To Speak Well of God: An Exposition of the Book of Job

by John Pople

It begins with the Divine injunction: "Have you considered my servant Job?" The Biblical drama of Job is haunting. A blameless man is tormented by 'the Satan': stripped of wealth, status, possessions, health and children - all with God's permission! Who is this Satan? More chilling still, who is this God? And why, despite this cataclysmic carnage, does the drama focus on the resulting argument between Job and his 3 friends? The ending of the drama seems no clearer. When God reveals Himself, what is He saying? Finally, God restores Job. Yet does this truly repair His permitted destruction of him? With its distinctive identification of the Satan, this interpretation offers unique insights into the classic interactions between God, Satan and the Righteous Man; revealing the Messianic message encoded within. Most importantly it lends reason to persevere in faith, as Job did; and speak well of God.

326 pages, Paperback

Published April 28, 2009

Reviews

[Isaac Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

“If I cannot speak well of God when my circumstances are painful, does it really count for anything if I speak well of Him at any other time?”

A thoughtful and balanced exposition of the Book of Job, which offers a number of unique perspectives on the purpose and meaning of the book.

[James Uscroft · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking for a detailed literary and historical analysis of 'The Book Of Job,' but accidentally bought this book of Supersessionist Christian apologetics instead. Yet another self-serving rewrite-athon which boils down to "Well actually, if you ignore the original text entirely and pretend that it says whatever I want it to say, then all of the problematic and disturbing elements cease to exist and I'm right about everything, so there." And one which not only completely ignores the nature of the text, (including the fact that what we now call 'The Book Of Job' is actually parts of two different works of prose and poetry stitched together,) but also completely ignores the original meaning and context of Hebrew theology, interpreting the satan as the "Rebellious Pride Of Man."

Indeed, I wanted to laugh so bitterly when the author argued that YHWH wasn't literally asking the satan "Where have you come from?" because surely an omniscient God would never ask any questions at all. Blissfully (and wilfully) ignorant of the fact that when the story of Job was first written down, YHWH was, like Zeus or Thor, merely a superhuman who was believed to have physically laid the "Foundations Of The Earth" and performed other acts of Creation with his own hands as the text itself describes at length. That the concept of this God as an omnipotent, omniscient, transcendent and existing beyond the confines of time and space was, like Monotheism itself, a much later redaction of the original theology.

So as I say then, this book definitely wasn't for me. Unless you're a Christian looking for a way to square the circle then I doubt that it'll be for you either, and I'll be returning it post to the seller haste.

[Renee]

After reading this book I have changed the way I study and It's a good thing I finally know what Job is all about. Great reading!