Guidelines for Understanding and Proclaiming the Book of Job -- By: Gregory W. Parsons

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 151:604 (Oct 1994)
Article: Guidelines for Understanding and Proclaiming the Book of Job
Author: Gregory W. Parsons


Guidelines for Understanding and Proclaiming the Book of Job

Greg W. Parsons

[Greg W. Parsons is Professor of Biblical Studies, Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary, Jacksonville, Texas.]

Though many writers have given lavish tribute to the Book of Job especially concerning its literary excellence,1 many preachers tend to shy away from preaching the book. If they do preach on Job, the sermons focus on only one aspect of the book—the familiar “storyline” of the prologue (chaps. 1–2) and epilogue (42:7–17) in which Job is portrayed as the paragon of patience. Consequently Job has often been presented as a model for modern-day believers to “be patient” in the midst of trials. However, few expositors delve into the complex dialogue between Job and his friends. Preachers tend to skip over Job’s cursing of the day of his birth (chap. 3), the intricate and often argumentative interaction between Job and his friends (chaps. 4–27), and other hard-to-understand passages. Sermons or lessons have mainly focused on Job’s idealized faith and patience epitomized in the famous verse, 19:25. Yet this image of Job is a distortion of the overall story presented in the Book of Job.2

This general neglect in preaching from the whole Book of Job is partially caused by the difficulty of properly understanding the book.3 Because of the widespread misunderstanding of Job’s

message, the biblical expositor finds a challenge in seeking to teach and preach the Book of Job in an accurate and relevant manner. Habel illustrates this predicament. “Preaching from Job is like nurturing a cactus garden. One is liable to recoil from constant prickles and miss the blossoms in the night.”4 The temptation is to follow the traditional, distorted view of Job’s life and to ignore the many hard questions Job raised in facing the mystery of his innocent suffering. Yet the candid record that Job began to question God strikes a chord familiar to humankind. To ignore Job’s question “why?” (see 3:11, 12, 20; 10:18; 13:24; 24:1

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