“Should we accept the good from God and not the bad?” You can say that quite easily, as long as all is well with you. But what if you are in the prime of your life and then hear that you are terminally ill? Or if you have to carry a child to the grave? If from one moment to the next your whole world collapses?

That was the situation in which Job lived. In one day he had lost all his cattle and almost all his servants. On one day he had to bury not only one, but all ten of his children. And as if all that was not terrible enough, a little later he even lost his health. Instead of a mighty and respected rich citizen, he became an outcast, despised by the people. He ended up in dust and ashes. He scraped himself with a piece of broken pottery to relieve the itching of his sores.

Should you say at such a moment, ‟Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” Does God want to deal with his children in this manner: give them good and evil? And then ask them to accept both from him? With the same grateful or pious face?

That does not sit well with us. These words of Job soon become our protest. But in the book Job they are judged positively. Immediately upon Job’s pronouncement – ‟Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” – follows the sentence: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” There was nothing wrong with Job’s statement. There was nothing to be criticized about his reaction.

With His Lips⤒🔗

That needs some explanation. It does not simply say that Job did not sin. It adds that he did not do that with his lips. In Job 1:22 that’s different. After Job lost his ten children and almost all his possessions, he said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21). Then it follows: “In all this Job did not sin.” There is no question of sinning with his lips or something else. It says shortly and properly that Job did not sin.

This difference between Job 1:22 and Job 2:10 has often attracted attention. Does the author of the book of Job want to suggest a certain deterioration in Job? As in the sense of: then (in 1:22) he did not sin at all; now (in 2:10) he does not sin with his lips, but perhaps does so in his heart. And could that deterioration be a first step on the road to the big change at the beginning of chapter 3? Where the pious Job suddenly curses the day of his birth?

There can be a big difference between what people say with their lips and what they mean in their hearts. That difference is also known in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 29:13 the Lord says that his people honor him with the lips, but at the same time their heart is far from him. But if this was the intention here, the writer of the book of Job expressed himself very unclearly. In modern languages we often do not add with which body part we do something. In Hebrew, that is different. There, the body part in question is often mentioned with as many words. See, for example, Job 27:4, Psalm 39:1 and Isaiah 40:2, 5.

Furthermore, at that time it was precisely the question what Job would say. So, what he would do with his lips. Satan had alleged to the Lord, “But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face” (Job 2:5). Literally, “Then he will give you the blessing.” Satan meant: “Then Job will curse you, straight to your face.” That was the question about which Satan and the Lord were disputing: would Job remain faithful to his God in all circumstances? Or would then his lips utter a curse towards his God?

But no matter what Job said, no swearing towards God came from his mouth. He held on to his God. Just by saying, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” And by maintaining to his wife that, in their situation, this was not a foolish but a wise reaction.

An Understandable Advice←⤒🔗

Meanwhile, the reaction of Job’s wife was much more logical. Think about it: everything took place right before her eyes. From one day to the next she became, instead of the wife of a wealthy man, the wife of a man without possessions. Together with her husband, she had to yield her ten children to the grave. In addition, her husband was also afflicted with sores. There was nothing left of him that made life worthwhile. He was mocked like a pariah (see Job 30:9-10). And Job’s wife was convinced that all this did not come to them apart from God. But that he had everything to do with it.

No, she did not know what had played out in heaven. No more than her husband Job. Neither of them had any inkling about God’s encounter with Satan. About the permission that the Lord had granted him to put Job into ruin. And of its background.

Yet Job said that it was the Lord who gave him everything and had taken it back. By saying that, he did not sin (1:21-22). Satan had taken away Job’s possessions and his children. Yet the Lord said to Satan, without reservation, that Satan had destroyed Job. He said, “Although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason…” (2:3). Both Satan and the Lord had their share in it. The Lord did not withdraw his own responsibility for it.

Correctly, Job’s wife connects the disasters that happened to her husband, to the actions of God. But this she cannot accept: that these disasters have come to her husband under God’s guidance. That too is very understandable from her side.

Her husband, Job, was a unique person. There was no one on earth who served the Lord with so much dedication and sincerity as he did. God himself had testified to Satan of this. Up to two times (see Job 1:8 and 2:3). Such a person could count on the Lord to protect and bless him. The Old Testament is full of promises from God for people who serve him with faithfulness and reverence: “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm” (Prov. 19:23).

So far everything seemed like the Lord had fulfilled these promises. Job, who served the Lord as no other, was also the richest of all the inhabitants of the East (1:3). But now, from one moment to the next, everything changed. All that the Lord had blessed Job with, he had lost. Wealth, children, honor and respect, even his health was lost. Without giving any reasons. Without the Lord having communicated anything.

No wonder that Job’s wife momentarily had had it with that God. No wonder she now sees only one solution for her husband: breaking with that God. Give him the “blessing”, curse him. And accept the consequence of it: death. Because cursing God deserved the death penalty. The Lord had said to Moses that whoever blasphemed the name of the Lord was to be put to death (Lev. 24:16). Naboth was stoned on the ground of the accusation that he said farewell to God and the king – that is: cursed – (the same word as in Job 2:9).

