Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 65:4 (Dec 2022)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JETS 65:3 (September 2022) p. 793

Book Reviews

Suffering Wisely and Well: The Grief of Job and the Grace of God. By Eric Ortlund. Wheaton: Crossway, 2022, 191 pp., $16.99 paper.

Unlike most books that handle suffering and God’s providence from a philosophical and systematic approach, Job scholar Eric Ortlund approaches the topic with a thematic overview of the book of Job. Suffering Wisely and Well: The Grief of Job and the Grace of God is structured with a pastoral and ecclesial framework, within which Ortlund writes primarily for the pastor, evangelist, and layperson as he explains the wisdom God wants believers to use in response to suffering in their lives and the lives of others. Using the imagery of Job’s ordeal, Ortlund paints a picture comprising five underlying themes: suffering, consolation, reconciliation, vindication, and restoration, in all of which God is intimately involved and working. This book is not a verse-by-verse commentary but an overview of thematic motifs, whereby Ortlund exposits Job’s ordeal in an explanation that relates to believers’ suffering experiences today. At the outset, Ortlund sets a reader’s expectation for a biblically and pastorally sensitive exposition on the book of Job, functioning as a guide to wisdom for suffering wisely and well.

Chapter 1 surveys the believer’s experience in several types of suffering, which Ortlund describes in categories of sin, spiritual growth, persecution, wilderness wanderings, and lament. Although these are not all experiences that describe Job’s ordeal, they are suffering experiences witnessed throughout the Bible that give readers a starting point to identify the circumstances of suffering in the life of believers. Chapter 2 expounds on Job 1–2, seeking to explain God’s hand in Job’s suffering and the evils brought upon him. While Ortlund is correct on God’s providential directing of Job’s agony for Job’s greater good and God’s glory (p. 40), his articulation of God’s sovereignty (p. 51) has difficulty in that he implies a deterministic view, whereby although God is not the immediate cause of evil, he is indirectly the cause. However, this should not weigh critically on the book since it is not Ortlund’s goal to argue or explain the problem of evil but rather the believer’s response to suffering. Hence, even when suffering circumstances seem meaningless in that they do not identify with sin or spiritual growth, God is still good, providentially aware, and concerned for his children.

Chapter 3 expounds on Job 3–37, examining the poetic speeches of Job’s friends for lessons to learn relative to consoling a friend who is suffering through a Job-like ordeal. Chapter 4 continues in