New Vision

New Vision

Job’s Wife

Read: Job 42:7-17

The Bible doesn’t tell us anything about Job’s wife except for her comment to him in Job 2:9, but at the end of the book, we see that her life did change for the better. After Job’s time of testing, God gave him and his wife twice as much wealth as before. Their relatives and friends showered them with love and comfort. According to Job 42:13, we assume that Job’s wife gave birth to ten more children. The memory of her terrible heartache and suffering must have softened over the years as she discovered new joy in God’s abundant blessings.

By the end of their trials, Job had acquired a new vision of God. While he knew about him before, he now felt that he knew God on a more personal level. Did Job’s wife also gain a deeper understanding of God through her suffering? Did she learn to trust him to walk with her through the tough times of life? Did she feel closer to the God who forgave her for words spoken in bitterness and grief? Perhaps Job’s wife knew God more intimately after the tragedy that stripped away everything except for God’s presence in her life.

Sometimes we suffer as a consequence of our sinful choices; at other times, suffering results simply from our living in a sinful world. God sometimes uses trials to test and strengthen our faith, to give us a powerful witness to the world, or to help us become more like Christ. We may not understand God’s purpose in allowing hard times, but we can count on him to help us endure them. After the trial ends, we’ll discover that we know God better than before. When we’re hurting, we can think only about what we’ve lost. But if we hang on to our trust in God, we’ll find that we’ve gained a new vision of him and deeper spiritual insight.

I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.

Job 42:5