Job (Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary

by Lindsay Wilson

In this commentary Lindsay Wilson shows the book of Job to be a coherent literary work that addresses this Is it possible for humans to have genuine faith in God regardless of their circumstances? Wilson argues that Job’s bold, sometimes questioning cries to God are portrayed as legitimate expressions of trust for a righteous person in adversity.

Through critical exegesis of the text, Wilson focuses on the message of Job and its implications for practical ministry, examining such key issues as suffering, justice, lament, and faith. He also touches on various pertinent topics in Christian ethics, including individual character, wealth, suicide, and the environment. In a final section Wilson offers guidance on using Job as a resource book for pastoral care and prayer, and he discusses how to teach and preach from the book of Job.

Genres: Christian

432 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2015

Reviews

[Adam Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am of two minds of this commentary. The commentary itself was not terribly well-prepared and diverged from what I found the biblical text to say quite a few times. This is one of the volumes which views the person of Job negatively, declaring that he did sin in his speech. But this does not bear much weight when Lindsay also does things like simply assumes a very late date for the book (believing it to be written right before the Septuagint in the third century BC because it is found in that volume) without any discussion. It is simply asserted as a brute fact when there is internal evidence in Job to the contrary.

What this commentary does well is present the different theological themes contained in the book of Job. These explored suffering, retributive justice, etc. that helped find a place for Job on a pastoral level. It exists for the comfort of God's people. Yet, I do not know how a book that I constantly disagree with on the commentary can articulate the theological themes in a way that I always agree. It's vexing.

[Cameron Barham · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Thus the book of Job is really about living as humans in the light of God’s sustaining the created world, acknowledging his rule over all, even those outside Israel, and responding with living faith. Faith like this is able to accept that God’s purposes may never be fully known to humans, but that God can be trusted.”, p. 382