Job 2:3
Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause."
Sermons
A Commendation of Job's IntegrityGeorge Hutcheson.Job 2:3
God Unchangeable Toward the Afflicted ServantH. E. Stone.Job 2:3
Graces Held Fast in TrialJ. Caryl.Job 2:3
Satanic ImportunityJ. Caryl.Job 2:3
Satan's Malicious IncitementsR. A. Watson.Job 2:3
The Moral Law and its ObservanceDean Farrar, D. D.Job 2:3
Renewed Assaults and Temptations of the AdversaryE. Johnson Job 2:1-10
Spiritual Agencies, Good and Evil, in SicknessJ. C. Boyce, M. A.Job 2:1-10
The Afflictions of JobD. J. Burrell, D. D.Job 2:1-10
The Afflictions of JobT. J. Holmes.Job 2:1-10
The Severer Tests of FaithR. Green Job 2:1-10














The first scene in this drama of affliction has closed, and a fresh one opens, bringing, however, no happy change, no alleviation, but rather an aggravation of the hero's woe. A second time the adversary of mankind appears in the heavenly court to launch his malicious shafts of accusation against the servant of God. His purpose is now more intent, his aim more deadly, than ever. But we, as spectators, can see a bright light still steadily shining above the cloud in that unsmiling favour and kindness of the Eternal, who cannot, will not, desert his own. Looking more closely to the particulars, we see -

I. THE PITY OF GOD FOR HIS SUFFERING SERVANTS. (Vers. 1-3.) Jehovah looks down and beholds "his servant Job," as he stands unshaken amidst a very hurricane of calamity, holding to his integrity as something dearer than life; and he condescends to expostulate with the accuser. Has not the trial gone far enough? Is not the test that Job has already undergone sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical observer of his truth? Must the furnace be heated still another degree? But the adversary is not content; and it would appear that, if further trial is demanded, the demand is not to be resisted, according to the laws of heaven. The moral government of the world may require this. Thus, while the pity of God would relieve from further suffering, his righteousness-which is his adherence to fixed law - may require its continuance, until every doubt concerning a particular character be solved. But the language ascribed to the heavenly Father is, meanwhile, full of the tenderest compassion. There is individualizing regard. There is recognition of integrity and innocence. There is profound sympathy. We are reminded of the touching words of Psalm 103., "He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust."

II. In opposition to this, we observe THE MALIGNANT PERSEVERANCE OF THE DEVIL.

1. His specious plea against Job. (Vers. 4, 5.) In the form of a proverb he launches a keen insinuation: "Skin for skin;" like after like; one thing after another will a man give for dear life. Job has only made a barter after all He loses all his property; but then he has that left which outweighs all the rest. The loss of goods teaches him to prize the health which is left. He feels the greatness of this blessing as he never felt it before. Any circumstance which teaches us the worth of a common blessing is so far an advantage to us. An eminent living man has said that, given health, we have no right to complain of anything in the world. Job, then, has only been half tempted after all; and the trial will only run its full course when it has assailed this last great, chief blessing - his health of body and of mind. Such is the "case" of the devilish prosecutor against Job.

2. The final test permitted. (Vers. 6-8.) The All-disposer grants the permission: "He is in thy power; but spare his life!" And then a sudden poison strikes through the sufferer's blood; he becomes from head to foot a mass of disease and loathsomeness, sits in ashes, scraping himself with a potsherd, to allay the fearful irritation of his malady. His mind is, of course, deeply affected by the illness of his body. Natural hope is extinct. It is a life in ruins. Yet that Divine and immortal principle we call the soul is still intact, still glimmers like a bright spark amidst the embers of a dying fire.

III. TEMPTATION IN THE GUISE OF AFFECTION. (Vers. 9,10.) And now what remains of conscious life is to know one further shock; and the hand of woman, the voice of a wife, is employed to urge the tottering sufferer over the brink on which he sits, into despair and total renunciation of faith and God. Then his wife said to him," Dost thou still hold fast to thine innocence? Say farewell to God, and die!"

