Trusting God in the Darkness: A Guide to Understanding the Book of Job

by Christopher Ash

It's easy for us to trust God when life is going well.

But when suffering comes, trusting God's goodness, his attentiveness to what's going on in the world, and his justice becomes far more difficult. In times of intense suffering, many of us ask, Why does God allow these things to happen?

In the Bible, Job is known for facing intense personal suffering. Yet, upon closer examination, we find the book of Job is about more than just Job's calamities; it's a story about God and his relationship to Christ and his people in their suffering. In this helpful guide, Christopher Ash helps us explore the question, Where is God in the midst of suffering? As we read, meditate, and pray through the book of Job, we will find assurance that God will be with us in Christ through every season and trial.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Faith, Nonfiction, Old Testament, Christianity, Biblical Studies

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2004

About the author

Christopher Ash works for the Proclamation Trust in London as director of the Cornhill Training Course. He is also writer in residence at Tyndale House in Cambridge, and is the author of several books, including Out of the Storm: Grappling with God in the Book of Job and Teaching Romans. He is married to Carolyn and they have three sons and one daughter.

Reviews

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, helpful treatise on Job.
A couple things hit me. As badly as we all hate Job’s comforters, in the end Job forgives them. This is huge because to forgive is to be humble and Job’s final blessing came through humility.

The book also emphasized that Job suffered as a believer for being a believer.

[Tim Sheppard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm late to the party on this one - this book came out nearly 20 years ago - but let me add my voice to those who have enjoyed it. It's just excellent.

Pastorally sensitive, simply expressed, easy to read, Christ-focused without ignoring the content of Job, and filled with wise reflections on an oft-neglected but beautiful and essential book of the Bible. I have found it enormously useful in helping me prepare a sermon series in Job - and, while a lot less detailed than Job: The Wisdom of the Cross (his more thorough commentary written some years later), its swifter tour of Job's precious landmarks is a great introduction. I've already recommended it to many, and I'll continue to do so.

[Jeanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What questions do you have for God when in despair? How do you live with hope when all taken away. Can you say with Job, God gives and God takes away and still be able to worship him.

If you are not familiar with Job. He has a book in the Old Testament. God had blessed him with a loving large loving family. He was wealthy and well respected. That is until Satan challenged God that Job only loved and worshiped God for what God blessed him with. I think it is important for us to stop right there and examine why Satan challenged God by putting his hand on Job. Why did God allow it and what that means for us today. Then to top it all off, Job's friends tells us much about the worship of God. Not on how they respond to Job but how God responds to them.

That is the key to any good bible study. The worship of God. Knowing God by his word. The authority of God. That is the real problem for this world. We have a problem with the authority of God and Job helps us untangle misconceptions and seek the truth. Highly recommend.

A special thank you to Crossway Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest refiew.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple and gentle intro to Job, which made me feel like I could read it in my quiet times without falling into an abyss.

The volume’s short, but it’s compassionate and never trite. I would have loved to have heard some more about different perspectives on the book (are there other ways of reading it, or do people disagree about the emphasis?) and how the poetic devices work. But that’s an unfair thing to ask of a lil’ primer.

This is theologically careful, never over-stepping what can be concluded from the text. Pastorally, it's like a warm bath. And it avoids the temptation to throw in other examples of suffering - the whole point is that Job's experience is our ultimate illustration and test case; we don't need more harrowing 'real-life tales' to grasp the problem. Curious to see if Christopher Ash has added more or changed any elements in his more recent work on Job.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great supplementary text to help understand the book of Job. The author says it's meant to be a more introductory look at the Book, and recommends his more in depth work for deeper insight- which I look forward to reading in the future. This is far from my first time reading Job, and not my first study, so I was familiar and wanting something deeper. The beginning and ending chapters are covered in far more detail than the discourse between Job and his very unhelpful friends, but the insights and message were very well laid out and true to the text of Scripture.

Format: Ebook, via Hoopla
Rating: 4 stars
Book 8 of 2025

[Parker J · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timely read this season.
So many things I did not know or understand about Job and human suffering in divine providence, but to look at God and Christ in light of the gospel has given me such a rich new appreciation for trusting God in the darkness, lol. God has crushed the head of Leviathan, and even when he allows him to thrash us about, we are secure because Christ has suffered for our gain and blessing. We don’t get to fully appreciate the glory of it until after these dark days though. Grateful for Christopher Ash’s concise, simple, yet thoughtful language and writing ability. Some powerful gut puncher sentences in this book but an overall tow that paints a beautiful picture of the book of Job for all believers. I think most Al Christians would get benefit out of reading this one!

