Job 2

2. He tempted Eve first, because he knew if once he could prevail with her, she would easily draw her husband. Thus the Devil handed over a temptation to Job by his wife (Job 2:9). Curse God and die.

How many by consulting with the flesh have lost the Kingdom of Heaven! 15. If you would not fall short of Heaven take heed of carnal relations: our carnal friends are often bars and blocks in our way to Heaven; they will say religion is preciseness and singularity: a wife in the…

He usually puts discontented persons upon indirect means. Job's wife fretted (so far was she from holy submission) and she presently puts her husband upon cursing of God (Job 2:9): Curse God and die. What is the reason why some have turned witches, and given themselves to the De…

And secondly, as Satan has such a desire: so God may give his child up into Satan's hand for a while, thus to afflict and terrify his spirit. His last commission over Job seems to extend thus far, for his life only was excepted (Job 2:6): 'He is in your hand, only save his life.…

Bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me (Acts 20:24). The troubles a godly man meets with for conscience, do by a holy antiperistasis, the more inflame his zeal: sufferings cannot make Christ leave loving the saints, nor make the saints leave loving of C…

2. Now we are to consider, that though Satan be sentenced already, and as a malefactor under bail, and in chains, yet has he leave to walk to and fro in the earth, and is not yet cast in prison, nor are we freed from his temptation, the personal persecution and malice of Satan;…

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof (chapter 26:21). For the Lord comes out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; it is Satan's walk (Job 2:2). And the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come? and Satan answered the Lord…

For motives to this: First, it is taken from the sweetness of life, "Skin for skin, and all that a man has will he give for his life" (Job 2:4). And what is a life without grace?

Though he get the foil he will set on us again; like a troublesome fly that is often beaten off, yet will return to the same place. Thus the devil when he could do no good upon his first patent against Job's goods and children, comes and sues for a new commission, that he might…

It was the manner of Paul to abase himself, and to mourn for the sins of others (2 Corinthians 12:24), and he reproves the Corinthians that they were puffed up, and did not mourn for the incestuous person. Like was the practice of David (Psalm 119:136), of Lot (2 Peter 2:7), of…

And it often appears by their backwardness to entertain charitable thoughts of them, and their being hard to convince that it is really so that they have obtained mercy, and a forwardness to listen to anything that seems to contradict it. The devil hated to own Job's sincerity (…

We shall find him in the next chapter at the assembly again, renewing his motion for a second assault, that he may have leave to lay his siege nearer and closer to Job, presuming that though he had not prevailed at the first, yet he shall at the second charge; let me charge him…

Who would have suspected the Devil there? He handed over a temptation to Job by his wife (Job 2:9). Do you still retain your integrity?

2. It is the silent submission of the soul to the providence of God, for that also is the will of God concerning us. (1.) When the events of providence are grievous and afflictive, displeasing to sense, and crossing our secular interests; meekness does not only quiet us under th…

If wives would learn in this point to be subject, many jars, which from time to time arise between them, would be allayed, if not prevented. Michal the wife of David (2 Samuel 6:20, etc.), and Job's wife (Job 2:10) (though they gave just occasion to be most sharply reproved, yet…

When that for which a wife is reproved is a truth, a known truth, and a weighty truth, the husband in performing this duty justifies his deed, shows that there was need thereof, and so gives evidence of his love, makes his reproof to pierce the more deeply, and so makes her the…

When Satan had a commission to exercise Job, first his person was exempted (Job 1:12): "Upon himself put not forth your hand." Next his life (Job 2:6): "Behold he is in your hand, but save his life." A godly man has an invisible guard and hedge round about him; we are not sensib…

God cannot endure to have his love suspected, or undervalued; and yet people are apt to do so, when dispensations are anything cross to their desires and expectations. But now it is a great check to consider, that if we have our troubles, we have also our consolations; and we sh…

There is no perfect defeating the temptation but by studying matter of praise, and to set seriously about the duty. So (Job 2:10) Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? Shall we receive so many proofs of the love of God, and quarrel at a few aff…

When Satan accused Joshua (Zechariah 3:1-2), it was for his filthy garments, his iniquity; as (verse 3-4). He is ever telling tales (and sometimes true stories) of the miscarriages of professors; he registers their pride and wantonness, their vanity and folly, all their unworthy…

Thus God laughs at the trial of the innocent, for he sees they are men that will endure a trial; as the excellent expositor on the Book of Job expresses it, with much more to this effect. God took pleasure in the sufferings of Christ (as Christ himself also did) and so he does i…

Great assurances and glorious joys, are too great a sail for a heart that is not widened with enlarged contritions and humiliations. God would make Job a pattern of patience, to all posterities, therefore he exercises him with all extremities in all kind of sharp and piercing so…

The first is taken from the nature of the will of man, which since the fall, is wholly tainted, and totally infected with corruption, which universally overspreads the whole man; as he in another case, the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint, the whole man wholly posses…

As first that the Lord might show his power, and that absolute sovereignty he has over the worst men, and the worst of creatures those infernal [reconstructed: spirits], and the worst and most violent of all their corruptions, and that he has the reins of all their violence and…

Says discontent: throw off Christ's livery, desist from your religion. Thus Job's wife, being discontented with her condition, says to her husband, Do you still retain your integrity (Job 2:9)? As if she had said, Do you not see, Job, what is become of all your religion?

When I am tried, I shall come forth as gold. Job had a furnace-faith; a Christian of the right breed (who is born of God) whatever he loses, will hold fast his integrity (Job 2:3). Christ's true disciples will follow him upon the water.

In adversity the devil tempts to atheism and desperation. Satan used Job's wife as a ladder by which he would have scaled the impregnable tower of Job's faith (Job 2:9): do you still retain your integrity? A cutting kind of speech; as if the devil had said, God has pulled down y…

But 1. it takes strength from a temptation; as some run more swiftly after a fall, that they may recompense their loss of time; and that is great faith that argues from a temptation, as this woman does. 2. That is Job's great faith, (Job 2:3) that he still holds fast his integri…

And so by reason that the world by a new gift of redemption, is subjected to Jesus Christ, there is a special and particular providence of Christ upon Satan: it concerns the redeemed not a little, that Christ keep a strong and watchful guard upon the black camp out of which he h…

7. The contrary error is founded upon two other errors, that all afflictions are subservient officers and sergeants to the law, and so they are signs of God's wrath, as is the law, and as believers are freed from the ruling power of the law, so also from the rod. But this is fal…

Thirdly, nearness of acquaintance. (Job 2:11, 13) Job's friends, that were of his acquaintance, came with one consent to mourn with him. Now, secondly, why every family apart.