Job 2:10—“What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” 

Here we have one of the most sobering and sanctifying questions ever spoken by a believer. Job has already buried his children, lost his wealth, and watched his life collapse in a single day. Now his body is struck with painful boils, and his wife urges him, “Curse God, and die.” In that moment, Job answers, not with bitterness, but with sound theology in his mind.

His question to his wife does not deny God’s goodness; it defends it. Job reminds us that God is not only the Giver of pleasant days, but also the Sovereign Lord over bitter ones. To receive “good at the hand of God” is natural to us. We gladly take His gifts of health, provision, success, and joy. But Job exposes the pride hidden in the human heart: we often want God’s blessings without God’s right to govern our lives.

When Job speaks of receiving “evil”, he is not calling God sinful. He is confessing that calamity, loss, and affliction may come—bitter to us, yet still under the permission of a holy God who does all things well. Job’s faith rests in the truth that the Lord’s hand is never random, never cruel, and never out of control.

Job’s words teach us to be submissive to God at all times with reverence. God’s children are not promised a life without suffering, but a Father who rules over it. If we receive good with thanksgiving, let us also receive trials with humble trust, knowing that the same God who wounds also heals, and that His purposes will be vindicated in the end.