Turn to Job chapter 2. Job is the first of the poetical books in our Old Testament, and one of the most fascinating studies of Old Testament theology that there is. Let's begin reading in verse 7. Last week we looked at the first six verses, which finished with the Lord saying to Satan, Behold, Job is in thine hand. That means he is under your control, but save his life. Verse 7, So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils. What does the King James word sore mean? No, it doesn't mean painful. That's what it means in modern English, but not in Elizabethan English. It means what? It means very much, very bad. is the idea of the word. So he smote Job with very bad boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown or the top of his head. Verse 8, And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die! But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. 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. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place. Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite. In other words, Eliphaz was from Teman, Bildad was from Shua, and Zophar was from Nahum. Zophar the Neamathite. And they're probably mentioned in the order of their age. For they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept. and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great." Is there anyone here who has been awake, conscious, alert, and yet not said a word for seven days or seven nights? Anyone? Okay, I didn't see any hands, so I'll take it that that's not a common thing for us. Not that uncommon for a Middle Easterner from ancient times. In verses 7 and 8, we have described what Satan did to Job. I have labeled his activity merciless hatefulness. Merciless, in other words, no mercy, and what he did was hateful. Merciless hatefulness. What is there in verses 7 and 8 that would describe Satan's work as merciless hatefulness? Well, Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with very bad boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And I underlined sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself. I underline scrape himself. And he sat down among the ashes. And I underline that as well. Satan is anxious to depart from the Lord's presence because he's anxious to prove that Job's faith is fraudulent. So the first thing that I think defines his hatefulness is that he afflicted Job with boils. If we were to look this up in a Grey's Anatomy or a physician's reference, we would define boils as a painful, localized, pus-filled swelling of the skin and subcutaneous tissue caused by bacterial infection. The biblical term refers to one of the plagues of Egypt. God promised to repeat it for the Israelites if they disobeyed him, according to Deuteronomy chapter 28. It was a form of skin disease that left the Israelite unclean, described in Leviticus chapter 13, and it was the illness which threatened Hezekiah with death. Now, I don't even remember ever having a boil, so I can't speak from experience, but I don't think that boils were things that normally caused death. One fellow says the lack of detail in this text prevents a clinical diagnosis of what this was, but it's clear that Job's condition was serious and extremely painful. Whatever these boils were, they were a very serious affliction. The term translated sore doesn't mean painful, but very bad. Job did not suffer from your average description of boils. He suffered from very bad boils. He suffered from these all over his body, including even the sole of his feet, his scalp, everywhere in between. What happens when your body is covered with localized infections? Someone with a little bit of medical experience, what happens when you have infections all over your body? what goes up. Your fever does, okay? This is the way your body deals with infections. It would have made sleep very difficult for Job, would have deprived him of virtually any comfort, and would have largely robbed him of his appetite. He speaks about this when he describes his illness. They apparently made his breath putrid. He talks about this in Job chapter 19. and likely affected him in other ways that we're not aware of. The fact that he took a pot shirt and scraped himself all over. Why would the Holy Spirit include a detail like that? Obviously that means the sores were open. But I think, you know the description of the poor man and the rich man and Lazarus, the poor man's name was Lazarus in Luke 16, says that the dogs licked his sores. Why include a detail like that? It just heightens the description of his misery. And that's what it does here. It just heightens the description of his misery. And then to add to all of that, he's sitting on the ashes, not for a treatment, In case you were thinking, oh, he's kind of rolling around in the ashes because the ashes are good for him. No, I think it's a sign that he mourned as he suffered. Some diseases dispose the sufferer to depression more than others. It seems that Job suffered from that in this circumstances. There is no sense of tenderness on Satan's part. There is no love for this man. Job is a tool Satan wants to use to expose God as a fraud. And he doesn't care how Job feels or whether Job will do anything else in response to this. as long as he can get him to curse God. So all of these things are calculated to that end. And then, to add insult to injury, verse 9, How do you feel about Job's wife? Don't be like her. Not very loving. Job's wife has garnered quite a lot of reaction over the years. The Muslim tradition of Job's wife is interesting. They said that God made her beautiful again and she bore him 26 more children. But then again, the Muslims were never known for being faithful to the Word of God, so they simply made this up. They're not the only ones, though. Jews did the same thing when they translated the Old Testament Scriptures into Greek. They added this little bit, and when much time had passed, his wife said to him, How long will you hold out, saying, Behold, I wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my deliverance? For behold, your memorial is abolished from the earth, even your sons and daughters. the pangs and pains of my womb which I bore in vain and with sorrows. And you yourself sit down to spend the night in the open air among the corruption of worms. And I am