Introduction to Job

How many of you have read through the entire book of Job? How would you sum up the story of Job? You have just given a synopsis of ch. 1-2 and part of 42 – what about the other 39 chapters?

                Is the narrative of Job mainly prose or poetry? It is in the form of poetry which makes it so difficult to understand in some places.

                What problems of life do you think Job addresses? Have you ever wondered why the innocent or righteous suffer, but the wicked seem to prosper? Have you ever asked God why he seems to allow evil or suffering to flourish without doing anything about it? Has anyone ever asked you, If God is so good, why does he allow bad things to happen to people? How do we justify our belief in a sovereign, good God with the problem of evil in the world?

                Job addresses some of this from the perspective of a God-fearing man who encounters the total loss of his wealth, children, and health in a very short period of time. When his friends come, they have the attitude that the only real reason God would allow all of this to happen is a result of some sin on Job’s part. He maintains his innocence and they go back and forth for a while. Finally, the Lord himself speaks, but he never really tells Job what he was doing in all of this. The reader knows that God has been testing Job, but this is never disclosed to him. Job has been on an emotional roller coaster questioning the Lord, wondering why he is alive, then trusting God but soon returning to despair. Anyone who has suffered in some way can probably identify with Job’s struggle.

                As we begin our study of this book which will take a while to complete, let’s peruse some introductory features.

I. Introduction to Job.

A. Setting.

                The setting of the book gives us details about the time period in which it was written but not necessarily when it was written. From your reading of the book where would you place it in biblical history? (Before the flood, patriarchal era, Moses and the law, Judges, Kings, etc.) There is good internal evidence that would place the setting of Job in the patriarchal period – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

1. The age of Job, ch. 42 – he lived 140 years after all this happened to him. Since he had ten grown children in ch. 1 it seems he would have been 50-60 years old then. This places him in the same age range as the patriarchs.

     2. The evaluation of economic wealth is measured by livestock and a large household, v. 3.

3. Sabaens and Chaldeans, responsible for some of his calamity, were nomads during the patriarchal age but not later.

4. Job appears to be the priest of his family since he offers sacrifices on their behalf. This is similar to the activity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

     5. Names of people and places mentioned in Job are similar to this time period in other ancient    writings such as the Mari documents and the Egyptian Execration Texts.

     6. There are no references to Israel or the Mosaic Law which suggests a time before Israel came into being.

B. Date and Authorship.

    1. It is extremely difficult to determine a specific date.

·         Even though the setting is during the patriarchal age, that does not help us with a date. Often, a story such as this comes from oral tradition and is not immediately written down.

·         Scholars suggest that it may have been compiled over a period of time and some of the speeches added at a later date. The purpose of this would have been to add teaching concerning the problem of evil happening to good people mentioned above.

·         Suggestions as to its date range from the time of Moses to Solomon, and even as late as the 7^th century. Ezekiel mentions Job in 14:14 – so a date later than 7^th century is unlikely.

·         Some scholars date the book at the time of Solomon because of some literary similarities between Job and Proverbs. Most conservative scholars would not support a date later than Solomon. The majority would agree that Job was likely written soon after the events occurred.

2. Author – it is no easier to determine the author of Job.

·         Of course, the first person to come to mind would be Job himself. Sometimes people write about themselves in the third person. However, Job gives no indication that he is the author, so we can only conjecture.

·         Those who believe Job may have been compiled by more than one person over time make matters even worse. They think that ch. 28, the speeches of Elihu, and God’s discourse from 38-41 were added later.

·         But even the ancient Hebrews could not determine who the author was, although most believe it was compiled by one person and if there were additions it was through inspiration of the Spirit.

·         Possible suggestions – Job, Elihu, because the account reads as though an eyewitness event. Jewish tradition ascribes the book to Moses. Others believe it may have been Solomon because of its affinity to Wisdom literature.

·         Still others have suggested Hezekiah, Isaiah, and even Ezra the scribe.

So, we do not really know who wrote the book of Job or exactly when it was written. But this does not take away from its authenticity, veracity, inspiration, or life lessons.

C. Structure of Job.

                1. (Refer to slide.) We are able to be more specific about how the book is put together. It is not unlike other writings of ancient history that even have a similar story line – a person suffers, takes their calamity to their god, and is delivered. However, Job is totally monotheistic and God inspired.

                2. As mentioned, the book is largely poetic, only the beginning section and 42:7-17 are prose. That puts it in the general genre of wisdom literature, but it covers a wide range of genres -–lament, wisdom, proverbs, hymns, oracles, and much parallelism. Scholars have called it is a literary masterpiece.

