View source for Sermon for March 9th, 2014

"The greatest poem of ancient and modern times." --Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Tomorrow, if all literature was to be destroyed and it was left to me to retain one work only, I would save Job." --Victor Hugo

==Job 2:7-9 (NRSV)==
7So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. 9Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.’ 10But he said to her, ‘You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

==Job 2:7-9 (Seow)==
7The Adversary went forth from the presence of YHWH, and he afflicted Job with a terrible inflammation from the sole of his feet up to his crown.  8Then Job took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with it as he was sitting amidst the ashes.  9His wife said to him: "Are you still holding on to your integrity? 'Bless' God and die! 10He said to her: "You speak as one of the outrageous.  Shall we receive only good from God, but not evil?" In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

==Job's Wife: Bless God and Die==
About a year and a half ago, not long after I arrived here as your pastor, some of you may remember we did a five-part sermon series on the Book of Job.  In that series, we focused on the "main story" as most people know it--in other words, we focused on the characters of Job, Satan, and God.  Most of us know (or at least think we know) the story of Job pretty well:  

In order to prove what a righteous man Job is, God allows Satan to afflict him, stripping him of his property, his children, and eventually his health. Job's so-called friends come to comfort him, but end up judging him (so the story goes), and all the while Job is steadfast or "patient" in his faith in God.  Eventually God restores his health, gives him new children, and doubles his wealth.  Game over, happy ending, roll the credits.

It's a great story...the problem is, that's not really the story that's in the Bible.  The Book of Job is 42 chapters long, and most people just read the first two chapters and then skip to the last one.  Job is patient for two chapters, but then he totally loses it. He curses the day he was born, and accuses God of all sorts of nasty things that no God-fearing, righteous man would ever dare say.  We covered some of that in our last series on Job.

But there's more:  There are other characters, too, other voices in the Book of Job besides the "main characters."  These minor characters are just as much misunderstood, just as misjudged (perhaps more so!), and just as much worth hearing and considering as the rest of the book. So for each one of the next five weeks of Lent, we'll consider one of these neglected voices from one of the most powerful, beautiful, misunderstood books of the Bible. 

We begin with Job's wife.  She's the only one of our five minor characters who doesn't have a name, and that's probably significant.  She's just...Job's wife.  She only gets one verse in the story; in the Hebrew text, that's just six short words.  And they seem, at least on the face of it, to be pretty negative words:  ‘Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.’  Job's wife comes to her husband at his lowest, most desperate moment, offers him a sarcastic question, then urges him to commit blasphemy, the unforgivable sin.  Not very nice.

====Negative Views of Job's Wife====
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcophagus_of_Junius_Bassus Junius Bassus Sarcophogus], AD 359.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1056_-_Roma,_Museo_d._civilt%C3%A0_Romana_-_Calco_sarcofago_Giunio_Basso_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto,_12-Apr-2008.jpg Job & Wife next to Adam & Eve]
*Note the comparison: Job = Adam; Job's Wife = Eve; Satan between them both
*Like Eve, Job's wife is seen as a source of temptation
*Augustine calls her ''diaboli adiutrix'', the "devil's helper"
*John Calvin calls her "an instrument of Satan...a she-devil...a fiend of hell."

Let me be honest: This view of Job's wife was certainly the mainstream interpretation throughout most of Christian history, and it continues to be the majority view today.  However, in the words of my seminary professor, Leong Seow (from whose work about 90% of this sermon's content is derived), there is a minority report.

====The Minority Report====
For our minority report, I'd like to start in the late 15th-16th century (the time of Calvin and the Reformation) and work our way backwards.  Eventually, I'll return to our Biblical text itself.

=====In Art=====
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_de_La_Tour Georges de La Tour], a French Baroque painter known for his moving portraits of Biblical characters
**[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Georges_de_La_Tour_044.jpg Job Mocked by His Wife] - Not the original title, was added later by others
**Note her tenderness, sign made by left hand, her candle, and her red dress -- all motifs in La Tour's work indicating piety and faithfulness
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer Albrect Durer], German Renaissance artist, friends with Raphael & DaVinci
**[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jarbach_Altarpiece_01.jpg Jarbach Altarpiece]
**Dousing with cold water...act of hostility or mercy? (Also note Satan running to fire)
*[http://mrlocke.net/Job/4.jpg 13th Century Picture Bible from Northeastern France]
**Is she slapping him upside the head...or holding his head up as together they watch their tragedy?
**Which raises the point...Job was not the only one who suffered loss.

=====In other Writings=====
*[http://mrlocke.net/Job/5.jpg Job's Wife in Islam]. Job is revered as a prophet in Islam, and his story appears in the Qur'an.  It's pretty much the same story, but there are a few variations, particularly where Job's wife is concerned.  For one thing, she has a name: Rahma, which means "grace." She is viewed as Job's helper (rather than Satan's helper), and she cares for him throughout his suffering. 
*[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kievskaya_psaltir_iov_01.jpg The Testament of Job] was a version of the Job story that was written in Greek right around the 1st century--the time of Christ.  It is possible (though just speculation) that Jesus himself may have been familiar with this version of the story. It was extremely popular, and influenced many artists and theologians for several centuries.  In this version of the story, Job's wife is named Sitidos, which means "giver of bread," and this is what she does. She holds out bread on a stick to feed Job without getting to close to his diseased body.  She also sells her hair in the marketplace (a disgrace for a woman of high standing) in order to buy bread to feed Job. (Notice Job's wife has short hair in the Junius Bassus Sarcophagus, indicating likely influence of the Testament of Job).
*[http://mrlocke.net/Job/7.jpg The Septuagint] (or "Old Greek")is a 3rd Century BCE translation of the Old Testament into Greek. It became the primary translation of the scriptures for all of early Christianity.  In fact, the Septuagint is the translation that Paul uses when he quotes the scriptures, as well as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  In other words, the Septuagint was THE bible during the time of Jesus and the New Testament.  In the Septuagint, the Book of Job was actually 20% shorter than our modern version, but there are also a few verses that end up longer.  Remember Job's wife's one little verse?  In the Septuagint...it's about three times as long.  Job's wife has a much better speech here.  She reminds Job that, unlike him, she has had a "double" pain--the pain of childbirth as well as the pain of losing their children.  She also reminds him that while he sits on his dung hill all day and night lost in his grief, someone has to go out and work like a slave to keep them both fed.  But EVEN with all this, notice she STILL does not tell her husband to curse God and die.  In the Septuagint, the Bible of Paul and the Apostles, Job's wife tells him to "say some word to the Lord and die."  Just say something.  Just speak to the Lord.  Get it off your chest. Ultimately, this is exactly what Job does, for about 38 chapters.

=====In the Bible=====
In Hebrew, six words.  In English two phrases.  Work our way backwards again
*Job's response to his wife
*Bless vs. Curse
*Question or Statement? Echoes the divine

====So What? (Practical Application)====
#don't use the bible to subjugate women
#don't judge too quickly. some suffer loudly and visibly, some suffer in silence, their stories untold without some digging under the surface.
#When God sends suffering, he also sends grace. When God sends trouble, he also sends help.