Job

Job 2: Job holds fast to his integrity

Begin in prayer

Before God speaks of Job again, let us ask Him to guide our hearts. Please seek His help to listen patiently and to see Christ’s mercy toward people in pain.

In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them.

Exodus 2:23-25

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Show us that You know the truth about suffering people. Help us see the Savior who knows human suffering. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Satan again appears before the LORD, who says Job maintains his integrity despite ruin without cause. Satan claims Job will renounce God if his body is afflicted, and God permits the attack while requiring his life to be spared. Painful sores cover Job from foot to head, and he sits among ashes with a broken piece of pottery. His wife urges him to renounce God and die, but Job refuses her counsel without sinning with his lips. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar come to comfort him, but they do not recognize him, so they weep aloud and tear their robes. They sit silently with him for seven days and seven nights because his grief is so great.

As you read Job 2, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God knows His servant’s integrity when suffering grows and others urge him to renounce God.

The LORD calls Job’s ruin without cause, so these losses do not expose a secret wicked life. Satan now claims that bodily pain will overthrow the faith that survived lost possessions. God permits the assault but commands that Job’s life be spared. A potsherd is a broken piece of pottery, a poor instrument for a man once surrounded by wealth. His wife’s call to renounce God presses the same demand Satan wanted. Job asks whether we should receive good from God and not receive evil, and the text says he does not sin with his lips. His friends’ tears and seven days of silence recognize suffering that words cannot quickly mend. Their later accusations must be weighed against what God has already said about His servant.

How does Job 2 show us that God knows His servant’s integrity when suffering grows and others urge him to renounce God?

God speaks truth about His suffering servant.

God says Job still maintains his integrity, despite ruin without cause. Job’s sores therefore cannot prove that he lived wickedly. The LORD knows what observers cannot learn from outward suffering.

God deserves trust when pain continues.

Job’s wife urges him to renounce God and die. He asks whether we should receive good at the hand of God, and not receive evil. His answer remains free from sin with his lips.

Great grief calls for patient companionship.

The three friends come to sympathize and comfort Job. They weep, tear their robes and sit with him seven days and nights. Their silence gives space to grief they can see but cannot remove.

Memorise

For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity

Job 2:3

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, how can I bring my pain and sin to Jesus?

Job’s body is covered with sores, and his friends do not recognize him. God still calls him His servant. The pain others see cannot tell them the whole truth about his life.

The Son of God also suffered without deserving punishment for His own sin. Hebrews 4 verses 15 and 16 show Him as the sinless Priest who understands human weakness. At the cross He bore the sins of His people and suffered the judgment their sins deserved. His one sacrifice secured their pardon in full. Jesus then rose from death, alive to help everyone who approaches God through Him.

You do not need to hide your need from Him. Turn from your sins and put your faith in Jesus. He grants forgiveness to those who seek Him, and His mercy does not depend on bodily strength. A suffering believer can approach the Savior who understands weakness and lives forever.

Parent's note

Tell your children that pain never proves a person’s secret guilt, and Jesus understands weakness without sharing our sin. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God that He knows His servant in suffering, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:5-7

Father, thank You that You know the truth when suffering people are misunderstood. Give each of us repentance and faith in Jesus. Please make us patient with people in pain, ready to listen and willing to stay near them this week. Amen.