a wanderer and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun that I may rest from my labors and my pangs which now beset me. But say some word against the Lord, and then die. Why would they add all of this? On the surface it seems a little pointless, but the Jewish rabbis condemned Job's wife for what she did, and there wasn't that much in the scripture to condemn her, so they just thought they would add a little bit more. Jews frequently did this kind of thing in what we call the Apocrypha. It was their proper additions to Old Testament stories. So they do the same thing, only here it's from the Septuagint. So their intent was to make her look guilty. Now in the first place, I don't think she needs any help. She told him to question why he retained his integrity, curse God, and die. And according to her husband, what did she sound like? She sounded like a fool, like a foolish woman, like a woman who's not thinking straight. But let's bear in mind some things about this woman. Did she do wrong? Yes, I think she did wrong. I think that much is very, very clear. Number one, this woman is the wife of the most righteous man on the face of the earth. If he's that kind of man, what kind of wife do you think he would seek out? A cute little tramp from some country in the Far East? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think he made decisions in life that were characteristic of his godliness and he made the same decision for his wife. The first thing about her that we need to remember is that she was the wife of the most godly man in the Far East, actually the most godly man on earth at the time. Number two, what had she just lost? She had lost all her living, all of her security, everything that she had enjoyed for who knows how many years. By the way, I think we need to understand Job and his wife in the context of the time in which they live. How long did people live around the time of Noah? For instance, how old was Noah when they had his funeral? Okay, 600. Wouldn't it be cool to be 600 years old? I mean, really. You were born in 1413. Do you know what was going on in 1413? No, of course you don't. Nobody knows what was going on that long ago. That's a long time ago. I mean you would have experienced personally the bulk of the history of the British Isles. You would have experienced, I mean, do you know how valuable you would be as a human being to any country, any political organization? I mean, you'd be extremely valuable. You'd be in the papers all the time. He or she said this, said that. How does a 600-year-old person look? See? Job and his wife lived at a time where people's age averaged anywhere from 250 to 600. She had 10 kids. You say, wow, 10 kids. That's nothing. 30, 40, 50, 60 children. That's average. How many kids do you have? I have 55. Oh, small family, huh? Ladies, 55 pregnancies. See? So we need to think of them, you know, not as extremely old. Job is going to live for a long time after this story with Satan and everything that happens. She was Job's bereft wife. We're going to talk about this at the end of this lesson. But how do you deal with a wife who is grieving the loss of a child? Two children, same accident. Three children, same accident. Have you ever been to a funeral with 10 coffins, one set of parents? Do you have any idea what it's like for her to go through this? And it's pretty cavalier to say, oh wow, she was a bad woman. You know what's striking? Job was a godly man. He suffered the loss of all this too. And the third thing that I think we need to appreciate, she was Job's only wife. I think the only reason for us to think that Job had a different wife for the next ones, aside from the fact that the Muslims think he made her pretty again, I don't know that she wasn't pretty at the time. Remember how old Sarah was when Abraham was concerned that kings would look on her and desire her as part of their harem? I think she was probably pretty attractive at the time. Don't know that she need to be made beautiful again. I think it also reveals a little bit to us of the carnal nature of Islam. If you have the idea that Islam is anything like Christianity, you are deceived. It is not. It is a satanic religion, followed by people who are being deluded by Satan. Again, there's nothing in the text for us to assume that Job had a different wife at the end. And because of that, I think the assumption is that she came to regret the things that she told to her husband. So let's bear this in mind when we think about Job's wife. How did Job respond to his wife's demand in verse 10? Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" The word evil does not have sinful connotations. Instead of the word evil we could put what? Misfortune, trouble. I want to avoid bad because I don't want it to sound like sin either. God sends us bad things. No, according to Romans 8.28, we know that all things work together for what? Not good and kind of good or good and less good. It's all good. Everything is. And Job understands that. He rebukes her for her suggestion that he curse God and die because God, by allowing this, has somehow proven himself unfair. That's the implication of this. And do we not do exactly the same thing? I have this cute little baby. Something happens. The baby gets sick and dies. And what's the first thing we would say? Why, God? Well, why don't we go back and ask the question when the cute little baby is given to us, why would you do this good thing for me, God? Why would you give me existence? Why would you give me any joy at all in life? Do you think you deserve the good things that you enjoy? No, that you take for granted every day. I'll go in the kitchen tonight before I turn in. Actually, about the time I get home, I'll pull out a bowl and I'll pour in the bowl. I'm not sure what they're called. I think they're called Quaker oat squares, but I love this cereal. And I'll pull out of the refrigerator some milk. Now, what have I ever done to deserve to have this kind of wonderful treat? Do you know that there are people all over the world that don't even have what they need from day to day? Now, I wish we could kind of go and transmogrify. I could lose 130 pounds and give them 130 pounds. I'd do that in a second. But the idea is we take for granted the blessings every single day. Why? Why does God do that? Even worse, go across the street and ask the lost person who lives next to the church. Why does God do them any good? Why does He allow the Son to come up for them? They don't love Him. They've never served Him. God is good. And this is exactly what Job is saying, shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and shall we not receive evil or trouble? And all of this Job did not sin with his lips. Some call this Job's agitated response. I don't think Job was agitated, I think he was very disappointed. I think he felt sorry for his wife. I think he probably understood more than most readers of the story what she's just gone through, but disappointed that like Eve, she betrayed her husband. Now he has his wife's spiritual state to bear as well. So his rebuke exposes her reasoning as lacking in discernment, senseless, godless. