I’ve probably read the book of Job a dozen times or more. It’s one of my favorites in the Old Testament, and no, I’m not a masochist.
What draws me to the book of Job is the wisdom and timelessness of it. Some commentators believe Job lived before the patriarchs, before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Which means if you were creating a chronological Bible, you’d have Genesis 1-5, a break somewhere in there for the book of Job, then Noah, the Flood, the rest of Genesis, and the rest of the Bible. Yet, the story of Job, his friends, and God’s response seems like it could happen today.
Here’s what I mean by that…
I think we all know the basic storyline of Job: instead of rags to riches, it’s a story of riches to rags. Job has it all, loses it all, his friends come to console him but do a really sucky job of it, they all accuse each other back and forth for a long time, then God shuts them all up by speaking out of a storm. Then God restores Job and he lives happily ever after. That’s the storyline.
But there’s a whole lot more to it. There’s so much more to unpack. And over the next few entries, I want to do just that. I want to unpack it and show you how Job’s story from thousands of years ago is just as relevant to our lives and mode of operating today.
See you in the next entry!
Omer Redden 