1. This is a second signal instance in which, in the Old Testament, woman plays the part of the tempter. There is instruction in this pointed fact. Woman is the weaker vessel, in mind as in body. She has less firmness of intellectual texture. Her weakness as well as her strength lies in feeling. She is quick in impulses, both of good and of evil. She represents passion, and man represents strength. On the whole, she is less capable of strong, profound, patient convictions, less able to take a large view of questions, to look beyond the present and immediate aspects of things. Here is the picture of a lively temper, quick to feel resentment at pain or gratitude for good; but a shallow understanding, unused to meditation and reflection on the deeper meanings of life. Her language is that of haste and passion. But this serves to bring out by contrast the calm, reflective piety, the convictions established by lifelong thought and experience of her husband.

2. The rebuke of Job to his wife.

(1) "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women;" that is, thy language is like that of a heathen, not of one who has been trained in the knowledge and worship of the true God. The heathen turn fickly from one god to another as pleasure and pain or the caprice of fancy may suggest. For their gods are but idols, creatures of their own imagination, which they take up and cast down as children with their toys. But there is only one God for me! And that God, the eternally Wise and Good in all that he gives, in all that he withholds!

(2) There are two sides of life and the one must be taken along with the other. Here, too, the language of manly reasonableness and of intelligent piety speaks out Life is a garment woven of both pleasure and pain, of seeming good and evil. The one conditions the other. All experience teaches that constant happiness is the lot of none. Why, then, should I expect to be an exception? Surely we are but crude scholars in life's great school, so long as we think we are entitled to immunity from any particular form of suffering. We are still children who think they have a right to their own way, and are astonished to find themselves withstood. "Who told thee thou hadst a right to be happy? Art thou a vulture screaming for thy food?"

"Couldst thou, Pausanias, learn
How deep a fault is this!
Couldst thou but once discern
Thou hast no right to bliss!" Here, then, the weakness of distrust and the folly of despair in the human heart, represented by Job's wife, stand opposed to the nobleness and grandeur of a fathomless confidence in the Eternal. God is the Author at last of all we suffer. Is that a reason for forsaking God? No, replies faith; it is a reason for reposing more entirely upon his everlasting arms. "If my bark sinks, 'tis to another sea." - J.

Still he holdeth fast his integrity.
1. Constancy in piety, notwithstanding the sharp temptations of an afflicted condition, is a singular commendation in God's esteem; for hereby Job so acquits himself that the old characters of his piety are not sufficient without this new addition to his commendation (1 Peter 1:7). And the reason of this is insinuated in the word "holding fast," which in the original imports a retaining and holding of a thing firmly and with our whole strength, because of difficulties and opposition; as the traveller keeps his garment on a windy day.

2. Whatever it be in religion wherewith men please themselves, yet nothing pleaseth God better than sincerity and uprightness when it is persevered in under affliction, and in a trying condition.

3. As God is specially pleased with men's sincerity, so it is against this that Satan plants his chief engines and battery. Satan did not assault Job's outward prosperity, but to better his integrity thereby. Nor is it men's formality or outward profession that he doth so much malign, if he can keep them from being sincere in what they do.

4. Albeit it be no small difficulty to stand fast, and to continue straight and upright in sharp trials, yet the truly sincere are, by the grace of God, able to do it, and to abide never so many and sharp assaults. Even weak grace, supported by God, is a party too hard for all opposition.

5. It is an act of Divine wisdom, when things of the world are going to ruin, not to cast away piety also, and a good conscience; or, because God strips us of outward contentments, therefore to turn our back upon that which ought to be a cordial under all pressures: for this is commended as an act of great wisdom in Job, when other things were pulled from him, still "he held fast his integrity." To take another course will nothing benefit men, or ease their griefs, but doth indeed double their losses.

