By Theodore Epp

      Job 2:1-10

      Satan did not give up easily. He did not succeed the first time, but he would try again. He had removed Job's possessions and his family, but now he was going to touch Job where he thought every person was vulnerable. Satan's proposition now was to add physical suffering to the problems of this man whom he thought was strained to the breaking point.

      God had given His permission, so Satan brought a terrible disease on Job. Some think it was a form of black leprosy, said to be the worst kind of leprosy.

      Even after all this, Satan was not through with Job. Another blow was still to come. Job's wife came to him and said, "Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die" (Job 2:9).

      She must have thought that God, whom Job served, had forsaken him. Possibly she thought God could not be a God of love since He had let such suffering come upon a man who had served Him so well.

      Isn't such an attitude familiar to us? Haven't we even thought these things ourselves?

      "'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope"' (Jer. 29:11, NASB).