So when does Job lose his integrity? The answer is he does not lose his integrity, as evidenced in the text in Job 2:9. Additionally, what follows is Job continuing to maintain his integrity in the face of his wife urging him to do the exact opposite. Herein again, Job refuses to curse God as satan had falsely predicted. This is the spirit of what is happening in this scene. To imply that there is some hidden secret cursing of God in Job’s heart is to murder the spirit of what the story is telling us at this moment. Job adamantly refuses to curse God and is exemplifying in real time how he practices “turning away from evil” just as God had already explicitly testified about him twice.
For Job to “bless” God at this moment, as his wife urged him to, would actually have had the opposite effect of blessing, as demonstrated in Proverbs 27:14. Job’s wife, understandably, is exasperated and suffering horribly as a result of what has happened to them. It’s overwhelming, and in this weak moment we can see why she would sarcastically say “bless God” and die. She knows under these particular circumstances that “blessing” God here at this moment would be the same as if Job was offering a curse. Apparently this is the reason most bible translations of this text have Job’s wife saying “curse God and die”.
Unless you lay the two tests out together you will miss it.
THE TWO TESTS OF JOB
Job had two tests. Whenever you take a test, you get scored on that test. In the reading of the first and second chapters of Job we are caught up with the anguish and torment of Job, and in the process we are blinded to the actual results of the two tests.
The first thing that should come to your observation is the process of the presentation of these two tests. They are virtually word for word in the presentation between the first test, and the second test. What would one obvious reason be for the two presentations being almost identical? One obvious reason would be that we might take note of that which is different between the two tests.
PRSENTATION OF THE TWO TESTS
Test 1 Job 1:6
(Now) there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.
Test 2 Job 2:1
(Again) there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them,
(to present himself before the Lord).
In the first test Satan appears to have been a casual observer, while in the second test you might assume Satan was commanded to be there.
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Test 1. Job 1:7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Test 2. Job 2:2 And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
They are identical.
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Test 1. Job 1:8 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Test 2. Job 2:3 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
(And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.)
The difference is the first test has already taken place, and Job has passed. Two other things should be noted here. 1. That God did the moving, or is responsible for Job’s tribulation. 2. That Satan’s cause was unjust, Job passed. It does not mention God’s cause for allowing the test.
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Test 1. Job 1:9-10 Then Satan answered the Lord, and said,
(doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hand, and his substance is increased in the land.)
Test 2. Job 2:4 And Satan answered the Lord, and said,
(Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.)
The difference is that the first test involved Job’s possessions and the second test will involve Job.
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Test 1. Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch
(all that he hath), and he will curse thee to thy face.
Test 2. Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch
(his bone and his flesh), and he will curse thee to thy face.
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Test 1. Job 1:12 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold,
(all that he hath is in thy power; only put not forth thine hand.) So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
Test 2. Job 2:6-7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold,
(he is in thy hand; but save his life.) So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord,--.
The difference is that in the first test Job's possessions were in Satan's hands, and in the second test his flesh was in Satan's hand.
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God’s presentation of the two tests is unique in that every word that could be duplicated was, from one test compared to the other test. It is the results of the two tests that will be presented next, and the obvious differences stand out.
RESULTS OF THE TWO TESTS
Test 1. Job 1:20
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
Test 2. Job 2:8
And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. (Notice that Job does not bless God. This was what Satan had said, that Job would "not bless"
[lo-barak] God to his face.)
After the first test Job prostrated himself before God and worshipped God. Job mentioned his mother’s womb in a neutral manner, and then blessed the name of the Lord.
After the second test Job sat down and said nothing. The worshipping and blessing of God is missing. When Job finally spoke, it was in reply to his wife’s question, in which Job replied with a question, “shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? Notice after the first test Job mentioned his mother’s womb in a neutral manner, but later after the second test we hear Job cursing the day he came out of his mother’s womb. (Job 3:1,10-12)
Can you tell me when Job lost his integrity?
