The other Job......her.

As I write the title of the blog, I realize how many different ways the title could be taken, which wasn't my original intention.  No, it's not related to your job at work, or to Steve at Apple.  It's the story of Job, as told in the Old Testament.  Actually, it's an observation on the person in the story that, in all my years of church attendance (which has had a general paucity of sermons on any aspect of Job), I have never heard mentioned in a sermon.

His wife.

In the opening of the story, she is the silent but still present participant.  She is his wife, ostensibly the mother of his children, the collaborator in his life.  Since Job is blameless before Jehovah God, it would be reasonable to assume that Job treats his wife well.  One could suppose some degree of intimacy between them, especially since she is likely endowed with great beauty and they have a large family.

So when the evil one is permitted by God to wipe out Job's children and his wealth, she alone of his family remains and is not physically destroyed.  She is not taken, but her children are, the blessedness of seven sons along with daughters.  Her status and standing as wife of the richest man around are gone.  Her world is ripped out and her means of being supported are gone.  Everything she has on this planet other than her husband is taken from her.  He mourns.  She mourns.   And then his health is shattered as well, leaving her with no community (ostracized) no support, no source of income, no ability to provide or be provided for.  And no one to talk to, for Job is sitting in a heap of ashes scrapping his sores.

Her response, in that setting, is unsurprising.  She lashes out at her husband in her one sentence eternal cry “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” 

It says a lot, doesn't it.When in life have you reacted the same way to God?  I know I have.  When I was laid off from my first job, and had no support network, no ability to process the pain and shame I was suffering.  It happened again when the job I loved doing was moved to another state and they didn't want to take me.  An anger based response is, really, pretty natural. 

And then I wondered, was I reading her reaction right?  Was she angry at God and wanted to express it through a reaction from her suffering husband?  Was she angry at Job, thinking that this was all from some secret sin he had hidden from her? Or.....or was it a fatalism and despair that with everything gone, she wanted to just curse God as a means of ending her own life.

We don't know which of these she wanted to do.  We do know her faithful husband told her they were foolish words, words that apparently didn't match their life and faith.  Maybe, as a lesson to us, they are left there to show that the words won't leave us destroyed.  That are reactions and emotions are allowed, even if they are not desirable.

In many respects I wonder what happened to her relationship with God as things moved on. The fortune and family of Job was restored, including a blessing of seven sons.  Her children were the most beautiful in the land "Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters..." (Job 42:15).  

I wonder about what the lesson is for me.   As my marriage was ending I cried out to God for help. When I physically moved out, I wanted God's presence even through my animalistic wails.  I've still struggled with seeing His love in the depths of my darker moments over the years.  But ..... but I've learned that I can express myself to God, even if the expression is anger and hurt and pain.  

Because He has been there too.  And will meet me there.