Job 2 Commentary

Please choose a passage:

Job 2:1-3

Satan appears before God’s throne again. God speaks of Job’s continued righteousness, despite the loss of his children and wealth due to Satan’s actions.

Job 2:4-6

Satan asks God for permission to harm Job’s body, saying that the suffering of physical pain will cause Job to turn from God. God allows this, forbidding Satan from killing Job.

Job is part of the Wisdom Literature section of the Old Testament, along with Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Although we are not given direct information that dates the book of Job, it could be the earliest of the Scriptures to be put in writing.

If it is the earliest book committed to writing, it is appropriate, for the book of Job addresses some of the most fundamental philosophical questions humans can ask, including:

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
What is the relationship between spiritual beings, God, and humans?
What is God’s nature, and desire for us?

THEMES AND LESSONS

From Job we gain an understanding that God has a specific design for humans. However, although God is sovereign, He interacts with humans, and our choices are real. It appears that humans play a key role in a grand, cosmic drama to determine who should rightfully rule the earth. Through faithful living, humans can repudiate God’s enemy.

We also learn from Job our natural tendency to treat God in a transactional manner, and seek to bend Him to do our will. However, that is not possible with God, because He is God (not us). Rather, it is our greatest privilege to seek to know God, our greatest source of fulfillment. And this life is our one and only opportunity to come to know God by faith.

Three of Job’s friends, key characters in the story of Job, express a perspective indicating that they can manipulate God through their actions. These three are soundly chastised by God, although He forgives them through Job’s intercession. Job, on the other hand, suffers greatly from adverse circumstances, but is the one who is presented as being greatly blessed. Job gives us insight that allows us to adopt a heavenly and eternal perspective, and equips us to view our earthly journey as a unique, once-in-our-existence opportunity to gain the immense blessing to know God by faith. When combined with other promises (such as Revelation 3:21) the picture that emerges allows us to view any circumstance as an opportunity.

In Job’s story, we see a full manifestation of the New Testament promise that God causes all things to work together for our good, and that the ultimate good for each of us is to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:28-29).

With Job, we also see an illustration of Jesus’s statement that the greatest fulfillment of life (which He calls “eternal life”) for any believer is to know God (John 17:3). Job comes to know God in a much deeper and fuller manner through God’s interaction with his circumstances, which greatly enhances Job’s human fulfillment. Since Job is presented as someone that God highly favors, Job’s faith is an inspiration. Through Job we can discover timeless wisdom, and how to prosper and flourish in any circumstance, whether we enjoy plenty or suffer scarcity.

Chapter Context

Satan appears before God’s throne again. God speaks of Job’s continued righteousness, despite the loss of his children and wealth due to Satan’s attacks. Job has not sinned, even though he has lost so much. God says this to prove to Satan that Job truly is a good man, and does not view God as a transactional vending machine. Job follows God by faith, whatever the circumstance.

Satan downplays his own failure to break Job, and asks God for permission to harm Job’s body, saying that the suffering of physical pain will cause Job to turn from God. God allows this, forbidding Satan from killing Job.

Satan afflicts Job’s body with boils from his head to his feet. Job sits in ashes scratching his sores with broken pottery. His wife asks him why he won’t blame God and succumb to his illness by dying. Job rebukes her as speaking foolishly. He accepts the good and the difficulties God allows into his life. He does not sin. He is not provoked to anger toward God by his wife’s despair.

Three of Job’s friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—come to visit him in his suffering, hoping to comfort him. They do not even recognize Job when they first see him, due to the boils all over his body. Each man tears his clothing and throws dust, weeping and mourning their friend’s condition. They sit with him for a week silently waiting for him to speak. They see that Job is in severe pain.