06/07/2024 – Day 005 / Job – Chapter 1 -2 / Post: 2 of 3 // Introduction to the Book – The first 21 weeks of our Friday study – Poetical books of the Bible.
I will start with : “When did Job live?” , from got questions.org :
https://www.gotquestions.org/when-did-Job-live.html
Now, I am going to share excerpts from Halley’s Bible Handbook to give us a good foundation; 21 weeks of study deserves to less:
JOB / The Problem of Suffering / Poetic – Philosophic Meditations on the Ways of God
Scene of the Book
“The Land of Uz (1:1) is thought to have been along the border between Palestine and Arabia, extending from Edom northerly and easterly toward the Euphrates rive, skirting the caravan route between Babylon and Egypt.
The particular section of the land of Uz which tradition has called the home of Job was hauran, a region east of the Sea of Galilee, noted for its fertility of soil and its grain, once thickly populated, not dotted with the ruins of three hundred cities.”
The Man Job
“The Septuagint, in a postscript, following ancient tradition, Indentified Job with Jobs, the second king of Edom (Genesis 36:33). Names and places mentioned in the book seem to give it a setting among the descendants of Esau (see under chapter 2). If this is correct, and if Huron was Job’s home, it would indicate that the earthly kings of Edom may, at times, have migrated from the rock cliffs of Edom northward to the more fertile plains of Huron. At any rate the book has the atmosphere of very primitive times, and seems to have its setting among the early tribes descended from Abraham, along the northern border of Arabia, about contemporary with Israel’s sojourn in Egypt.”
Author of the Book
“Ancient Jewish tradition ascribed the book to Moses. While Moses was in the wilderness of Midian (Exodus 2:15, see May 32, page 142)), which bordered on the Edomite country, he could easily have learned of the story of Job from Job’s immediate descendants. Or indeed, Job himself may have still been alive, and may have personally related the story to Moses, giving him a copy of his own family records. Job being a descendant of Abraham, naturally Moses could recognize him as being within the circle of God’s revelation. Modern criticism, with its great show of scholarship, guesses at a much later date for the book of Job, but it is only a guess. We believe the traditional view is more likely to be correct.”
Subject of the Book
“The Problem of Human Suffering. Very early in history men began to be troubled over the Awful Inequalities and Injustices of Life: how a Good God could make a world like this, where there is so much Suffering, and so much of the Suffering seems to fall on those who least deserve it..
And I don’t know that we understand the problem one bit better than they did in Job’s day. We come into life, having nothing whatever to do with bringing ourselves here. As we grow up, we open our eyes, and look around, and we are just a great big question mark: What’s it all about? And the older we grown, and the more we see of the world’s Inequalities and Injustices, the bigger grows the question mark, How a Good God could make a world like this?
But Even though we may not understand the problem any better than they did in Job’s day we have more reason to be reconciled to it. For, in the meantime, God Himself came down here, and in the Person of Jesus, became a Partaker with us of our Suffering. The story of Jesus, the world’s most Righteous man, and the world’s Greatest Sufferer, is an illustration of God Suffering With His Creation. And we ought not to have any difficulty in believing it is all for some Good Purpose, even though we cannot now understand. And, one day, when all is come to fruition, we shall never cease our Hallelujahs of Praise to God for having given us such an existence.”
Soli Deo Gloria!