Job.

It has been a couple weeks and God has really been using some sharp tools to mold me lately.  I plan to write in depth soon, but real quick, while I am writing my final paper for my Hebrew Poetics class, I stumbled across this short, but convicting excerpt in my Bible.



(taken from The Open Bible/The New King James Version)

Keys to Job
Key Word: Sovereignty- The basic question of the book is, Why do the righteous suffer if God is loving and all-powerful?  Suffering itself is not the central theme; rather, the focus is on what Job learns from his suffering-the sovereignty of God over all creation.  The debate in chapters 3-37 regards whether God would allow this suffering to  happen to a person who is innocent.  The oversimplified solutions offered by Job's three friends are simply inadequate.  Elihu's claim that God can use suffering to purify the righteous is closer to the mark.  The conclusion at the whirlwind is that God is sovereign and worthy of worship in whatever He chooses to do.  Job must learn to trust in the goodness and power of God in adversity by enlarging his concept of God.  Even this "blameless" man (1:1) needs to repent when he becomes proud and self-righteous.  He has to come to the end of his own resources, humble himself, and acknowledge the greatness and majesty of the Lord.  Job teaches that God is Lord "of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth" (Phil. 2:10).  He is omniscient, omnipotent, and good.  As such, His ways are sometimes incomprehensible to men and women, but He can always be trusted.  Without the divine perspective in chapters 1 and 2, and in 38-42, chapters 3-37 are a mystery.  Job does not have access to chapters 1 and 2, but he is responsible to trust God when all appearances are contrary.  Suffering is not always associated with sin; God often sovereignly uses it to test and teach.