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A review by r_j_setser
The Book of Job by
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Job is a tough book to get through, not only because of the content but also because of the dense Hebrew poetry it's written in. It seems like the writing takes many rabbit-trails in the conversations between Job and his friends, so it takes a very intentional way of reading to grasp the point of the book of Job.
But, with the help of The Bible Project on Youtube and a Facebook group that I'm a member of to help study the Bible in a year, these were my take-aways from Job:
1. Job is about justice. Not justice in how we would define it, which is actually the whole point of Job's conversations with his friends. They are describing God as a just God--which we know to be true according to other Scripture!--but they are defining His justice on a scale that WE understand and grasp. The reason God says that Job and his friends are wrong in their discussions is because it is impossible for man and woman to fully grasp God's justice. God sees the world in its entirety; past, present, and future, and His justice is on that scale. When we, like Job, accuse God of injustice because of something in our lives or the lives of others, we aren't taking into consideration the full extent to which He views the entire universe. In the end, when He rebukes Job, He talks about the constellations, the beasts, the mountains, the wind, the seas, and everything that He has created, and simply tells Job that unless he understands the workings of the universe himself, can he really accuse God of injustice when his view of the world is reduced to the minuscule box that is his life? It was a really eye-opening concept and at the end of Job, God just asks Job to trust Him. To trust that He is just, even when he doesn't understand.
2. Don't be like Job's friends, who are quick to accuse and slow to listen! Goodness!
So, there's my take-away from Job :)
But, with the help of The Bible Project on Youtube and a Facebook group that I'm a member of to help study the Bible in a year, these were my take-aways from Job:
1. Job is about justice. Not justice in how we would define it, which is actually the whole point of Job's conversations with his friends. They are describing God as a just God--which we know to be true according to other Scripture!--but they are defining His justice on a scale that WE understand and grasp. The reason God says that Job and his friends are wrong in their discussions is because it is impossible for man and woman to fully grasp God's justice. God sees the world in its entirety; past, present, and future, and His justice is on that scale. When we, like Job, accuse God of injustice because of something in our lives or the lives of others, we aren't taking into consideration the full extent to which He views the entire universe. In the end, when He rebukes Job, He talks about the constellations, the beasts, the mountains, the wind, the seas, and everything that He has created, and simply tells Job that unless he understands the workings of the universe himself, can he really accuse God of injustice when his view of the world is reduced to the minuscule box that is his life? It was a really eye-opening concept and at the end of Job, God just asks Job to trust Him. To trust that He is just, even when he doesn't understand.
2. Don't be like Job's friends, who are quick to accuse and slow to listen! Goodness!
So, there's my take-away from Job :)