Job

Introduction

Authorship

Both the OT (Ezek. 14:14; 20) and NT (Jas. 5:11) affirm that Job was a historical person. Jewish tradition claims that Moses wrote this book (Sota, 5.8; Baba Bathra, 14b), but “most scholars do not find this compelling.” Archer writes, “The text of this book does not indicate its author, and there is no consistent tradition even in rabbinic circles as to who the composer of this work might have been… The Talmud ventures only to suggest that the writer must have been someone who lived prior to the time of Moses.” Regarding the author’s extensive knowledge and literary skills, Hartley writes, “The author was a highly educated person and a devout servant of Yahweh; he may be numbered among the great wise men of ancient Israel.”

Date

The book of Job is very difficult to date. However, there is evidence that the events of the book date incredibly early—even before the time of Moses and Abraham. We can see this for a number of reasons:

First, it contains no datable historical events or knowledge of Hebraic culture or religion. Of course, the book takes place in the land of Uz, which most scholars believe to be in Edom (Gen. 10:23; Lam. 4:21). So, this could explain the book’s silence with regard to Abrahamic and Jewish references.

Second, Job is the patriarch of his family-clan, which fits with the time of Abraham—not Moses.

Third, Job’s wealth is measured in the amount of animals he owned, which fits with the patriarchal period (Gen. 12:16).

Fourth, Job offers a sacrifice for his family, rather than taking it to the priest. This is pre-Mosaic, where one would normally bring the sacrifice to a priest.

Fifth, Job’s long lifespan (140 years) seems to fit better with an early date (Job 42:16).

Sixth, Job mentions qesita (Job 42:11), which places the book at least as early as Joshua (Josh. 24:32) or perhaps earlier (Gen. 33:19).

Evidence against an early date

Job refers to “iron” (Job 19:24), which was not created until the 12^th century BC. However, this could be a case of a later redactor updating the text to fit with the contemporaneous culture (cf. Objection #3 under “Authorship of the Pentateuch”).

Conclusion

The historical setting for the events in the book of Job is considerably early. However, the writing and composition of the book is unclear. Was it written during the time of the events in question? Or was it written far later? We simply are not sure.

Canonicity of Job

Despite the theological and linguistic difficulties in Job, Smick notes that “its place in the canon was never seriously challenged.” Likewise, Hartley concurs that “the canonicity of Job has never been seriously questioned.”

Historical setting for Job

The setting for the book is a cosmic debate. Satan—frustrated in his attempts to attack God—has moved to Earth to attack those whom God loves: humanity. Like a mafia crime boss, he knows that if he can’t get to God, then he should try to get to his family, his children. Satan accuses humans of being righteous for self-service. “Take away the blessings,” says Satan, “and these humans will hate you.” If loving God for his blessings is wrong, then even the godliest of men will be shown to be sinful! Once this accusation is raised, it needs to be defeated, not destroyed.

His friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) are “orthodox” theologians, who end up arguing with Job about the nature of his suffering, rather than comforting him. They argue so vehemently, because they want to press a confession out of him: If a righteous man like Job is suffering, what will happen to them? If they can get him to confess some secret sin, then they will be able to go home knowing that suffering won’t afflict them. They won’t quit until they get a confession.

This books dialogues through the most important question of why bad things happen to good people. The dialogue goes on forever. Everyone has an opinion. But in the end, God gets the last word. In chapter 38, God speaks to Job, silencing Satan, his friends, and Job himself. He concludes the book by saying that we are too limited to know what we’re talking about. God sharply rebukes the three friends (42:7-9), saying that they misrepresented him in their speculations. And, he gently (but sarcastically?) brings Job through a series of questions to demonstrate that he is too limited to know what he’s talking about, too. God also doesn’t mention what he’s going to do to Satan, which is strange; it sparks the imagination.

Major lessons and themes of Job

First, we are too limited to understand God’s purpose for us, while we suffer. Instead, we need to trust that he is in the privileged position of being all-knowing, and he will work all things for the good for those who love him (Rom. 8:28). We know that God will get the last word, and he will take care of us in the end. As Chuck Smith would say in counseling sessions with the grieving, “Don’t forfeit what you don’t know for what you do know. You don’t know why God allowed your suffering… But you do know that God is good, he loves us, he is giving us eternal life, and he will eventually get the last word.” If Job could learn to trust God in his suffering before the Cross, how much more should we learn to trust him after the Cross?

Second, God is worthy of love even apart from his blessings. At the end of the book, Job gets double the blessings than he had at the beginning. God doesn’t give him the blessings up front, because he wants Job to know him better than he knows his blessings. God was fully justified in letting Job suffer in his squalor, and he lets him suffer in order to teach Job that he should enjoy the presence of God more than the presents of God. After he learns this, God lavishes him with blessing. He wasn’t required to do this, but he does it because he is a Giver; this is in his nature. God holds out on blessing Job, so that Job can get the supreme blessing—knowing God (42:5).

Third, Job is never told why he was suffering. This is odd, isn’t it? His life was the battleground for a cosmic battle between God and Satan, but he is never told this. And yet, he still trusts God after seeing him. God is most likely telling us that there is much more going on surrounding our suffering than we can possibly fathom. Instead of giving us intellectual answers to acute suffering, he gives us himself.

Fourth, friends can be intentionally or unintentionally cruel when we go through grief. Very often, friends will want to give theological and philosophical answers to the problem of pain. But this is sort of like explaining the science of cancer to a man dying of lymphoma: the explanation isn’t as important as the comfort that is needed. While Job’s friends were sometimes right in their theological statements (compare Job 5:13; 1 Cor. 3:19-20), they were wrong in their application of their theology.

Fifth, suffering isn’t always due to sin. Many religions teach that people suffer because this is some form of divine retribution. However, the book of Job blows this thinking out of the water. Job didn’t suffer because he was unrighteous, but precisely because of the fact that he was righteous (Job 1:1).

Sixth, we cannot give absolute answers for why individuals are suffering. Here we want to be very clear: Christian philosophers have given good answers for the problem of evil in general (i.e. “How could a good God allow evil?”), but we do not have clear answers for the problem of evil for specific persons and for specific incidences (i.e. “Why did God allow this to happen to me?”). When a friend asks about the intellectual problem of evil in the world, we can give good answers. But if a friend asks about the emotional problem of evil in their own lives, we shouldn’t philosophize and theologize about this. Instead, we should listen, comfort, and support them. This was the sin of Job’s counselors. Chapters 3 through 37 bear witness to this theme. Readers often find themselves frustrated reading through 35 chapters of speculation on Job’s suffering… and this is exactly the point! We can speculate all day long about why God allowed a specific instance of suffering, but we simply do not have access to this information. Instead, we can only cling to the promises that God will bring good out of evil when we trust him (Rom. 8:28).