Do you have to be a fool in order to talk or act foolishly? I don't think so. Take Job's wife, for example. People are always so hard on her, and it's like they don't even see her as a real person; they often only see her as Satan's tool to get Job to sin by cursing God (Job 2:9,10). But i tend to see her as the wonderful mother and wife that she was before falling to such a sad state. Can you imagine falling from such a height as she did? She had it all, along with Job. Yet, she was not the one God commended as being righteous. God knew all along that Job would see it through the tragedy and his wife wouldn't; otherwise, He wouldn't be God. What happens when the mediocre good people such as her get hit with something hard? They simply fall apart, like she did. They no longer desire to "hold on to [their] integrity." Their true colors show through.
Yes, Job's wife was a tool in the hand of Satan, but i don't think she was always a fool. It was the disaster itself that caused her to "talk like a foolish woman." In my Bible, it says that "foolishness" implies a "moral deficiency." Therefore, you are acting like a fool when you act immoral, and you become a fool when you act immoral day after day. She was not in the habit of acting immoral; she had only just begun. She was wise enough to know that God had allowed these horrible things to happen to her. The difference between her and Job was that she accused God of wrongdoing and Job did not. That was the point where she lost her integrity and Job chose to hold on to his.
Let's not think that we are so far from being in Job's wife's position. Right now, we are blessed. We have all we need, we are healthy, we are loved, and our loved ones are blessed too. What happens to our thoughts and words and actions when we are hit with something painful? When we lose the blessings? When rain stops falling and our ground becomes hard and unfruitful?
Job knew that he was only a man. He knew that God must have a good reason for allowing this to happen, even if he did not know the reason. He knew that he didn't deserve those blessings in the first place. His wife, on the other hand, was willing to serve God when things went well, but the minute she lost everything, she chose to believe that God was evil. That is why she was willing to curse the Holy One.
So i see a strong connection between believing a lie and being immoral, aka being "a fool." My dear friends, if you begin to suggest that God is doing wrong, then you are beginning to act foolish and talk like a fool. Wisdom is knowing the truth and speaking it. Even in the midst of having God's Hand hard upon you, you know that He could never do wrong. He could never be evil. That is simply a lie.
Let this be our foundational belief when we see "good" people suffer, even if that good person is us...
GOD, my Father, please give me the strength to simply say (and deeply believe) that You are good, even when bad things happen to me and those i love. AMEN.
I wonder what happened to his wife when the blessings came back...did she repent of her harsh words about God? Did Job pray for her as he prayed for his friends? Or was it too late for her? We serve a very merciful God, and i myself wouldn't be a bit surprised to find her there in the New Kingdom, forgiven and totally unlike she was in that recorded moment when she, in deep anguish, told Job to curse his God.
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