A brief introduction to the Book of Job

Job is a book that has been often quoted but not as frequently read. Why do many believers avoid reading this book? It’s probably because the theme is very abstract and the thoughts it present are deep. Besides, hardship and suffering don’t make for pleasant reading. Yet this book is undeniably helpful to understand our God in human suffering. It gives us tips on how to face life when we are besieged with great problems. It teaches us to be humble before God, to obey Him and to trust Him to work out all things for our good. So today we shall embark on a journey to learn from this book.  

A quick scan of the book tells us that it contains two types of genre. Job 1 and 2 contain the prologue and Job 42:7-17 the epilogue, are written in prose. Reading these passages is like reading a report. Hence, it makes reading and understanding them easy. The body of the book, found in Job 3:1-42:6, is written in poetical language. They are beautifully expressed but harder to understand. And like many books in the Bible, we do not know exactly who the author of this book is. Many students of the Bible believe that Job was a contemporary of the patriarch Abraham, and that he existed during that time in the land of Uz. In our English Bible, the book of Job is placed together with the poetical books of Psalms, Proverbs, Songs and Ecclesiastes, classified as wisdom literature.

The theme of Job is on human suffering. It explores the issue of the suffering of the just and righteous. As it covers this very enigmatic subject, we get to see God’s dealing with His children. The presentation of the content shows us God’s sovereignty. In it, we get to see the devil as God’s servant, though an unwilling one. And as we explore this book, we will realize that suffering is a subject that is hard to explain. 

Many today, like the friends of Job who came to comfort him, still see suffering as divine punishment. Many still believe that when one is good, he will receive blessings such as health, wealth and numerous posterity. And they still believe that punishment and suffering are experiences for the wicked. They will be deprived of the good things of life. This, however, is not true in actual experience. People, despite their wickedness, still receive much good things from life. And on the other hand, people who live righteously still do experience hardship. We will discover in this book that true faith in God can never be extinguished by suffering. Hence, it’ll help us to embrace the fact that God can be trusted even when what we experience in life may not seem congruent with a good God.