Notes on the Book of Job by Mark Rutherford

Here is a book which has for its subject not this or that remote question which touches us only in idle or careless moods; it is book which deals directly with one of the deepest problems which have occupied the mind of man.

We are a long way towards understanding anything under our consideration when we have properly laid it open, even without comment. Job is a wealthy and blameless man in whom God takes pride, and when Satan presents himself before God, God asks him whether he has considered Job. God thinks Job something worth consideration. Satan stands for the sceptic. He sneers at Job's virtue. Job is well paid for his piety. It is easy for a pious man to be good, but if his prosperity departs he will curse; his creed is the product of his circumstances. God, who is Job's Maker, is, on the other hand, a believer. He stands by Job, puts a stake on him, and authorises Satan to try him. Job loses all his children and his property, and he knows not what is intended by the loss. He is ignorant of what has passed between God and Satan; the secret transactions of the high heavens are unrevealed to him, but nevertheless he is steadfast. What he loses was not his, and in the depths of his sorrow he blesses the name of the Lord. Satan again presents himself before God, and God justly claims the victory -- "he holdeth fast his integrity. " Satan replies that Job as yet has not known the worst, and that sickness is the test of all tests. With health a man may endure anything, but if that fail, it will be seen what becomes of his religion. God is still confident, and Job is smitten with sore boils from head to foot. The torment cannot be surpassed, for not only is it extreme taken by itself, but it is aggravated by the contrast with his former condition. Death of course presents itself to him as the welcome end, and he thinks of suicide, suggested to him by his wife. If he could have but a word of explanation he could bear all with patience. But no word comes; the sky gives no sign. Separation from those he has loved, loathsome disease infecting him up to his very brain, are terrible, but the real agony is the silence, the ignorance of the why and the wherefore, the sphinx-like imperturbability which meets his prayers. Nevertheless he sins not. "What! we have received good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? " God had been gracious to him; he recollects all the benefits bestowed on him, and he refuses to turn upon Him because of present reverses. He submits; he is unable to explain, but still he submits.