Job E1: Suffering Well

In this episode, the guys take a bird’s eye view of the book of Job. Job is considered wisdom literature, and it aims to teach the reader about justice, suffering, and the role of God in the lives of humans. The author is intentionally trying to ruffle some feathers. This book is all about calling into question the reader’s views of God and the world. In the first part of the episode (02:15-09:02), Tim and Jon give an overview of Job and talk about what it’s trying to communicate. The book doesn’t give us a clear answer as to why Job is suffering, but it does teach us about the character of God and offers a model for how to handle suffering. In the second part of the episode (09:30-13:05), the guys talk about the problem of evil and why bad things happen to good people. Job is an excellent study on this question. If a good and powerful God created this world, then why do people, including good people, suffer? In the next part of the episode (13:34-23:03), the guys talk about the order that humans try to impose on the world. This is a major theme in the book of Job. This is a book where we see things happening that don’t fit our category of order, but God has wisdom and a way of ordering the world that is beyond our understanding. Next (23:34-34:24), the guys talk about how Job comes to understand God’s divine wisdom and judgement. In Job, we see that the world can’t be run by a system, it has to be run by God’s judgement. In the next part of the episode (34:53-46:34), the guys talk about some of the overarching themes in Job that connect to the larger narrative of Scripture. This story is teaching its readers to trust God’s way of running the world. In the final part of the episode (47:03-51:13), Tim and Jon wrap things up by giving an overview of all of the wisdom literature in the Bible and look at how Job fits into the larger story. Video: This episode is designed to accompany our video on the book of Job. You can view it on our youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GswSg2ohqmA Book References: Job (The NIV Application Commentary) by John H. Walton Scripture References: Job