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. When we say that it's not right for God to allow troubled circumstances into our lives, then we're denying the essence of God. The Holy Spirit now assesses Job's response. No sin with his lips. He did not misspeak. And what does James 3 verse 2 say about a man who controls his tongue? It says that if anyone does not stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. May God give us the grace to respond to such difficult circumstances in a spiritual way like this. It was a great testimony to Job's character. Then in verse 11, his friends arrive. Verse 11 signals some break in Job's misery. There are four things in verse 11 that the reader is told about his friends. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil or trouble that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildab the Shuhite, and Zophar the Neamathite, for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. They are called friends, intimate companions. They're more than just passing acquaintances. These four men knew each other well, and they respected each other, and yet their counsel to Job in this circumstance only added to his grief. And you have reference to friends in Job 6.14. Job said to him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty." In other words, even if they were right and he was sinful, they should be kind to him. They were not being kind. Verse 27 in chapter 6, Job says, you undermine your friend. I am one, he says in chapter 12, who is mocked by his friends. In chapter 16, my friends scorn me. Chapter 19, have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me. Job 32, Elihu says, against his three friends, or it is said of Elihu, that his wrath was aroused against Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad, because they'd found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. He says in chapter 35, I will answer you, Job, and your companions with you. But it's the same word for friends. And then in Job chapter 42, God spoke to Eliphaz. He says, My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. And then in 42.10, Job prayed for his friends. So they were more than just acquaintances. Look what they did. They talked to each other or at least sent word to each other to meet at a certain time and they went to where Job was and they met with him. They heard of all the trouble that had befallen Job. It's certainly unusual for the things that happened to Job to happen to someone of his reputation. No doubt travelers carried the news to those who they knew cared about Job, and upon hearing they decided to go and help. Apparently, they sent word to each other agreeing to meet at Job's on this particular day. Number three, they were from three different places. Suggesting, or not suggesting, but also they were probably three different ages. You say, why do you say that? Well, typically older men, older individuals were allowed to speak first. So it likely went that as they spoke, they spoke according to their age. Where are these places? Well, the city of Teman was well known for its wisdom according to Jeremiah 49 and Obadiah 8, located somewhere near Edom or somewhere in Edom. We're not sure where it was. Edom was right below the Dead Sea. If you look at a map of Israel, you see the Mediterranean over here, the land, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, somewhere down below that, all the way down to the Gulf of Aqaba, all that region down in there is Edom. Teman was somewhere down there. And remember Uz was somewhere up at the top of the Euphrates River, the top of what we call the Fertile Crescent. So these men were relatively far apart in their regions. Shua, Bildad the Shuhite. Shua was located near the central region of the Euphrates River, so over where Iran is today. And Naama is unknown except as a Judean town mentioned in Joshua chapter 15. So it's probably not the same Naama as in the land of Israel, what back then would have been the land of Canaan. But it may have been. We have no idea of any other location. By the way, just an interesting sidelight, Noah was still alive for the first 58 years of Abraham's life, and these men may have known Noah personally because of the long life span. You say, how do you know Noah was alive? Just do the math in the genealogies in the book of Genesis. you're able to calculate that. Imagine knowing a believer like Noah, who was alive so many years earlier than this. Their purpose in coming was to mourn with him and to comfort him. Their intentions were noble, even though they turned out to be what Job calls miserable comforters. But their intention was noble. They weren't coming and saying, you know, let's go find out what's wrong and accuse him of this and try and grind him down until he admits the truth. They don't even interrogate him. They just begin accusing him. Sometimes friends aren't very wise in the way they offer their help. What was their first response in seeing Job according to verse 12? What one word would you underline their response when they first saw him afar off in verse 12? What word would you underline? They wept. They wept. When they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept. They rent everyone his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. All of these are indications of what? mourning, or grief. So they express their grief in very traditional ways. Job had already been suffering for some time for the Boyles to have so disfigured his face that they didn't even recognize him. And perhaps what was the greatest tribute to their character, what it says in verse 13 applies to them. