Just Be There |The Life of Job Pt. 2
Welcome to the second part of this three part series called The Life of Job. If you haven't yet read part 1, feel free to get caught up here.
This part covers chapter 2 of the book of Job.
This chapter starts off with another conversation between God and Satan. Satan says that there's no way Job would continue to praise God if his health was taken from him. Once again God gives Satan permission to do what he wants, as long as he doesn't kill Job.
Satan curses Job with blistering, painful sores covering his entire body. Now, Job is in a very physically as well as emotionally painful time of his life, and this is when the people around him reveal their true roles. There are two in specific that I want to touch on.
First of all, the Doubting Discourager. Job's wife plays this role. She says, "Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!" In some translations she says, "Curse God and be done with it." Pretty harsh. She not only doubts Job, but doubts God, and creates a form of temptation for Job to doubt God. She is also discouraging Job's faith. This is the exact response Satan wanted her to give. Sometimes when we're going through a hard time, the people around us don't contribute effectively to our spirituality. This is the Doubting Discourager.
The second role is the Present Mourner. Job had three friends which took on this role. They each traveled from their home lands to comfort Job. They wept with him. Mourned with him. Sat with him. For seven days and seven nights they sat in silence. His friends were present. They were there for him in the darkest time of his life. They encouraged his faith and supported him in not giving up on God. These are the people we need in dark times and the people we need to be in the midst of other's dark times. We aren't required to have all the 'right' words to say, but rather to just be there. This is the Present Mourner.
I encourage you to surround yourself with Present Mourners to do life with and to take on that role for someone else. We all need each other. We all need a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, and someone to just be there.
~Nicole
"Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was." -Job 2:13
