds (Romans 12:2) in such a way that our perspectives shift from ungodly ones (e.g., Job’s wife) to godly ones (Job). Job’s wife was awfully nearsighted, self-righteous, and wrongly judgmental in Job 2:9, just like every immature believer is. Job, on the other hand, stood aligned with God, like the mature believer he was. He knew that God always has a purpose, “And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD’” (Job 1:21).
God’s patience has a purpose. Thanks be to Him that He doesn’t take on our knee-jerk reactions to life’s circumstances. In His omniscience and forbearance, He looks beyond the distractions we create for ourselves and seeks, tirelessly, to save us from every harmful way that is in us. May we appreciate His patience, even now as His Spirit knits the contents of this blog together in our souls, further sanctifying us to His glory.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
— Psalm 139:23-24
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins
