Sermon for March 9th, 2014

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

• Junius Bassus Sarcophogus, AD 359.
• Job & Wife next to Adam & Eve
• Note the comparison: Job = Adam; Job's Wife = Eve; Satan between them both
• Augustine: Satan's helper

Calvin: A fiend from Hell