                3. But its language is not specifically Hebrew. It seems to be related to a number of dialects in the patriarchal age which makes its translation very difficult in some places. Translators have to go to other languages used at that time to help them in the task of transliteration.

D. What do we know about Job?

                1. He was a real historical person if you believe what the Bible says. But other than his name being mentioned, all we know about him is found in this book.

                2. The meaning of his name is uncertain. The Hebrew is “iobe” and it may mean “the one who turns back to God,” or “the assailed or persecuted one.”

                3. He lived in the land of Uz and was a man of the east. (Show map) We believe Uz was SE of Israel and included the land of Edom. This area was identified later by Ptolemy and Alexander the Great as Uz.

                4. He is described in v. 1 as being a God-fearing person who was perfect, upright, and shunned evil. Perfect means mature, complete, or whole, not sinlessly perfect. But nonetheless, God allowed him to suffer. This leads us to consider what the purpose of the book is.

E. Purpose of Job.

1. Irving Jensen (Old Testament Survey) lists the main purposes of the Book of Job.

(a) To reveal Who God is.

(b) To show the kind of trust He wants His children to have. (E.g., trust God even though you cannot fully account for your circumstances. Cp 2Cor 4:17-note, 2Cor 4:18-note) Approval by God means “tried and found true” (cf. Ro 16:10-note).

(c) To reveal His favor toward His children and His absolute control over Satan.

(d) To answer man’s questions about why a righteous person may suffer while an evil man may be healthy and prosperous. (Jensen, I. L. Jensen's survey of the Old Testament)

                2. Francis Andersen writes that this last issue is a problem only for people of faith. Outside of faith, people try to lay the blame on God for being insufficient to do anything about suffering or that he is not really good. This is how he summarized the problem:

                                If God were perfectly good, he could not tolerate the existence of violence, disease, etc.; therefore, there must be some limit to his ability to control such events, that is, he is not almighty. Alternatively, if God does have complete power over everything that happens, his failure to curb the wrongs that occur must be due to the fact that he does not see anything wrong in them, that is, he is not good.”

·         This falls within the study of theodicy – the justification of the ways of God to men. Job and his friends take no exception to God’s sovereignty or his goodness. But neither can they find an answer to Job’s dilemma. God alone must speak and reveal his will and purposes.

3. Job shows the insufficiency of the view that God only rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. His three friends attribute his condition to his own sin and failure. But we know from v. 1 that this is not true. God has other purposes in allowing his people to suffer.

4. Job’s struggle is genuine and he addresses God in a straight forward way about what he is thinking and feeling. He seems to be on a roller coaster of emotion, one minute questioning the Lord’s actions, then moving back to trust and confidence, only to return to despair. The Lord does not seem to chastise him for this honest approach. That means we can take our struggles to him, even when he seems to be the source of our difficulty.

5. Job is never given a direct answer as to why he suffered. The Lord never tells him that his faith was being tested and he passed. He is a man who maintained his faith, even when he did not get a full answer for the reason of his suffering. Sometimes we may never fully know the why of God’s working, we must simply accept on the basis of trust.

6. Christopher Ash, introduction, Job poses three questions for the reader...

·         What kind of world do we live in? It helps answer the question of how God runs a world with so much pain, suffering, turmoil, etc.

·         What kind of church should we want? It addresses the false ideals of the prosperity gospel and the feel-good gospel.

·         What kind of Savior do we need? Job points to the one person who suffered unjustly by paying the penalty for all of our sins. I find James 5:10-11 very interesting on this point. He mentions the suffering of the prophets as an example for us, but then he goes on to mention Job who has seen that the end of the Lord’s dealings is tender mercy. In some ways, Job is a prefiguring of Christ and the end of the Lord for all believers.

Note the following verses:

1 Pet. 2:23, 3:18, 4:1, and 5:10. Where would we be if Jesus had been unwilling to suffer in our place because he was a perfect, upright man?

Perhaps this will help us in our understanding of why we sometimes suffer as indicated in Phil. 1:29, 3:10.

Select sources:

Ryrie study Bible

ESV Study Bible

Elmer B. Smick, Job: Expositors Bible Commentary, vol. 4

Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross, Preaching the Word, Crossway, 2014.

Francis I. Andersen, Job: Tyndale OT Commentary, IVP, 2008.

Richard P. Belcher Jr., Job: The Mystery of Suffering and God’s Sovereignty, Christian Focus Publications, 2017.

Precept – Austin online resources

NET Bible notes and commentary

Thomas Constable Commentary, Bible. Org.