• Title Page
• Pentateuch
• History
• Poetry
  • Lesson 17: Job
  • Lesson 18: Psalms (In General)
  • Lesson 19: Messianic and Millennial Psalms
  • Lesson 20: Proverbs
  • Lesson 21: Ecclesiastes
  • Lesson 22: Song of Solomon
• Prophets
• Post Captivity Prophets
• Gospels, Acts
• Pauline Epistles
• General Epistles

Job

All questions concerning the historicity and antiquity of the book of Job, will have to be passed over in our present work for the want of space, but the reader may be referred for them to the author’s Primers of the Faith.

While some ascribe the authorship to Job himself, and some to Elihu, others, and their number is large, think it was written by Moses. But the question is indeterminable. The book is poetical in literary form, with the exception of what might be called the prologue, Job 1-2, and the epilogue, Job 42:7-17, which are prose.

The theme of the book seems to be the meaning and object of evil and suffering under the government of a holy, wise and merciful God, and may be outlined thus:

• The prologue, Job 1-2
• The dialogue, Job 3-31
• The words of Elihu, Job 32-37
• The words of the Almighty, Job 38-41
• The response of Job, Job 42:1-6
• The epilogue, Job 42:7-17

The Key to the Book

The key to the book is found, I think, in the first chapter, which, after an introductory testimony to the character of Job, translates the reader to heavenly scenes (Job 1:6). The “sons of God” referred to in this verse are angelic beings who are represented as bringing in their reports to God, the mystery being that Satan is found “also among them.” How, or in what sense, or on what ground, the prince of darkness is thus granted access to God is a question these lessons cannot take the space to discuss; but we accept the fact and draw certain inferences therefrom. He is seen here in his scriptural attitude of the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10); and when God taunts him, if one may so say, with the uprightness of Job whom he has been unable to corrupt, he at once charges him with a mercenary spirit, and declares that if God were to take his temporal blessings away from him he would be as bad as the rest. God accepts the implied challenge in these words, and puts His servant into the hands of Satan for a limited period, and the exercise of a terrible but limited power on Satan’s part, that it may be seen if the charge be true. In other words, it