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him. For they saw that his grief was very great, and their silence was only broken when their friend spoke. I remember when my sister was still in college, she went on a mission team to an area where there were natives that they ministered to. They had a children's work. What they tried to do was to visit the parents of the children at night. And she said, we went in and sat down. And according to the native custom, at least in that area, it was very respectful not to speak first, but to allow them to speak first. My sister said, I couldn't help myself. I kept looking at my watch. Five minutes, they didn't say a word. Ten minutes, they didn't say a word. Fifteen minutes, they sat, smiled, looked at them, never said a word. Seven days. Seven nights. Do these men respect Job? Oh, yes, they do. I mean, they really do. I think our culture puts probably too much value on words. You know, I have to make sure I say the right thing. There are a few lessons, I think, that are helpful that we can glean from their response to Job's suffering that would help us to be of a benefit or of a blessing or a blessing to those who are going through times of grief. We go to the hospital, somebody's in bed suffering something very unexpected. Lesson number one, be sympathetic. You know what the word sympathetic means? Sym is the prefix that means together or with, and patheo is the word that means to suffer, to suffer together with that person. So as we are there with them, we think, how would I feel if all of this happened to me? What would my reaction be if all of this happened to me? Be sympathetic. Our place is not to explain why. In the first place, do you know why this is happening to them? Then why in the world would you say why it was happening to them? Oh, I don't know. We're kind of like Peter. It says in one of the gospel texts that he did not know what to say, so he said, okay, I don't know what to say, so, well, you know, and we come out with the dumbest things. My wife and I sat with a pastor and his wife. He had two older children, both daughters, both serving the Lord, very faithful. Coming back from Bible school, a drunk crossed the median, hit the front of their car, going about 90 miles an hour, killed both of them instantly. They had a third child, not living for the Lord at all, a young fellow. What do you say to a man who's a pastor? He said, there were four or five other pastors who came and said, You'll be a better pastor. Now, you know, let me just make a comment. What a stupid thing to say to somebody who's just lost two daughters. He doesn't want to be a better pastor. He wants his daughters back. Nobody. He said not a single pastor just came and sat with them. Not one. They all had a reason. Why? What, did they just come from the counsel of God and God told them why he allowed the two girls to be killed? No, they just felt like they had to say something. They did not know what to say, so they said, you know, don't do this, be sympathetic. We may think we know. Our place is to sympathize, to suffer with. Number two, be there. They were that, the friends were. I mean, whatever they were doing, they dropped it, they changed their schedule, they came and they sat. And the first seven days was the best counsel they ever had. As soon as Job opened his mouth, they opened theirs, and they became miserable comforters. But for seven days, they were good comforters. Why? They were just there. They were present. And nobody likes to face difficult circumstances in life alone. A third lesson we can learn from this, be quiet. Be sensitive to their needs rather than feeling it necessary to speak. A lady in our church, her son away, probably not saved, but was out drinking with another man. And in the middle of their drunken argument, he pulls out a gun and shoots him in the face from about three feet away. Went to the funeral. What do you say? She was distraught. This was not the first of her children to pass away. And she said, God had nothing to do with this. Now, what's the first thing that pops into my head? Right, God had everything to do with this. I need to correct her theology. No, no, wrong time. Wrong time. Okay, we have lots of time later to deal with that. She just needs someone there for her, someone to read the Word for her or with her, someone to place her focus back on God because she can't focus on Him. She's got the same reaction to her circumstance that Job's wife had to Job's circumstance. or to her circumstance. This is not fair. And the only way I can deal with it not being fair is this took God by surprise because he wasn't even there. He had nothing to do with this. Number four, be respectful. They saw Job's great grief and were respectfully quiet. Be respectful, be respectful of them. They don't need you to come and take over. Now, it might help. Is there anything I can do? They may say, yes, would you kind of take over my life? Well, then do it. Take care of meals for them, provide needs for them. I've been in a situation where a couple was just so broken, they didn't know what to do. I arranged the entire funeral. I've never done that for any other couple, but they just couldn't do it. But be respectful of them. Then number five, be patient. Imagine seven days, no words. And it's likely that they were fasting, just as Job was. So there are some lessons we can learn about dealing with people who have grief. Job had grief and now we begin the second part of this test where he speaks and his friends interact with him and Elihu interacts with all four of them and then God comes. So let's take these lessons to heart. Remember them as we seek to walk with the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank Thee for what Thou hast taught us from this portion of Your Word. We pray that You'd help us to be the kind of helpful individuals that people facing circumstances like this really do need. We pray, God, that you would fill us with the compassion that characterized our blessed Savior, and still does. We thank you, Lord, for your own testimony through him to us. May we be godly counselors, not miserable ones. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.