It was in this moment of intense agony—the worst of her life—that she, being mystified at her husband’s composure, told him to curse God and die.  This was clearly the darkest day of her life.  Therefore, her words came out of intense grief.  Such struggles with God amidst intense grief are natural and to be expected, but becomes sinful when it turns into accusations against God. In exhorting Job to curse God, she was telling him to complain of God not to God, so her expression of grief crossed the line into sin.  

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.
-Job 2:9-10, ESV

Why do bad things happen to good people?  That question has been asked since time immemorial and is so central to our understanding of the world that an entire book of the Bible explores it: Job.  In wrestling with this question, Job stands alone as his friends accuse rather than comfort him.  Even his wife turns against him…or does she?  All we see from her is this short statement: “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9), which has caused many Christians to view her in a negative light.  This post will examine what that statement, Job’s response, and the context really say about her, which will give us all great reason to hope.
Satan’s 4D Chess?
Why did Job’s wife tell him to curse God?  Some claim it was because she was crucial to Satan’s strategy against Job: “Previously he had pursued his aim by battering Job, but now he insinuates a question into his mind and follows it up by a proposed action—all put into the mouth of Job’s wife!”.[1]  While it is quite possible that Satan tempted her to make this statement, some have taken this to mean that Satan had kept her alive for the purpose of tormenting Job—as if she was a wicked nag who would cause Job more pain alive than dead.  In this view, she is nothing more than a pawn in Satan’s game of 4D chess, but from context it is clear that nothing could be further from the truth.  The first two chapters of Job do not depict Satan as a master strategist playing 4D chess.  Instead, he is revealed to be short-sighted, arrogant, and self-centered.  Since we have previously seen that arrogant self-centeredness is the enemy of God’s people, it should not surprise us to find these traits exemplified by the Enemy himself—and that is exactly what we see in Job.  The only one in Job with a grand strategy is God.  It was God who drew Satan’s attention to Job and then by praising him essentially used Satan’s arrogance to goad him into making a bold claim that Job would curse God if he saw calamity.  When God gave Satan permission to take away all Job had, He was essentially saying “I’ll take that bet”.  At this point, a wise person would see this as a trap—or at the very least a foolish bet—and backtrack.  But since the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), it should be unsurprising that Satan who does not fear God in a way that would lead to wisdom would arrogantly and foolishly stick to a plan doomed to failure.  When that inevitable failure came, Satan repeated the error by again making another bold statement against Job that elicited the same response from God—and the same failure when Job was afflicted with sores.  God proved Himself true and omnipotent while Satan only proved to be a fool blinded by arrogance who had no choice but to fulfill God’s Will.  His game could barely qualify as checkers, much less 4D chess.  Satan may be incredibly intelligent and cunning, but he had no grand strategy for Job.  Therefore it is preposterous to think that Satan had the wherewithal to keep Job’s wife alive for the purpose of tormenting him.  The most we can say is that in his shortsightedness, Satan tempted Job’s wife as a target of opportunity, but that is a far cry from her being part of some grand plan of his.  We can therefore rule out any thought that Job’s wife remained alive to add to his suffering, as that would be unsupported by the text.
Describing Job’s Wife Biblically
What then can we say about Job’s wife?  All we have is that single statement from her, but there is much we can deduce from the rest of the text.  First, Job is described as blameless, upright, and having an appropriate fear of God (Job 1:1).  He also had seven righteous sons who were old enough to live on their own and three daughters who were mature enough to feast with them (Job 1:2,4-5).  It is illogical to think that those ten righteous children were not born and raised by a righteous mother—and equally illogical to think that righteous Job would have married an unrighteous woman.  Furthermore, at the end of the book we see Job blessed with seven more sons and three more daughters (Job 42:13).  There is no indication that his wife died or left him, so we must assume that she bore and raised them as well.  Therefore, from the text we can easily deduce that Job’s wife was righteous just as he was.
