Job -- The Suffering Prophet: "Introduction"

Reflections on the Book of Job (1)

Job and His Counselors (Blake)

Introduction

The Book of Job is one of the most moving and profound stories known to humanity. Here is the account of a righteous and godly man, nearly overwhelmed by the loss of everything he owned and by the death of most everyone he loved, and who, now sick and afflicted beyond words, comes face to face with the sovereign God who brought all of these things to pass. And all the while, Job struggles to believe God’s promise to rescue him from his plight when every circumstance and every word offered in explanation by his family and friends only serves to call into question either Job’s righteousness or God’s goodness. It is not only a moving and fascinating story, but almost all of us can relate to what we read in this book. Many of us have been called to suffer and we certainly empathize with Job’s plight. It is also likely that we all know people like Job’s wife and friends who mean well, but who only make things worse every time they open their mouths when trying to help.

But what makes the Book of Job so important for our consideration is the fact that in the life of Job we come face to face with a number of fundamental and inescapable biblical truths: (1) God’s absolute sovereignty over all of our lives (including our health and our personal circumstances). (2) The fact of human sin and finitude in contrast to the depths of God’s wisdom and holiness, (3) The well-intended, but terribly flawed words of counsel from Job’s wife and friends, which only add insult to injury. And (4) most important perhaps, is that Job is also a prophet—pointing us ahead to the ultimate sinless sufferer yet to come. This wonderful, moving, and utterly profound book is indeed what Francis Andersen describes as “one of the supreme offerings of the human mind to the living God and one of the best gifts of God to men.” (1)

The Life and Times of Job

We begin our reflections on Job by describing the nature and character of this book and meet its central character–this blameless and righteous man, named Job, who feared God and shunned evil. It should come as no surprise that critical scholars often see Job as a work of fiction because the origins of this book are unknown and remain shrouded in mystery. But it is clear from Ezekiel’s prophecy (14:14, 20), that Israel’s prophets did not believe this story to be mythological since Job was mentioned by Ezekiel alongside of Noah and Daniel as men known for their righteous conduct in the face of unbelievers. In James 5:11, the apostle speaks of Job as a prophet, whose perseverance in the face of great suffering was based upon his hope that God was full of compassion and mercy and would bring to pass all of the things he has promised, even when things appear to be beyond hope. Job’s faithfulness is held out as something God’s people are to emulate in times of trial and persecution. Therefore, Job must be considered an historical individual, whose intense suffering and personal experience is substantially recorded for us in the pages of this book. (2)

The story of Job was passed down across the generations either as oral tradition or as a written document before coming to an unknown author, a man who probably lived between the time of Solomon and Israel’s exile in Babylon. This places the time of the writing of the Book of Job in that period when Israel’s wisdom literature (i.e., the Psalms and Proverbs) was being composed. Although the Book of Job contains a mixture of almost every type of literature found in the Old Testament, it is most often grouped under the heading of “wisdom literature”, which is why the Book of Job is placed in our Bibles before the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. (3) Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, this unknown author produced from these earlier sources what is now our canonical Book of Job.

We also know this to be the case from the literary structure of the book itself. The prologue (chapters 1-2), God’s speeches (chapters 38-42:6) and the epilogue (42:7-17) all use the covenantal name of God (YHWH), while neither Job nor his friends use this name in the various speeches we find throughout the middle chapters which are a series of discourses between Job and his friends. The introduction and conclusion were added or edited later since they contain information Job would have never had–i.e, the heavenly scene in chapters 1 and 2. This particular literary structure is described as a “sandwich style” in which the central core of the story (a series of poetic speeches running from chapters 3-46:2) is surrounded by a prologue and an epilogue. (4)

This means that the man Job probably lived well before the time of Moses, most likely during the time of Abraham and the patriarchs. There are no references made in the Book of Job to any of those events which are part and parcel of Israel’s history, such as the call of Abraham or Israel’s bondage and deliverance from Egypt. Nor does Job make any reference to things like the temple or Israel’s monarchy. As one writer points out, it is rather astonishing how detached from Israel’s history this book is. (5) Yet, Job’s friends–like Job himself–are not pagans, but God-fearers, all of which points us to the time of Abraham and the patriarchs, somewhere between 2000-1500 BC.

There are a number of factors which reinforce placing Job’s life during this time-frame. The first is a theological reason. As Calvin points out, “In fact, from the time of Abraham, Melchizadek had the Church of God, and sacrifices which were without any pollution. And so, although the greater part of the world was wrapped in many errors . . . God had reserved some little seed for himself who were retained under the pure truth, indeed waiting for God to establish His Church.” (6) In other words, God has always had true believers upon the earth who are difficult to account for because they come to faith in extra-ordinary ways–one of them being Job. As we reflect upon this book, we must remember that Job’s trial and suffering occur toward the beginning of redemptive history when very little special revelation had been given. And yet, Job clearly knew that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was the true and living God.

Yet another reason why we can reasonably put Job in the time of the patriarchs can be found in the details of the book itself. Like the patriarchs, Job lived more than one hundred years (42:16). His great personal wealth stems from the size of his herds (1:3) and he acted as the priest of his family (1:5). The mention of both the Sabeans (1:15) and Chaldeans (1:17) also points us to the fact that Job lived at some point near the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His story was passed down to successive generations until the Book of Job was composed by an unknown author in its present form, probably during the time of Solomon about 970 BC.

To read the next in the series, Job the Suffering Prophet: "God's Sovereignty and Human Suffering"

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(1) Francis L. Andersen, Job: Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1974), 15.

(2) Meredith G. Kline, “Job,” in The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, edited Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison (Chicago: Moody Press, 1976), 459.

(3) Andersen, Job, 33.

(4) For helpful discussions of the background to Job see the works of Andersen (15-76) and Kline ( 459-461) cited above, along with those of John E. Hartley, The Book of Job: The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1988), 3-63; and R. K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1979), 1022-1046.

(5) Andersen, Job, 62.

(6) John Calvin, Sermons from Job (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), 9.