Bible with Brandi Week 33 – Job 1

Join me as I begin an in-depth study of Job, a book that many believe to be among the oldest books in the Bible. And if we are honest, Job is often an avoided book—mostly because so much of it is a conversation about suffering. Nobody likes suffering, let alone a long philosophical conversation about why it happens!

But just because something is uncomfortable doesn’t mean we should avoid it. In fact, I have found that many of the lessons in Job are either misunderstood or taken completely out of context simply because people don’t study the book for themselves. But the Bible is not a text for the faint of heart. We are bold, and we have the Holy Spirit to guide us as we read and study these ancient words. So, let’s dig in!

Before we begin Chapter 1, let’s take a moment to consider when Job lived. There is some debate among scholars about the historical setting of Job, but I personally lean toward Job living during the time of the patriarchs, likely around the time of Abraham.

Why?

First, Job reads very much like the world of the early patriarchs. There is no mention of the nation of Israel, the Law given through Moses, the tabernacle, the temple, the Levitical priesthood, or Israel’s kings. That doesn’t prove an early date by itself, but it is significant.

Instead, we see a very patriarchal society where wealth is measured largely in livestock, servants, and children. Job himself acts as the spiritual head of his household, offering sacrifices on behalf of his children (see Job 1:5), typical of the priestly role the patriarchs fulfilled before the establishment of the Levitical priesthood.

Then there is Job’s age. After all of the suffering described in this book, Job lives another 140 years (Job 42:16). That’s a pretty remarkable number to us! But when we place Job in the world of the patriarchs, it makes much more sense. The early generations after the flood lived extraordinarily long lives, although those lifespans were gradually declining.

We also have some interesting connections in the genealogies. The name Job appears in the genealogy of the sons of Issachar in Genesis 46:13 and 1 Chronicles 7:1. And one of Job’s friends is Eliphaz the Temanite. Eliphaz is also the name of one of Esau’s sons (or descendants), and Teman is listed as Esau’s grandson (1 Chronicles 1:35–36). We cannot say with certainty that these are the exact same individuals, but the connections are certainly interesting when considering a patriarchal setting.

And then there is the geography—which I think is particularly interesting.

Job lived in the land of Uz and is described as being “the greatest of all the men of the East” (Job 1:3). But we shouldn’t read “East” and assume Job came from somewhere as far east as Abraham’s original homeland. Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldeans, in Mesopotamia, far to the east of Canaan (Genesis 11:31). Job’s Uz, on the other hand, is generally placed much closer to Canaan, in the region southeast of the land of Israel, associated in later Scripture with Edom and the area around Teman. These are the lands of Esau’s descendants!

Job was a “goyim” or gentile as we know them today. Yet knew the same God who had revealed himself to Abram in Genesis 17:1 – El Shaddai, “the Almighty.” And honestly, I love thinking about Job this way.

This isn’t some abstract story about suffering written thousands of years after the fact. This is ancient history. This is a man who lived in a world very different from ours, but who wrestled with questions that are remarkably familiar: Why do bad things happen? Does suffering mean

God has abandoned me or that I am a bad person? Do my life’s circumstances always indicate God’s character?

Those are still our questions today. And Job is going to take us right into the middle of them.

So let’s begin.