[Alistair Chalmers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful introduction to Job. Full review; https://achalmersblog.com/2021/06/02/...

If I had to critique the book I would say that a downside of it is the brevity with which Ash deals with certain things. However, the nature of books is that there has to be an end somewhere.

[Laralyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The next time you take a trip through the book of Job you must take this book with you for the journey!

“Job is about true worship, a person bowing down in reality and in the darkness to the God who is God, leaving even our most agonized unanswered questions at his feet. For we are creatures and he alone is Creator.”

[Lindsay Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to quote the whole book here, but I guess you just have to read it yourself to see how good it is! This companion reader for the book of Job helped me to bond with the book of Job in a way I didn’t think I ever would. Job’s meaning (a picture of the war every Christian goes through as they await Christ’s return) had eluded me until now. I am so thankful for this book!

[Lexi Laginess · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great primer on Job. For the saints who are suffering, this is a gold mine.

“God directs our attention away from our agonized questions and toward himself. He does not take us by the hand and lead us to the answers; rather, he beckons us to bow before the Lord himself, who knows the answers but chooses not to tell us. Our eyes are directed away from the search for the architecture and toward the person of the architect. We ask, “why doesn’t God answer my question?” To which he replies “Turn your gaze and your inquiry away from the answer you want and toward the God you must seek. If you want to live in this world as a wise person, a man or woman of understanding, rather than a fool, do not seek Wisdom for its own sake. For if you were to find it, you would become a puffed up know it all. So do not seek wisdom; seek the Lord.”

A deeply humbling and affirming truth. We may never get the answers to our specific suffering, but let our eyes be so transfixed on Christ and his righteousness that we lose sight of our own suffering and praise the Lord for his grace in it.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this slowly as a Bible study with a friend, so I may not have every part fresh in my mind as I write this. But overall, I really appreciated this book and how it got me to think about and consider things in the book of Job.

I couldn’t 100% agree with the author on his claiming two marks of a true believer (that can be seen by humans). I believe only God can really know our hearts. And I personally have dealt with pain in a way that was a bit different. However, I still enjoyed that chapter as it got me to wrestle more heavily with what I believe and why I slightly disagree with Ash.

The second half of this book was probably the most meaningful to me, and I really appreciated Ash’s conclusions on the book of Job as a whole. Some concluding quotes:

“…the central character and subject of the book of Job is not Job who suffers but the God with whom he has to deal. The book of Job is about God.”

“And so Job points us to the mystery at the heart of the universe, that a blameless believer who walks in fellowship with his Creator may suffer terrible and underserved pain and go through deep darkness — and then at the end be vindicated.”

“And therefore Job is passionately and profoundly about Jesus, whom Job foreshadows both in his blamelessness and in his perseverance through undeserved suffering.”

“And because Job is about Jesus, it is also, derivatively, about every man and woman in Christ. Every disciple, called to take up the cross and walk in the footsteps of Christ, must expect in some measure to walk also in the footsteps of Job.”

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s great joy in picking a book up to get help understanding a biblical text, and it unlocks the scriptures in a way that not only gives you understanding in an academic sense, but also in a spiritually enriching sense. Christopher Ash does that with the book of Job, which when studying for a course, it is tempting to throw out Job all together as a book not meant to be understood by us. But Ash shows us that Job exemplifies the proper course of a true believer when suffering in a real way. When suffering, we determine to find the Wisdom underlying the order of the universe, for our pain reveals what seems to be complete disorder. We cannot find this Wisdom, but we know the one who holds all this Wisdom, and more fully than Job, we see Wisdom incarnate in Jesus Christ, who is the most blameless man who ever lived, and suffered more than we ever will or have. In suffering our hope is found in Christ. For while we experience the pain alone here on this earth, we have him with us to strengthen us and give us hope in a day when suffering will be no more.