What then do we make of her comment?  How could a righteous woman exhort her husband to curse God and die?  The answer is that we are seeing a righteous woman in her darkest moment.  Everything that was Job’s was also hers, so she had just become destitute as he had.  More importantly, she had lost all ten of her children just as he had.  The pain of losing even one child is unparalleled, so the pain of losing ten at once would be unimaginable.  Additionally, we have previously seen that a godly wife’s primary focus is on the home and that the greatest impact most people will have on the Kingdom is their children.  This means that her life’s work for at least two decades was all gone in an instant.  Additionally, she had to watch the man she loved, whom she had been with through thick and thin, suffering while she was powerless to intervene.  Therefore, it is no stretch of the imagination to say that Job’s wife was suffering just as much as he was.
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Both salvation and suffering are gifts from God. We don’t choose our salvation and we don’t choose our suffering. God saves us by grace alone and this same grace enables us to persevere in the suffering He chooses for us. Like Paul, the Philippians would suffer for Christ’s sake. You and I will too. The conflict believers face is the same, even though the circumstances might be different. Therefore, put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:10-17). Submit your suffering to Christ, asking Him to use it to sanctify you and advance the gospel of Christ. 

When Paul wrote to the Philippians he was confined to prison, awaiting his hearing before Caesar (see Acts 23:11; 25:9-12; 26:32). Although he was chained to a soldier at all times, he was able to write letters, have visitors, and boldly proclaim the gospel (28:30-31). During this time Paul’s suffering served to advance the gospel throughout the entire imperial guard, as well as all associated with it (Phil. 1:13). But he was also a witness to his fellow Christians in Rome. As they witnessed Paul’s boldness while in chains, their boldness grew to proclaim the gospel in Rome without fear. They learned that God could turn even prison into a place of gospel advancement. When your present circumstances are not ideal, remember that God often leaves us where we’re at for the advance of His gospel.
Suffering to Advance the Gospel
Sadly, there were some believers who were glad Paul was imprisoned (Phil. 1:15, 17). Even though their message was the same as Paul’s message, their motives were not. They were envious of Paul’s gifts, so instead of partnering with him, they were glad he was imprisoned. It is remarkable, then, that Paul is able to rejoice that their message of the gospel is going forth. Regardless of their motives, he rejoiced that Christ was being proclaimed.
Not all were envious of Paul. There were some who preached Christ “from good will” and “out of love,” recognizing Paul was imprisoned for “the defense of the gospel,” and wanting to partner in truth with him (Phil. 1:15-16). This is the example we should follow. Plead with the Lord to purify your motives, especially when you see envy and rivalry in your heart. Ask Him to keep you faithful to proclaim Christ. Ask Him to help you partner with others for the gospel instead of competing with them.
Serving Others for their Growth in the Gospel
Paul’s mission in life was to make Christ known. Through his words he proclaimed Christ and by his works he adorned its proclamation.
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In November, Christ Over All offered a decade-by-decade engagement with evangelicalism. We would encourage you to go read many of those fine essays. In this two-part “Encore Essay” by Mark Devine, we return to our November theme, Engaging Evangelicalism, because of its many applications for our January theme: Roe v Wade after Dobbs.
While Evangelicals should not define themselves by politics, they have had an outsized role in political affairs throughout America’s history. Therefore, to understand evangelicalism one must grapple with the various ways politics, and especially the Pro-Life movement, have intersected with one another. To that end, Mark DeVine follows the last twenty years of evangelicalism to show the cross currents which have blown through our country.