(George Hutcheson.)

1. That Satan in all his temptations plants his chiefest battery against sincerity. Satan did not care at all to pull Job's oxen from him, or his sheep from him, or his children from him, but to pull his grace from him; therefore it is said, Job held that fast.

2. That whatsoever a godly man loseth, he will be sure to lay hold of his graces, he will hold spirituals, whatever becomes of temporals. As it is with a man at sea in a shipwreck, when all is cast overboard, the corn that feeds him, and the clothes that cover him, yet he swims to the shore if he can, with his life in his hand. Or as it is with a valiant standard bearer, that carries the banner in war, if he sees all lost he will wrap the banner about his body, and choose rather to die in that as his winding sheet than let any man take it from him.

3. That grace doth not only oppose, but conquers Satan and all his temptations. He doth prevail in his integrity (so the Hebrew may be rendered in the letter).

4. That true grace gains by opposition. True grace is increased the more it is assaulted.

(J. Caryl.)

He is still His servant, and one prominent among His children, and a word is now added showing that Jehovah notes the fidelity of His own: "Holdeth fast his integrity." How beautiful is this! Poor and stricken, bereft of all, Job is still "My servant." The living God loses not interest in His tried and suffering ones. Drink deep from this sweet well. Though change of circumstance oft brings change in those we once called friends, and those from whom we look for comfort give only blame, God is not a man that He should change, and it is still "My servant Job."

(H. E. Stone.)

The lowest step of the religious life is obedience to the moral law, and our time can never be lost when we are gazing at those simple, infinite, eternal sanctions. This is to all Christian life as the primitive granite on which the world is built. The man who strives to be faithful to the moral law, be he even a heathen or a publican, may be nearer to the kingdom of God than they who, in theologic hatreds, systematically violate its most essential precept: "Obedience is better than sacrifice." The sum and substance of the moral law, as Christ set it forth, is truth and love. Only a few men are, in the highest sense, men of principle. A man of principle is one of the noblest works of God. He has learned the sacredness of eternity, the awful axiomatic certainty of law. Two most necessary cautions.

1. None of you may suppose for a moment that it needs no more than an appeal to reason and to conscience to secure obedience to this moral law. This, as all history proves, is a vital error.

2. You cannot see the face of God unless you keep your bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity. It is not the grandeur of the moral law alone which can help you in this. You have to hear the voice of Christ.

(Dean Farrar, D. D.)

Although thou movedst Me against him
1. That Satan is an earnest and importunate solicitor against the people and Church of God.

2. That pure, or rather impure, malice stirreth Satan against the people of God.

3. That God doth afflict His people sometimes without respect unto their sins. Thou didst move Me against him without cause.

4. That God will at the last give testimony for the clearing of the innocency of His servants against all Satan's malicious accusations.

(J. Caryl.)

The expression "although thou movedst Me against him" is startling. Is it an admission, after all, that the Almighty can be moved by any consideration less than pure right, or to act in any way to the disadvantage or hurt of His servant? Such an interpretation would exclude the idea of supreme power, wisdom, and righteousness which unquestionably governs the book from first to last. The words really imply a charge against the adversary of malicious untruth. The saying of the Almighty is ironical, as Schultens points out: "Although thou, forsooth, didst incite Me against him." He who flings sharp javelins of detraction is pierced with a sharper javelin of judgment. Yet he goes on with his attempt to ruin Job, and prove his own penetration the keenest in the universe.

(R. A. Watson.)