That is what Job’s wife advises her husband: ‟Break with God; put an end to your suffering; bring a quick death upon yourself by cursing God.” Satan had challenged the Lord that Job would break with the Lord and curse him. That’s what Job’s wife now advises her husband to do. That’s why, without knowing it, she’s coming to Satan’s aid in his evil intent.

Yet the advice of Job’s wife was, humanly speaking, very understandable. She advised her husband nothing but what, according to Satan, every sensible person in Job’s circumstances would do. And if there’s one next to God who knows how we humans are, it is certainly Satan.

Silly Talk←⤒🔗

But Job resolutely rejects his wife’s advice. He calls it silly, foolish talk, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.”

Silly fools are not necessarily people with low IQ. They are people who shut their eyes to reality. The reality, the certainty of God. They say to themselves, “There is no God.” They totally disregard him. And therefore, think they can go their own way unpunished (see Ps. 14:1-4).

‟As such people talk, so you are talking now,” says Job to his wife. He does not say, “You are also one of them; you’re a silly fool.” He knows his wife better. That is precisely why it is so painful to him that she now speaks that way. As if she were a silly fool. Someone who walks with his or her eyes closed to reality.

The advice of Job’s wife is very understandable and human. For Job it is silly talk. For him, in his circumstances, there is only one wise thing: accepting not only the good but also accepting the evil of God: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

You and Me←⤒🔗

What does Job want to say with this? Is it a word of dull acceptance? Does he want to say, “If you want to serve God, you must be willing to accept not only the luxuries that accompany that, but also the burdens? That’s just the way it is?”

That is not Job’s intention. This is evidenced by the way in which he formulates his statement. He does not say, very impersonally, “One must not only accept the good from God but the evil too.” He does not only talk about himself, “Should I, Job, accept the good of God and not the evil?” No, he uses the first-person plural: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Job involves his wife. It’s as if he wants to say, “We’ve always done that. We have always accepted the good from God. Not only me, but we together; you, my wife, as well as I. Always everything has gone well for us. For years we received one good after another. That did not come automatically. We did not just get it. We connected it to God. We received it from him. Now, then, we know him, do we not? Is it for nothing that we have received all that good from him for years? Then we know with what kind of someone we have to do? And what we have in him?”

That is why it seems foolishness to Job now to turn his back to God. Now everything suddenly has become very different. Now all the good has been taken away. And there is nothing left but mourning and sores. No matter how terrible it is, it does not negate all the good that they, together, have seen from God. What God has done now is not understandable. But for that reason, you may not forget everything that previously you have seen from him. You know him, don’t you? Would he suddenly have become a very different person?

The Lesson about the Good←⤒🔗

Job’s question to his wife – “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” – is not a question that speaks of dull resignation. It is a statement that shows that Job learned his lesson in the good days. In all the good that happened to him, he had seen the hand of his God. That made him wise. As a result, he could unmask the advice of his wife as foolishness. As a result, he now accepts the evil from God’s hand. Not because there was no other way. But because he knew who was behind it: the same God who proved his goodness to his wife and himself, for years.

Only in this way can you accept evil from God’s hand: if you start at the good. If you do not find the good things in your life as self-explanatory, but consciously connect them to God. So that you learn to know him in this way: from the food and drink you receive daily. The great wealth, in which most of us in the prosperous Western world, may live. Your health. Your husband, your wife, your children. Your job. Your relationships.

Is this perhaps the reason why it is so difficult for us to accept disappointments from God’s hand, because we have come to take the good things for granted? So that we did not learn to know him in this?

To accept the good and evil from God, you must start at the beginning. With the good that God gave already at the beginning of your life. When he said to you, “You may be my child. I guarantee your life. I will deliver you through my Son from all your evil. I will take care of everything you need. And if something bad overtakes you, then I assure you that it will eventually work for good.”

Enduring Battle←⤒🔗

Then it really does not all happen automatically. Then there must often be hard battles. Life does not just become one big jubilant song.

Just look at Job. When he had lost ten children and almost all his possessions, he praised his God: “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21). The second time, when he was covered in sores and sat in ashes, that obviously did not apply. He could still tell his wife that they together should remain faithful to God. And that they would close their eyes to reality if they suddenly turned their back on him. But to repeat the cry – “Blessed be the name of the Lord” – that apparently was not possible anymore. Nor did it have to be: even without singing God’s praise in this manner, Job did not sin with his lips.

After that things deepened. After seven days and nights, his friends, with all their wisdom, did not know what to say to ease Job’s situation. Then it all became too much. Job cursed the day of his birth. He then assaulted heaven with his questions. He directed powerful words at God’s address. Words too big for a small person (see Job 40:2; 40:7-14; 42:2-3).

But he did not curse his God. He stayed with him. He knew his God. He had begun at the good.

This article was translated by John Vanderstoep