His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” – Job 2:9

Satan knows when we are most vulnerable. He sneaks in and moves for a kill with the aid of our closest ally. For Job, Satan employed his wife to deal him with a fatal blow to his God-affirmed integrity. “Curse God and die,” she said. What’s the use of trying to maintain his integrity?

The world is asking us the same question. Does it make sense to hold on to this “God-thing” in this scientific and liberal age when everything seems available instantly? Why this self-denial of all the pleasures and conveniences around you? Why do you subject yourself to this suffering when relief is open to you in so many ways and forms? How myopic can you be about your God worship?

I must confess that such badgering can get uncomfortably close sometimes. In our lowest valleys, any hand stretched out to us looks like our escape hatch. Suddenly, every proposition makes sense. The argument we have won several times before now sounds unreasonable. The things that looked ugly don’t seem that repugnant anymore, especially coming from our closest confidants. So, you see why Satan employed Mrs. Job at the lowest point in her husband’s life?

The Akans of Ghana have this saying, “it is when you shake the Nunum (a very strong-scented shrub) that you smell its odor.” God sometimes allows circumstances and situations to shake us to the core to reveal our hearts for Him to the world. It’s not for lack of love that God allows those things. It’s the opposite.

God loves us and wants the best for us (Rm. 8:28). He calls us into certain situations and at specific times to accomplish His purpose (Esther 4:14).

Job’s wife shook him rudely with her remark. “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9).

Sometimes, death seems to be the best alternative. The loss, the pain, the loneliness, the rejection, the long and unending hours. Where is God? Where is the God for whose sake I have given up everything? Is He there? Does He care? With such agony that promises no relief, the open grave offers the best refuge.

But Job smelled like a rose when the shaking from his dear wife ended. “You sound like a foolish woman. Should we accept the good from the hand of God and not the bad?” (10).

Job’s heart was on display! 

If you ever thought that God makes little sense, think again. You can now understand his commendation of Job. Can anybody charge Him with bias?

Maybe you also have suffered a shaking to the bitterest core like Job, and you can’t make sense of God. Trust him, my friend. You are God’s instrument to display His glory. The man born blind suffered under terrible darkness until Christ came to him, and then, he understood (John 9:1-6, 35-38).

So, hold on to your integrity. God is in your case, and His glory will break through to you soon.