Picking up a theme introduced by Jeff Robinson in his two-part narrative, the most significant movement among young evangelicals in North America between the years 2000 and 2020 was the resurgence of Reformed theology. Heading into the 2000’s Mark Driscoll and his Mars Hill Church and the Acts 29 church planting network influenced a broad swath of young evangelicals with Reformed theology. On the other coast, it was New York City pastor and The Gospel Coalition co-founder Timothy Keller who greatly influenced the Reformed resurgence among young evangelicals—what Colin Hansen called the “Young, Restless, and Reformed”—penetrating even the largest evangelical denominations and publishing houses. In the middle of the country were streams identified with the preaching of John Piper in Minneapolis, Don Carson’s writing and scholarship in Chicagoland, and Albert Mohler’s institutional leadership at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Perhaps the most surprising development in these yearly years of the Reformed Resurgence was its embrace by entity heads from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).[1]  Likewise, representing the rising generation of multi-site church pastors, Matt Chandler understood and shared with younger SBC-ers the staying power of institutions. At a 9Marks at 9 event, he said, “movements come-and-go, but institutions stay.” In this way, the staying power of this Reformed resurgence would occur largely within the safe harbor of larger denominations such as Keller’s own Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) the immense SBC.
1. Despite an abundance of anti-Calvinists present at all levels of the Southern Baptist Convention, Keller’s gospel-centered appeal to a rising generation of Calvinists in SBC seminaries and other institutions led to an ever-widening embrace of the Keller movement.
In what follows I will give a broad brushstroke of this movement along with some of its key thought leaders.
Making Calvinism Cool
The Reformed Resurgence found rich soil in the theological ground cultivated for decades by bestselling theologians John R. W. Stott, J. I. Packer, R. C. Sproul, John MacArthur, and John Piper—men who led movements of their own. But by the mid 2000s, Driscoll—who also gained notoriety for his work in the emerging church—was arguably the face of the burgeoning recovery of Calvinism among young evangelicals sweeping the country. One impressive feature of the movement was its effective targeting of notoriously resistant contexts for gospel advance—the great cities of America. 20- and 30-somethings in skinny jeans were in cities across the nation, by the tens of thousands, happily sitting under candid preaching about sin, hell, and predestination. Through his nationwide reach, Driscoll helped make Calvinism cool.
Multiple scandals that eventually came to a head in 2014 led to the demise of Mars Hill and the dimming of Driscoll’s once bright and rising star. But other Calvinistic preachers continued preaching and leading, and one of them rose to greater prominence: Timothy Keller.[2] Keller had amazed church planters across the evangelical world by his success in Manhattan, and once The Reason For God appeared in 2008, Keller emerged as a nationally recognized star, a uniquely gifted apologist for the faith, and a church planting guru. With keen cultural awareness, Keller’s engagement within the context of a metropolitan city not only opened doors to share the gospel in New York—and in The New York Times—but it also resonated with Christians across the country hungry for a doctrinally-based approach to evangelism.
2. While it’s difficult to assess popularity, a rough metric in google trends (which shows how often certain terms are searched for by millions of people online) shows the general rise of Driscoll and then his eclipse by Keller after 2014—as measured by search results of “Mark Driscoll” and “Tim Keller.”
Indeed, both Driscoll and Keller sought to advance a robust Reformed theology in urban settings. But Keller’s strategic posture could hardly have contrasted more sharply with Driscoll’s. Driscoll assaulted Seattle audiences with an at times in-your-face, confrontational brand of preaching. Keller’s relaxed, open, comforting dialogical style prioritized the approach commended under the “About Us” tab on The Gospel Coalition website. What is true of the organization he co-founded is also true of himself—Keller strives to provide resources that are “winsome and wise, and centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
When Cool Begins to Freeze Evangelical Light
By 2016, the Keller movement—at least in its theology of a sovereign God, its church planting philosophy, its Christocentric preaching method, and its apologetic posture toward the culture—found itself deeply ensconced within both the PCA and the SBC and many other centers of evangelical influence. Keller had released one bestselling book after another and had become for evangelicals something of a national sensation. Yet in 2016, Keller and his movement found itself the subject of unrelenting and withering criticism, not from the politically progressive communities they served, but from their conservative theological siblings who charged them with accommodating their message to the progressive urban cultures they inhabited.
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