A Book of Suffering

Summary...

What it may have meant to its original audience...

How Jesus might have read it...

What it might mean for our faith today...

Some important themes in this book...

Some important questions to ask about this book...

Job is a book that is a little hard to fit into the Bible narrative that we have explored so far. The story kind of stands alone, is set outside of Israel and based around a man named Job. Job is a righteous man who suffers enormously after Satan essentially makes a bet with God that Job will abandon his faith if he suffers enough (Satan means ‘the accuser’, ‘the adversary’ or ‘opponent’. While we will talk about Satan and evil later on, it is interesting here to recognise that Satan here is not the pointy-headed red devil that we popularly associate with the name. It is also worth noting that there is no clear connection between Satan and the snake in Genesis, despite popular understanding).

The bulk of the book is devoted to long discussions between Job, his friends and God about why suffering happens. It does conclude with a ‘happily ever after’, as Job has everything he lost restored to him.