We know what that is like, don’t we? When everything has gone wrong that could do so, when the fire seems unbearable, suddenly the situation worsens and we wonder where it will all end.

Job had that experience. For a second time Satan slandered Job to God and God gave him additional permission to attack Job, this time to touch his body. Various names have been given to the disease which struck Job, all the way from severe boils to elephantiasis,

Whatever it was, it must have been severely painful with a constant discharge which Job scraped off. Can you see him, a pitiful broken figure, sitting on the household ash heap, disfigured and in extreme pain?

Then his wife, the mother of his ten children turns on him. “Are you still hanging on to your faith in that God you talk about?” In other words, do you still think God loves you? If He does, why has this happened? Those words sound rather familiar even today.

Next she adds a terrible piece of advice. “Curse this God and he will have to kill you. You’d be better off dead than the way you are now.” She may even have been suggesting suicide. How would Job have felt? Instead of supporting him, his life companion had turned against him.

What could Job do? It is remarkable what verse 10 tells us, “In all of this Job did not sin in what he said.” We may wonder how many of us would be so careful in our remarks about God in that situation. It is so easy to burst out in strong words or to talk to other people about our tragic situation and to indulge in self-pity.

At some time or other we each could unexpectedly face personal tragedy and loss. That is the time when we need to say, “Father, I trust you. Not my will but yours be done.”