The book opens up by talking about Job as a very honorable guy who is faithful, obeys god, and is essentially righteous and blameless.
Then the story shifts to God and his angelic beings in “heaven” where it seems like something out of a court scene.
There is one being there named “the Satan” who is an accuser and claims that the only reason Job is faithful is because he has everything he wants.
He claims that Job would not be faithful if God removed blessings from his life and that his faith is essentially fake because of this. He told God to let him suffer and then they will see how righteous and faithful Job is.
God then agrees to let the accuser (Satan) inflict suffering on Job.
The story then proceeds to the main part, where Job gets counsel from three different friends about why he ended up like he did and what he should do. There is also a section where God asks Job questions, and then the story concludes.
Essentially, the book of Job and his story was written to those who struggle with the justice of a sovereign God in a world filled with suffering.
Fundamental Questions From The Book of Job
There are a few fundamental questions that the Book of Job opens up including:
- Why do good, innocent, or worthy people suffer? Can we know why?
- Does God operate the universe on a simple formula of Justice?
- Is God Just?
The interesting thing about Job’s story is that the question of why suffering occurs or why Job suffered is never answered.
Another key point is that you have to read and understand the full story to understand the wisdom that is being offered because it is only by learning how the friends treat Job, the questions that God asks, and the resolution of the story that you can understand the key points from the story.
Job and His Friends (3:1-31:40)
The meat of the story opens with Job (a righteous and blameless man with substantial wealth and integrity) suffering the loss of his family, health, work, and money. His friends come to him to try to counsel and help him through his suffering.
Just like in our world today, if someone is lost, broken, and suffering immensely they are going to do everything they can to seek help and try to understand how things occurred as well as how to move forward in life.
The pattern of dialogue in this part of the story starts with Job talking and then one of his friends responding and giving him their thoughts. This cycle repeats for each of the three friends.
The main focus of the debate with his friends focuses on:
- Is God just?
- Does God operate the universe on a simple algorithm of justice?
- How is Job’s suffering explained? What should he do?
Each of his friends has their viewpoints and arguments that they discuss with Job but they all essentially are talking to Job based on one common belief:
God operates the world on a strict formula of justice and so Job therefore must have done something wrong or continues to do evil things since he is suffering.
The main assumption that is made is that if someone is just and good they will always get success and rewards while if someone is evil and stupid they will always get disaster and punishment.
This simply is not true in our world.
Jobs friends represent an oversimplified misreading of wisdom to the effect that all troubles or issues are punishments for wrongdoing.
On the other hand Jobs’ logic is that he is innocent and therefore God does not run the world based on justice or that God is simply unjust.
Job gets stuck in the thinking that only if God gives him what he wants is he fair and good.
Essentially, the friends’ solution for Job is to stop sinning, repent, and then Job will be free of his suffering.
That being said, the last friend he talks to Elihu says that God is just but that God allows suffering to make people stronger or for certain purposes.
Also, Job should not accuse God of being unjust because he cannot understand how God runs the world.
This seems to be much wiser thinking than his other friends’ advice, but still incomplete.
After talking with his friends and getting super annoyed with them, Job eventually takes up his case with God and ignores his friends because he knows that what they are claiming can’t be true.
How Job is Handling This Suffering and Mental Uncertainty
During this time when Job is discussing his situation with his friends and going through suffering, Job is on an emotional rollercoaster.
One reason for this could be that his mental models about how he thought God ran the universe were broken where he ordered his thinking around the assumption that God operates the universe on a simple logical formula and that he shouldn’t suffer if he does good.
For the first time in his life, this model is shattered and he meets the reality of suffering on earth.
Job accuses God of things such as:
- He is unjust
- God is a bully
- God has orchestrated all the injustice in the world
- The world is not fair
- And many other things
It is so easy and natural for humans, including righteous people like Job, to accuse and turn away from God when circumstances become hard and suffering shows its face in full form.
Jobs Talk With God (38:1-41:34)
After hearing from all of his friends Job finally demands that God reveal himself to him and explain why he is suffering.
God then appears to Job and instead of answering his questions directly, God asks Job a series of questions that no human could answer.
Questions such as:
- Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
- Have you ever given orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place?
- Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
- Have the gates of death been shown to you?
- Do you know the laws of the heavens?
- Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?
- Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
After a while of God questioning Job and asking him to explain to him these things, Job decides to change his stance towards God.
Job responds by coming to humility and recognizing that God is far more powerful and incomprehensible than he can imagine. His ways are best even though he doesn’t understand them.
God then goes on to rebuke his three friends since what they were saying was not correct.
He later restores everything to Job (and more) and Job lives the rest of his life with faith in God despite his circumstances.
This is ultimately a lesson for Job and us to remember that at times we can’t comprehend why we are suffering or why God allows certain things to happen but we must remember our place before God and turn to him even in times when we are suffering and don’t understand why.
Main Principles From Book of Job
- Both innocent suffering and suffering from evil exist in our world
- Our faith in God cannot depend on our circumstances in life, how we are feeling, or what we receive from God. We must love God for God alone.
- God does not run the world on simple human logic. He is far more complex and unfathomable than we can comprehend
- Sometimes we can’t know the exact cause of suffering and we need to be ok with not knowing and continuing to walk in our faith
- Sometimes God tests our faith
- Emotional expression in prayer to God is authentic and good
- We need to be careful who we take advice from and how we give advice knowing that the most important thing is wisdom from God, not self-righteousness
- Humility and reverence before God show that we are in a relationship with God and when we lose this humility and turn to our self-importance we start to sever our relationship with God
