Husbands have a knack for frustrating wives. I heard the story of a sweet little girl that visited a Sunday School class. To start the class, the teacher asked if anyone had a favorite Bible verse. The girl quickly raised her hand. Feeling so pleased, the teacher asked her if she could quote the verse. She said, “‘Curse God and die!’ That’s the verse Mommy tells Daddy when Mommy gets mad.”
Yes, Job 2:9 states, “Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.’” But Job refused. Job’s life demonstrates to us the value of not yielding to the pressure to compromise Truth. For His children, God will take our mess, our pain, our most profound disappointments, and He will make something good out of them.
Our faith must be firmly grounded in Jesus Christ, our Lord. When it is, then we can rest in Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.“
Job’s faith in God cost him everything
If we had lived during Job’s lifetime, we might have come upon him during his time of testing. If so, we would have found him sitting in a pile of ashes while scraping off boils that covered his whole body. He probably would have been crying because of the murder of his children and their families. He also lost all his earthly possessions, and his friends called him a sinner and said he deserved all his troubles!
Perhaps more painful than these troubles, his wife, the person that knew him better than anyone else, decided he was a fool for standing firm in his faith in God. How completely devastating her statement must have been to Job. Nevertheless, Job withstood all the troubles that satan poured out on him. He would die but never yield. He would not compromise.
Withstanding compromise
Right now, in our world, we are approaching a tipping point. The evil to come will be as ubiquitous as the evil before Noah and the flood (Matthew 24:37). We must not think the way worldly people want us to think. We must not act the way worldly people want us to act. Those of us who put our trust in God must remain in God – “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. (John 15:6 NLT)”
God has drawn a circle around His people. He has told us to “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16)” Those that are in God’s house are His, and those that are not are not His. In or out, there is no other place.
The good news
We cannot be of the world and be reconciled to God. We must come out and be entirely His. Salvation through Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God. “Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11 NIV)”
The good news is that, as we withstand the pressures of the world to compromise, our love for Jesus and our love for others grows intimate and purer. Take comfort in Psalms 16:1-2:
Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash