Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason." Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life."

So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

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.

It is interesting, and comforting that Satan must ask God's permission before he can strike Job. Satan is clearly very powerful, as he can inflict harm of that magnitude, but he cannot do it without God allowing him to.

Satan is right in a way, that it is reasonable to endure hardships where the suffering is outside of you. That is psychological pain and through various means you might be able to lessen it considerably, although it is still very real (you can ignore the problem, concentrate on something else, or replace what you have lost). But physical pain, especially in that day, would have been perhaps worse, especially combined with the other things that have been taken away.

I suppose in the vein of what I discussed previously, as before Satan took away what gave Job power in the world, he is further removing things that empower him. Now he cannot even physically work himself. Having sores all over his body would do a couple of things: first he'd be in so much pain that he would not be able to work to provide for himself or his wife. Second, he would be socially rejected as unclean and wouldn't be eligible for many of the benefits that society might have possibly had to offer. Basically, while before after losing all his possessions and the things that might support him fiscally he could at least be a beggar or simple laborer, now he can do neither.

His social rejection is made clearer by the fact that his wife even now seems to despise him. His wife blames him of simply trying to keep up appearances by not going against what he has said in the past and maintaining his integrity. Or she may mean simply maintaining his faith. But he proves her wrong either way. His reaction is one of acceptance of his fate and genuine faith. This is actually amazing when I think about it.

If one bad thing happens to me I get mad at God. And I have even less reason to be angry at God than Job, since I know God has suffered more than I have for my sake in sending his Son to die for me. Job only had a shadow of a hope in that, which we'll see later on.

All scripture passages are from the ESV.