Overview of the Book of Job
Purpose:
To explore the limits and proper uses of traditional proverbial wisdom in the case of a righteous individual's suffering.
Date: c. 970-586 B.C.
The book of Job presents at least three possible explanations for the suffering of the righteous. First, God is not just and good. The faithful endure hardship because God is at least partly evil. The book rejects this possibility, forcefully affirming God's goodness in the prologue and epilogue. The prologue depicts Job's affirmation of God's goodness in the midst of suffering (Job 1:1-2:13), and in the epilogue (Job 42:7-17) God honors Job's trust in his goodness and justice by restoring him.
Second, the righteous suffer because God is not sovereign, and suffering is beyond his control. Yet the book of Job also dismisses this possibility, attesting that God is omnipotent and all-powerful and that he sovereignly controls all things (Job 37:14-24; 42:2).
Third, God is both good and sovereign, but mere creatures cannot always understand the outworkings of his sovereign goodness. His ways are so far beyond human analysis that they cannot be fully fathomed (Job 28). In Job's case, the opening chapter gives readers a tiny glimpse into God's reasons for Job's suffering. God and Satan were engaged in a challenge that involved the testing of Job's faith. Yet, as in most cases, Job suffered without a hint of what was going on in heaven (even the reader is left wondering how Satan entered heaven to challenge God, and why God agreed to test Job). Although God welcomes the laments and cries of his people (Job 36:14-15), the righteous understand themselves and God aright when they balance their honest complaints with humility and reverence for God (see note at Job 28:28).
This perspective on suffering develops slowly as the book unfolds. The prologue provides a heavenly viewpoint (Job 1:1-2:13). God chose Job to be one of his suffering servants, an instrument through whom he would accomplish a spiritual triumph: "Have you considered my servant Job?" (Job 1:8; 2:3). The accuser (Satan) falsely accused Job of serving God only on account of the material blessings he enjoyed (Job 1:9-11). So Job was granted the dubious honor of being tested to see whether he would remain true to God even when all was taken away and only horrible suffering became his daily lot in life.
While the prologue gives us a heavenly perspective, the Dialogues present an earthly outlook (Job 3:1-27:23). Like most people who suffer, Job knew nothing about what took place in the divine council. He struggled with his friends' misuse of conventional proverbial wisdom as they claimed that all suffering is a direct result of human sin (compare John 9:2). Job's counselors believed that Job's affliction was in proportion to his sin. But as the book explains, they were wrong. They commonly misunderstood and misapplied Scripture - even Job himself fell into this trap. As a result, neither Job nor his friends are trustworthy as independent sources of Old Testament or Christian theology. When Job or the counselors are in agreement with normative theology, their statements can be accepted. But when their theology runs counter to that of the rest of Scripture, it must be rejected as erroneous.
As Job confronted his heartless friends, he said some things for which he later had to repent (Job 42:5-6). He believed deeply that the counselors were wrong but could offer no alternative explanation as to why a righteous person should suffer so much while the godless around him enjoyed health and material blessings (Job 12:6).
Like the psalmists, Job habitually complained to God in the language of a legal dispute. Job wrestled with God and shared openly with him his every doubt and fear. His relationship with God was vibrant, while his friends reduced their faith to platitudes. They were insensitive and theologically presumptuous (Job 13:4-5; 16:2, 19:21). Job was not presumptuous, as some may suppose, when he called for vindication. Even as he imagined God as angry with him, he clung to the resolution that God is just and would provide a Vindicator, a Champion, a Redeemer (Job 16:19-21; 19:23-27).
This hope became a reality when God appeared in the storm (Job 38:1-41:34). Job was not rebuked as one suffering for his sins but was humbled before the Lord as one who struggled too much for his own vindication and not enough for God's vindication (Job 38:2; 42:2-3). Job never found out precisely why he was suffering, only that his pain was within the scope of God's sovereign will and that God expected his trust and loyalty. After his eyes had seen the Lord and he had repented in dust and ashes, Job came to understand the good news that God sits sovereignly on his throne and that he does finally reward those who hold fast to him through periods of distress.
Second, the book of Job insists the human ability to understand wisdom is so limited that for us wisdom may be summarized in two elements: fearing God and obeying his commands (see note at Job 28:28). This theme is fulfilled in Christ in that wisdom from God amounts to submitting to Christ in reverence and obedience.
Third, on a number of occasions the book of Job acknowledges the desperate need that humans have for a mediator between themselves and God (see Job 5:1; 9:33; 16:20; 19:25; 33:23). The predicament of fallen humanity is so horrendous that we need someone with access to the throne of God to plead our case. We are helpless in ourselves. Christ fulfills that need as the only Mediator between humanity and God (1 Tim. 2:5).
Fourth, as a righteous man whose loyalty to God was tested through suffering, Job anticipated the fulfillment of testing in Christ. Christ far exceeded Job's righteousness in that he was entirely without sin. Yet he suffered temptation in the wilderness and throughout his entire humiliation only to endure all without fault (Heb. 4:15). For this reason, when the faithful fail to be perfect in their sufferings, they may rest assured that Christ has suffered on their behalf and that his righteousness and reward are imputed to them through the grace of God.
Notes from the NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible, Dr. Richard Pratt, ed. (Zondervan, 2003).Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr. is Co-Founder and President of Third Millennium Ministries who served as Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary and has authored numerous books.