X Close Menu
  • Featured Posts
  • Show All Posts

Introduction to the Poetic and Wisdom Books of the Old TestamentRead More

"The book of Job," wrote Heinrich Heine, "is the Song of Songs of skepticism, and in it terrifying serpents hiss their eternal question: Why?" Why do we ask "why" upon reading the book of Job? Simply because what happened to Job and what happens to so many of us seems so utterly inconsistent with what we know to be true of God. If God is good and great, as we believe He is, how can He stand idly by and permit a righteous man like Job to suffer so horribly? This is a book...Read More

As we turn our attention to chapter two, I must reiterate an important point: Job's sufferings are not the result of Job's sins. It should be noted, however, that not everyone agrees with this. For example, Frederick K. C. Price, a popular author and spokesman for the Word of Faith / Prosperity gospel, insists that Job suffered because he sinned. It was Job, says Price, not God, who lowered the hedge around himself (1:10). "As long as Job walked in faith, the wall --- th...Read More

In his book, Disappointment with God, Phillip Yancey tells the story of Richard, whose struggles in life and the confusion they produced are not as uncommon as we might think. Richard was converted to Christ while in college. Not long after that, his parents announced they were getting a divorce. Notwithstanding Richard's fervent prayers for the preservation of their marriage, they split. This was his first experience of feeling let down by God. Every decision he made i...Read More

All of us join in affirming both the goodness and greatness of God. But that does not mean we are able to explain everything that our good and great God either causes or permits. Whether it is a terrorist bomb that destroys innocent human life or the swindling of the elderly or the diagnosis of cancer in a single mom, much in our world is beyond our ability to understand. One author put it this way: "Unfairness is no easier for us to swallow today than it was for Job th...Read More

Bildad's First Speech (Job 8) A.            Bildad proclaims God's justice - 8:1-7 By referring to Job's words as a "blustering wind" (v. 2), Bildad is not mocking them for their emptiness but is acknowledging them to be powerfully persuasive and devastating to his opponent's arguments. "Your words," Job, "are like a powerful tornado, threatening to uproot and destroy cherished beliefs about God and the moral order...Read More

Most people come to the concluding five chapters of Job with great anticipation. Having endured the seemingly endless cycle of repetitive speeches, the time has finally come for God to speak. Now that Job has endured indescribable suffering, now that his three friends and Elihu have had their say, what might one expect God to say? Amazingly, all the things one might think God would say are nowhere to be found. Let's begin by noting what God does not say to Job. (...Read More