Job 2:7-10 – Dealing with Crisis

Satan’s intention to get God’s people down is relentless. He prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And he will scheme by all means to get us down. When he fails to get us down by stealing our wealth, he will try to get us at our health. This was precisely what Satan did to Job’s life. He brought this godly servant of God down with skin sores and boils all over his body. The condition did not only linger but was not curable as well. It’s hard for us to imagine or feel the terrible affliction from the description given here. But it was tormenting. Job’s whole body must have felt pain and itch at the same time. They were not confined to one area of the body only but the whole. Verse 7 tells us the extent of the sore boils. They covered from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. To find relief from the constant itch, Job took a piece of potsherd and scraped himself. All these experiences Job endured and did not wilt.

The response he had toward his affliction affirmed that he was indeed a blameless, righteous and God-fearing man, who pursued God constantly. He did not complain but went to a secluded place by himself to deal with the skin lesions. He was still not bitter despite being robbed of both his wealth and health. Job maintained his faith in God and remained upright before Him. We know this from the question his wife asked him. She asked, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?” Job obviously had stood firm trusting God and refused to cave in and malign the Almighty. He rejected his wife’s suggestion to curse and renounce God and die. So he rebuked his wife for her foolish suggestion. Satan was proven wrong again. Job would not malign God and he didn’t blame God for his plight. “He did not sin with his lips.”

The way Job responded to his crisis is worth emulating. Taking his own life was not an option. Death for many seems like a good shortcut to misery. They will commit suicide thinking that their despair will be over. Such people are selfish and had not considered the plight of their loved ones. They have not considered the sorrow and the void they will leave for them. We know that the best option is to trust God, pray and do what we can and leave God to do what we cannot. God has the keeping power to preserve and sustain us through our affliction. Remember what James 1:2-4 say, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”