People
Bildad, Eliphaz, Job, Zophar
Places
Uz
Topics
Abstaineth, Adversary, Although, Aside, Blameless, Cause, Considered, Destroy, Destruction, Escheweth, Evil, Fast, Feareth, Fearing, Fears, Firm, Hast, Heart, Hold, Holdeth, Holds, Incited, Integrity, Job, Keeping, Keeps, Maintains, Move, Moved, Movedst, Moving, None, Note, Nought, Perfect, Reason, Righteousness, Ruin, Satan, Servant, Shunneth, Shuns, Sin, Swallow, Though, Turneth, Turning, Turns, Upright, Whole-hearted
Outline
1. Satan, appearing again before God, obtains further leave to tempt Job.
7. He afflicts him with sore boils.
9. Job reproves his wife, who moved him to curse God.
11. His three friends console with him in silence.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Job 2:3

     5297   disease
     5561   suffering, nature of
     7160   servants of the Lord

Job 2:1-6

     5828   danger

Job 2:1-7

     4121   Satan, enemy of God

Job 2:3-6

     4195   spirits

Library
February 24 Evening
Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?--JOB 2:10. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.--O Lord, thou art our father, we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.--It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good. Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.--Whom the Lord loveth
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Resignation.
"What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"--Job 2:10. "Ich hab' in guten Stunden." [50]Christian Furchtegott Gellert. transl., Sarah Findlater, 1855 I have had my days of blessing, All the joys of life possessing, Unnumber'd they appear! Then let faith and patience cheer me, Now that trials gather near me: Where is life without a tear? Yes, O Lord, a sinner looking O'er the sins Thou art rebuking, Must own Thy judgments light. Surely I, so oft offending, Must
Jane Borthwick—Hymns from the Land of Luther

It is Indeed a Greater Fight of Patience...
9. It is indeed a greater fight of patience, when it is not a visible enemy that by persecution and rage would urge us into crime which enemy may openly and in broad day be by not consenting overcome; but the devil himself, (he who doth likewise by means of the children of infidelity, as by his vessels, persecute the children of light) doth by himself hiddenly attack us, by his rage putting us on to do or say something against God. As such had holy Job experience of him, by both temptations vexed,
St. Augustine—On Patience

Whether Death is Essential to Martyrdom?
Objection 1: It seems that death is not essential to martyrdom. For Jerome says in a sermon on the Assumption (Epist. ad Paul. et Eustoch.): "I should say rightly that the Mother of God was both virgin and martyr, although she ended her days in peace": and Gregory says (Hom. iii in Evang.): "Although persecution has ceased to offer the opportunity, yet the peace we enjoy is not without its martyrdom, since even if we no longer yield the life of the body to the sword, yet do we slay fleshly desires
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Jesus, My Rock.
When the storm and the tempest are raging around me, Oh! where shall I flee to be safe from their shock? There are walls which no mortal hands built to surround me, A Refuge Eternal,--'Tis JESUS MY ROCK! When my heart is all sorrow, and trials aggrieve me, To whom can I safely my secrets unlock? No bosom (save one) has the power to relieve me, The bosom which bled for me, JESUS MY ROCK! When Life's gloomy curtain, at last, shall close o'er me, And the chill hand of death unexpectedly knock, I will
John Ross Macduff—The Cities of Refuge: or, The Name of Jesus

Illness and Patience of the Saint. The Story of a Priest whom She Rescued from a Life of Sin.
1. I forgot to say how, in the year of my novitiate, I suffered much uneasiness about things in themselves of no importance; but I was found fault with very often when I was blameless. I bore it painfully and with imperfection; however, I went through it all, because of the joy I had in being a nun. When they saw me seeking to be alone, and even weeping over my sins at times, they thought I was discontented, and said so. 2. All religious observances had an attraction for me, but I could not endure
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

The Christian Described
HAPPINESS OF THE CHRISTIAN O HOW happy is he who is not only a visible, but also an invisible saint! He shall not be blotted out the book of God's eternal grace and mercy. DIGNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN There are a generation of men in the world, that count themselves men of the largest capacities, when yet the greatest of their desires lift themselves no higher than to things below. If they can with their net of craft and policy encompass a bulky lump of earth, Oh, what a treasure have they engrossed
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan

Touching Jacob, However, that which He did at his Mother's Bidding...
24. Touching Jacob, however, that which he did at his mother's bidding, so as to seem to deceive his father, if with diligence and in faith it be attended to, is no lie, but a mystery. The which if we shall call lies, all parables also, and figures designed for the signifying of any things soever, which are not to be taken according to their proper meaning, but in them is one thing to be understood from another, shall be said to be lies: which be far from us altogether. For he who thinks this, may
St. Augustine—Against Lying

Of his Cross what Shall I Speak, what Say? this Extremest Kind of Death...
9. Of His cross what shall I speak, what say? This extremest kind of death He chose, that not any kind of death might make His Martyrs afraid. The doctrine He shewed in His life as Man, the example of patience He demonstrated in His Cross. There, you have the work, that He was crucified; example of the work, the Cross; reward of the work, Resurrection. He shewed us in the Cross what we ought to endure, He shewed in the Resurrection what we have to hope. Just like a consummate task-master in the matches
St. Augustine—On the Creeds

Jesus Defends Disciples who Pluck Grain on the Sabbath.
(Probably While on the Way from Jerusalem to Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 1-8; ^B Mark II. 23-28; ^C Luke VI. 1-5. ^b 23 And ^c 1 Now it came to pass ^a 1 At that season ^b that he ^a Jesus went { ^b was going} on the { ^c a} ^b sabbath day through the grainfields; ^a and his disciples were hungry and began ^b as they went, to pluck the ears. ^a and to eat, ^c and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. [This lesson fits in chronological order with the last, if the Bethesda
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Elucidations.
I. (The Shepherd of Hermas, p. 85.) Here, and in chap. xx. below, Tertullian's rabid utterances against the Shepherd may be balanced by what he had said, less unreasonably, in his better mood. [999] Now he refers to the Shepherd's (ii. 1) [1000] view of pardon, even to adulterers. But surely it might be objected even more plausibly against "the Shepherd," whom he prefers, in common with all Christians, as see John viii. 1-11, which I take to be canonical Scripture. A curious question is suggested
Tertullian—On Modesty

Meditations for one that is Like to Die.
If thy sickness be like to increase unto death, then meditate on three things:--First, How graciously God dealeth with thee. Secondly, From what evils death will free thee. Thirdly, What good death will bring unto thee. The first sort of Meditations are, to consider God's favourable dealing with thee. 1. Meditate that God uses this chastisement of thy body but as a medicine to cure thy soul, by drawing thee, who art sick in sin, to come by repentance unto Christ, thy physician, to have thy soul healed
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Adam's Sin
Q-15: WHAT WAS THE SIN WHEREBY OUR FIRST PARENTS FELL FROM THE ESTATE WHEREIN THEY WERE CREATED? A: That sin was eating the forbidden fruit. 'She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband.' Gen 3:3. Here is implied, 1. That our first parents fell from their estate of innocence. 2. The sin by which they fell, was eating the forbidden fruit. I. Our first parents fell from their glorious state of innocence. God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.' Eccl
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Consolations against Impatience in Sickness.
If in thy sickness by extremity of pain thou be driven to impatience, meditate-- 1. That thy sins have deserved the pains of hell; therefore thou mayest with greater patience endure these fatherly corrections. 2. That these are the scourges of thy heavenly Father, and the rod is in his hand. If thou didst suffer with reverence, being a child, the corrections of thy earthly parents, how much rather shouldst thou now subject thyself, being the child of God, to the chastisement of thy heavenly Father,
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Job
The book of Job is one of the great masterpieces of the world's literature, if not indeed the greatest. The author was a man of superb literary genius, and of rich, daring, and original mind. The problem with which he deals is one of inexhaustible interest, and his treatment of it is everywhere characterized by a psychological insight, an intellectual courage, and a fertility and brilliance of resource which are nothing less than astonishing. Opinion has been divided as to how the book should be
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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