I have never been one to pay particularly close attention to storms. I have always lived in places where the threat of them was more significant than the actual event. Sure, I have lived through major snow storms, tornado warnings and landings, ice storms that cut off power and conveniences for a day. But all of that changed on September 27, 2024. There had been some rain the day before. That is what I was used to in Augusta, GA. Hurricanes and Tropical Storms would vent their fury on places further south, and we would have to put up with a day of fairly heavy rain. So I had assumed that would be all: some rain on Thursday, but on Friday everything would continue as per normal. But I was mistaken.
At around 3 a.m. on the 27th I woke up aware that someone was moving around downstairs. Noticing my wife missing from the bed, I went to find out what she was doing. I could hear the rain and gusts of wind, but it did not seem too significant to me. I went and checked on her and finding everything ok, I returned to get some more sleep. One hour later I woke up to find a living room full of Gleasons, alarmed at the noise of the wind and rain pelting the house. I encouraged them to be productive with their time if they were going to be up (yes, I’m that kind of dad), and again returned to get some more sleep. One hour later I woke up because I could feel the house shifting as the gusts of wind whistled outside the windows. At this point, unwilling to die by myself on the second floor, I made it downstairs and sat in the dark (power was out and would not be restored for almost 5 days) with the rest of the family. By God’s grace the storm may have raged but the damage to our house was minimal. The same cannot be said for many others.
When the dawn broke and we were able to go and assess the damage, it was like a war zone. Trees were down everywhere around the city, in some instances having crushed houses and cars. Traffic lights did not work anywhere making every intersection dangerous and challenging. Almost no houses had electricity, and there was no prediction as to when it would be restored. Cell phone service was spotty making the ability to communicate with our church family tricky.
The following Sunday, September 29, little had changed. People had helped each other remove fallen trees and other debris, but the infrastructure was not restored. In fact, the situation became more challenging for many Augusta residents because the Utilities Department decided to shut off water to all houses. Food was beginning to rot in refrigerators, gasoline was beginning to run out, and people were beginning to become very concerned, and even tense. So how is the Christian to address such a situation. As the members of Cliffwood (who were able to get to the church) gathered, we considered together the lessons God’s word gives us from Job 2:9-10:
“Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.’ But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
Context of Job 2:9-10
This snippet of a conversation between a husband and wife has a context. The reader is not just overhearing some terse words exchanged because of the strain and stress of an average day. Job and his wife have just been completely ruined.
From Job 1:1-5 it is clear that Job is a very wealthy man with a large family. The accounting of his possessions are foreign to a modern North American, but his 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and many servants establish Job as “the greatest of all the people of the east.” (Job 1:3). In addition, he is reported to have seven sons and three daughters (Job 1:2). Job is at the top of the pile, but in a very short space of time he is reduced to nothing through catastrophe and disaster.
In Job 1:13-19, four different reports come to him. The first report is that all his oxen and donkeys were stolen by the Sabeans (v. 14-15). The second report tells of fire burning up Job’s sheep and attending servants (v. 16). The third announces that the camels and attending servants have been stolen by the Chaldeans (v. 17). And the fourth, and most tragic, is that all 10 of Job’s children have been killed when the house in which they are visiting with each other collapses (v. 18-19). What is even more catastrophic is that these reports come to Job one after another. While the current report is given to Job, the next messenger arrives (see v. 16, 17, & 18, where the narrator records that while the messenger was still speaking the next messenger arrived. That means that Job loses his wealth, status, and all his children in a matter of minutes. And that would be tragic enough, and yet Job endures more.
Starting in Job 2:1-6, Job also loses his health. It says that Job was struck with “loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” (Job 2:7). This once-great man went from being the greatest man in the east to sitting in the ash heap, scraping himself with a piece of pottery to gain some relief from his festering blisters. And what is truly stunning in it all is the way in which these hardships came to Job and his family.
Job was thus afflicted as the result of two meetings between God and the devil. The first is recorded in Job 1:6-12, and the second in Job 2:1-6. In each meeting, God praises Job for his faithfulness, but the devil suggests that Job serves the Lord because he has privilege. Each time the devil asks God for permission to afflict His faithful servant. And perhaps astonishingly to us who have but a limited understanding of God’s good plans, He grants Satan’s request. In the first meeting Satan is permitted attack Job’s possessions and in the second his health. And yet, this account is not about how a man handles circumstances well. Job is the account of how a man is content when God brings what William Cowper calls a “frowning providence” in his hymn God Moves in a Mysterious Way.
Next it is left to determine just what forms God’s providence can take and how Christians should respond to it.
