Journal: Chafer Theological Seminary Journal
Volume: CTSJ 12:1 (Spring 2006)
Article: The Enigma of Job Focusing on Job 1 and 2
Author: Michael E. W. Thompson

CTSJ 12:1 (Spring 2006) p. 19

The Enigma of Job
Focusing on Job 1 and 2

Michael Thompson

Michael L. Thompson earned his B.S. degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, his Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, and his M.A. in Ancient Near Eastern Languages from Catholic University of America. He currently serves as Executive Vice-President of Chafer Theological Seminary, where he also teaches Hebrew and Old Testament. His e-mail address is [email protected].

Job presents difficult theological and ethical questions regarding the relationship of the believer’s faith to situations involving suffering and the believer’s approach to God during difficult times. Most of these questions come up very early in the text, within the first two chapters of the book. We will endeavor to point out some of those issues and show that they are consistent with difficulties and crises that believers encounter today.

The main theme of the book centers on Job’s exercise of faith as he interacts with his circumstances, the other characters, and ultimately God Himself. Through it all, Job becomes the model of the “believer-for-all-ages” who deals with life by faith in his omniscient, omnipotent, and caring Creator (1 Peter 5:6–7).

Introduction—The Man and His Circumstances

Opening Comments

Job is a book foreign to most Christians, even those who have read it several times. The story and plot are easily mastered. Even the methods of the writer, whoever he was, are not that difficult to discern. But questions about the message of the book, the author’s intent, and his purpose will produce as many different answers as the number of people you ask. Is it a book about human suffering or about the human condition? Is it about the necessity of man to accept the hand that is dealt him, whatever it is, or is it rather about the spiritual realities behind all suffering? Could it have to do with the purpose (or lack of purpose) behind suffering? What does the book say about God’s involvement in suffering?

The questions go on and on. They build. They escalate. And if we follow them, our course may be set until we arrive at some conclusion about ourselves or God that we find either extremely distasteful or impossibly wrong. If we have been particularly precise in our logic and reasoning without paying much attention to where we are headed, we may find ourselves thoroughly convinced of some notion that is utterly unbiblical and contradictory to obvious facts. After all, it is logical, isn’t it?

The Book

The Outline of the Chapters 1–2 is simple:

Round 1, Chapter 1
Introduction to J...