Introduction to Job

This book is pronounced with a long "o" like "robe" and not a short "o" like "occupation." Even though it appears in the middle of the Bible, it does not mean that it appears in the middle of Biblical history. Based on the internal details of the book, it was likely written in the time of the patriarchs (i.e. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) (cf. Reasons for seeing Job as written early). As far as the story, even the poetry, is concerned, no other background information is required to appreciate the book. Everything that needs to be explained is explained; however, the book may leave the casual reader unsatisfied, especially if you are trying to answer the question, "Why do the righteous suffer?"

Job is presented as a blameless and upright man, who goes to extreme measures to uphold his righteousness. He is also very wealthy and influential. This estimation is provided both by the narrator and God; therefore, it is not to be disputed. The narrator takes the reader into the angelic council of God, and even Satan is there. God boasts of Job as His faithful servant. Satan, as fits his name, accuses Job of only being faithful because of God's material blessings. God permits Satan to strike everything Job has, even his children. But even after this, Job remains faithful. On another day God boasts of Job again. This time Satan takes a different tact. Rather than questioning Job's motivation, he attacks Job's resilience, arguing that Job will break under the pressure of extreme physical pain. God permits Satan to afflict Job but not kill him. But even after this, Job remains faithful. But then, two other factors come to bear: his wife and his friends.

Job quickly rebuffs his wife, who tells Job to curse God and die. One can now understand why when Satan took everything Job had, including his children, he left the wife. Then came his friends. And we are sometimes too quick to comdemn these friends, for hardly any one of us could have matched their sensitivity of approach. Before they said a word to him, they sat and grieved with him for seven days and nights. How many of us have done anything like that?!

Then, Job spoke, expressing the depth of his grief, so that he despaired of his life, preferring never to have been born. Then the dialogue begins as his three friends, though perhaps well-meaning, wrongfully bring rebuke. They base their arguments on the righteousness of God (Job 4:7) and the unrighteousness of man (Job 4:17; 8:4; 15:14-16; 25:4). God would not have afflicted Job unless Job had sinned (Job 8:3; 8:20; 15:17-35). Therefore, Job needs to repent (Job 8:5-7; 11:13-15). Job's continuing stance is that he has not sinned (Job 6:10; 9:21; 10:7; 23:10-12; 27:1-6), though he does not understand why God has afflicted him (Job 7:17-21; All of chapter 10). Job acknowledges God's sovereignty, that He could do whatever He pleases and Job could not argue with Him (All of Job 9; 23:13-14).

Although the friends cannot tell what sin Job committed, they eventually attack him for self-righteousness, pride and irreverent presumption (Job 11:3-4; 15:1-13). Job disparages his friends as trying to argue for God in a wrong way (Job 12:1-2; 13:1-12; 16:2-5; 17:2, 10; 19:1-6, 14, 21-22; 26:1-3) and directs his complaint toward God (Job 13:13-14:22; 16:20; 21:4). Throughout the dialogue Job recognizes that God is both the cause of his affliction (Job 12:9; 16:6-17) and his only Deliverer (Job 13:15; 16:19; 19:25-26), so that he calls God both his Adversary (Job 16:9) and his Advocate (Job 16:19). In response to his friends' contention that God only afflicts the wicked and rewards the righteous, Job points out that there are many wicked that prosper, even their wicked children after them (Job 21:7-34; All of Job 24).

The dialogue escalates for both Job and his friends. His friends start inventing sins that Job must have committed (Job 22:4-11) and argue him to humble himself and repent (Job 22:21-30). Job becomes more adamant to defend his innocence, even to defend himself directly before God (Job 23:1-7). In Job's final response to his friends, he affirms the greatness of God (Job 26-28), reminisces of his past glory (Job 29), mourns his present distress (Job 30), but reaffirms his integrity in his every action and intention (Job 31).

Finally, apart from Job and his friends, a young man named Elihu responds to Job. After a long introduction (Job 32:1--33:7), he recounts Job's basic argument that he is innocent and God has afflicted him without reason (Job 33:8-11; 34:4-6). Elihu argues that Job is not right because God is greater than man and does not need to explain Himself to Job (Job 33:12-13). Rather than pointing to any particular sin, Elihu addresses Job's very words and approach as sin (Job 34:7-9; 36-37), even Job's trying to pit his righteousness against God (All of Job 35) and Job's indirectly accusing God of wrongdoing (Job 33:10; 34:5; 36:23). He concludes his portion with a reflection on the unsearchability of the greatness of God (Job 36:22-23, 26, 29; 37:5, 12-14; 15-20, 23-24).

It is at this point that God speaks out of a whirlwid, perhaps to represent His power, to both rebuke and challenge Job: "Who is this that darkens my counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me!" (Job 38:1-3). So, for the next two long chapters, God asks him one question after another with respect to His management of the natural world; none of which Job could answer. Again, God challenges Job, "Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.' (Job 40:1-2). Job responds that he is not worthy to even respond to God (Job 40:3-5). But God continues with His challenge: "Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?" (Job 40:8). He again proceeds to challenge Job's sense of himself compared to the power and authority of God over all the proud, even the mighty "Behemoth" and "Leviathan," which were perhaps the most powerful land and water beasts of that time. Finally, Job confesses, "I have declared that which I did not understand" (Job 42:3) and repents, "I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6).

In the afterword, God rebukes Job's three friends because they had "not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has" (Job 42:7). Noticebly, Elihu, the young man that spoke last is not rebuked. As Elihu noted, perhaps Job's sin was not in the content but in the approach. Job had no right to challenge God's sovereignty and righteousness, even God's choosing to afflict the righteous. In the end Job intercedes for his friends and, in turn, God restores and multiplies Job's fortunes and family.

As you read Job, the poetry and imagery can make the book difficult to understand, but try to get the main arguments (see the forest) without getting lost in the details (the trees). You will be helped as you notice that many arguments are repeated in the dialogue, both by Job and his friends. As you read through Job, notice that Job's initial responses to the calamities capture the right attitude and response. After the first calamity, Job said, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21). After the second one, he said, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10). I have given a full synopsis of the book, so that you don't commit the error of taking the first verse that sounds meaningful to you as God's truth to apply to your lfie. Remember, God said that the words of Eliphaz and his friends were "not right." Therefore, when you read what they say, you should be careful to discern what is right and what is wrong based on what you know from other Scriptures.