Job - Introduction

So what, then, happens to Job after the second chapter, after his good beginning? Four “friends“ come to counsel him. They believe in the traditional explanation of suffering: Job suffers because he has sinned. These four friends wear Job down. He protests his innocence, but they tell him that his very denial of sin is proof of his pride and sinfulness.

So Job takes his case to God. During the course of the book, Job “wrestles” with God. His distress mounts. He feels God is no longer his friend, that God is treating him unjustly. He comes close to cursing God—though he never does it. In short, we see a human being—perplexed, angry, forsaken—speaking to God with total honesty and openness. And God does not condemn him for doing so. In the end, God vindicates Job, and restores to him all that he has lost and more. Job has “passed the test”—even though he never learns the cause of his suffering!

The book of Job contains a prologue and an epilogue, both written in prose. These reveal God's perspective on Job's suffering: the HOLY SPIRIT revealed to the writer what was going on in heaven between God and Satan, and the writer reveals it to us. Then the entire central section of the book—thirty-nine chapters of poetry³—is written from the human perspective, a perspective necessarily limited in knowledge and understanding. In total, the book of Job gives us a deep look into human suffering. The writer doesn't attempt to answer all our questions; but he does assure us that God knows all the answers—and that should be good enough for us.

One of the book's most important teachings is that we cannot make fixed judgments about why a particular individual suffers. In most cases suffering is indeed caused by sin, at least in part. But in particular cases we cannot know the cause, and therefore we must not judge (Matthew 7:1–2).

Sometimes God causes⁴ us to suffer temporarily for higher purposes of His own, as in Job's case (see John 9:1–3). At other times, God causes us to suffer in order to test us, discipline us, refine us (see 2 Corinthians 12:7; Hebrews 12:7–11; 1 Peter 1:6–7). In every case He is working for our eternal good (Romans 8:18,28; 2 Corinthians 4:16–18). This is the central message of the book of Job.