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"You've got the patience of Job." People have tossed that phrase around for years, but few truly understand its meaning. Job was a righteous man who endured tremendous calamity, due in large part to a strange interaction between God and Satan. Job does indeed endure hardship, but is that the point of the book? Are we to read the pages of Job and learn the art of endurance through difficulty? Or are we to be drawn to a much bigger takeaway? The truth is, the book is about God being free to act as God. He is not obligated to bless those we deem worthy of blessing, nor discipline those we deem unrighteous. Rather, He is free to be God, which is terrifyingly awesome. He is free from human constraint and free to operate as a sovereign and almighty deity. He is not limited to our understanding, nor bound by human opinion. He is God, and there is none like Him. This book draws our attention upward and reminds us that He was in the beginning, and we are temporal, finite, and under His ultimate lordship.
Author
Unknown. May have been written by Job or one of his friends. Moses may have recopied it from Aramaic.
Date
No firm date is known, but indications are that it is the earliest written book in the Bible.
Theme
God’s Sovereignty
God is sovereign over Satan, circumstances, suffering and all creation, and He desires to deepen and strengthen those whose hearts are His.
Additional Info
Job was likely a contemporary of Abraham and Isaac, approx. 2100-1900 B.C. This book is astonishingly rich in theological truth, especially when considering that not one word of scripture had been written at the time these events took place.
© Dr. Rick Taylor
Resources for Job