The Book Of Job

The entirety of our daily Bible reading was entirely in Job this week, and it will be until Thursday, when we get back to the life of Abraham in Gen. 12. This long trip through such a difficult book to begin the Bible reading program was main reason why we almost didn’t do a chronological program. But, if we want to read the whole Bible, we have to approach it some time, and it is a rewarding study for those who do it. 

Job is the first book in what is often called the “Books of Poetry” or the “Wisdom Literature” of the Old Testament. Oswald Chambers offered this summary of these five books:

• Job - How to suffer

• Psalms - How to pray

• Proverbs - How to act

• Ecclesiastes - How to enjoy  

• Song of Solomon - How to love

In reading Job, remember this inspired summary of it in the New Testament: “You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” (Jas 5:11b)

What Job and his friends seemed to never contemplate was the Satan was an actor in the affairs of men as well as God was. Terrible, terrible things happened to Job. But God was gracious to him, especially in the end. Satan was intentionally, and repeatedly evil and harsh in his dealings.