There are many fascinating things about the book of Job. It comes just about in the middle of the Bible, but the story is one of the oldest in scripture (see the note below on why I think Job comes from the years of slavery in Egypt, the centuries between Genesis and Exodus). The story tells us about a man who was “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). It tells us about an ongoing discussion between God and ‘the accuser’ or ‘the Satan’ (it is always ‘the Satan’ here in the book of Job, as a title rather than a proper name: the Prosecutor Angel, we might say).

It tells us that this discussion culminates in God and the Satan making a series of bets about Job. (What? God and the Satan wagering with each other? Go read the passage, and then decide if you could call it something else.) And the story tells us that this series of bets resulted in disaster for Job, as his children were killed, his wealth plundered, and his health ruined.

In the midst of all this devastation, we see a bit of dialog between Job and his wife, whose name is not given. She only gets one line, but it is a powerful one: “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die.” We need to hear the bitter despair in her words: she sees no reason to hope, no reason to go on. She feels overwhelmed by loss, and can only suppose they should just give up and die.

I would want Job to commiserate with his wife: “yes, it is awful, my heart is breaking, too.” But instead he tries to correct her: “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil?” His word provides a lesson for all of us Bible readers: in times of bereavement, empathy works better than theology – even if the theology is quite deep, proposing that both good and evil come to us from the hand of God.

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The world is full of anguish, O Lord, and we struggle to bear it, or even to understand it. Help us not to presume that if we correct those who are suffering, our insights will somehow resolve the pain. Grant us instead the courage and compassion simply to sit with those who suffer and to listen to their sorrow.

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