[Shawn Piedrahita · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful and accessible book on the nature and message of Job. Throughout the book, Ash provides a good balance of scholarly observation and pastoral application to a book that most people seem to either avoid or cringe at. I leave with a better understanding of how God works in our suffering and I hope that you will too if you read this book.

[Lindsey Sieders · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful overview of the book of Job, with room to explore the question “Where is God in the midst of suffering?” The poetry in Job is beautiful and we’re meant to sit in it, to grapple with it and to meditate over it. Highly recommended for anyone who has sat in or witnessed suffering.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great. Short and accessible outline/commentary on the book of Job. Lots of content in here I'd never thought about before. Would make for a great discussion read.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and useful, but not exhaustive. I think I like Ortlund's summary book better, but this is still a helpful guide to Job.

[David J. Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

It helped me revisit, mark up, and most of all fall in love with the Book of Job.

[Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fine little intro to Job. Judicious and careful without being dry or overly theoretical.

[Emma Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent study of Job. Easy to read, short but deeply profound. It is essential to have read Job before you read it though.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

First sentence: This book began as a sermon series on the book of Job.

Christopher Ash has written a short little book on Job. A few years ago, Ash wrote a longer, more traditional commentary on the book of Job. But this is not a traditional commentary, it started life as a series of sermons. In some ways I find it a more practical, more readable treatment of Job.

So how short is short? There are eleven-ish chapters. Or eleven chapters and an epilogue. It is written from the WHEEL-CHAIR perspective as opposed to the ARM-CHAIR perspective. What's the difference? Well, when you start asking hard/tough questions--mainly WHY questions--you can be approaching it from an arm-chair perspective--academic, distant, hypothetical OR from a wheel-chair perspective--you have experienced pain, loss, sorrow, grief or are currently experiencing it. You can relate to these hard questions on a personal, experiential manner.

The author describes his own book in this way, "It is a staggeringly honest book. It is a book that knows what people actually say and think—and not just what they say publicly in church. It knows what people say behind closed doors and in whispers, and it knows what we say in our tears."

He continues, "Job is to be lived in and not just studied. Let us read the book of Job itself, read it out loud, mull it over, absorb it, wonder, be unsettled, and meditate. And let God get to work on us through this great Bible book."

One of the ways he encourages readers to do just this is by asking reflection questions for each chapter. True readers can skip out on participating. The author can't force you to read thoughtfully, reflectively, carefully. But if you do, you're missing out on benefiting from the reading experience.

I found the narrative to be compelling and thought-provoking. I have read the book of Job countless times. (Last year I read through the whole Bible ten times. This year I've already read through the Bible two times.) I thought I *knew* Job. But Ash's presentation--his perspective--got me thinking and rethinking.

For example, this is what Ash has to say about Job's three visiting friends, "They weep, tear their clothes, and throw dirt on their heads. They sit with him in silence for seven days and seven nights. It is usual to say that this was the best thing they did. And certainly (as we shall see in Job 4), when they speak, they do no good at all. But their silence may not have been as helpful as is often assumed. The Bible hints that what they do—tearing clothes, throwing dust on the head, taking seven days—is precisely what one would do in mourning with a corpse. Recall that Joseph mourned seven days for his father Jacob (Gen. 50:10), and the city of Ramoth Gilead mourned seven days for King Saul (1 Sam. 31:13). It may be that their silence is not so much a silence of sympathy as a silence of bankruptcy: they are silent because they have nothing to say. Their friend is as good as dead."

Ash points out something about skeptics, unbelievers--anyone who would use suffering as an excuse to NOT believe in God--that I hadn't thought about before. "When unbelievers say to us they are troubled by the problem of pain and the unfairness of suffering in the world, we may say to them, “Why are you troubled? I as a believer am troubled, but why should you be? For you do not believe in a living God who is in control and who is good. So why should you expect there to be any logic or any fairness? And yet you do, don’t you? I wonder if that is because we are deeply hardwired to know there is a living God who is in control and who is just.”"

I expected the book to be about Job. Anyone would. This is a book about the BOOK OF JOB after all. But I was pleasantly surprised to see how Christ-centric the book is. For a book on Job, this book has a LOT TO SAY about Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Perhaps this is because the book started out life as a sermon series or sermon notes? But I love how each chapter points the way to the Good News.

I found the book to be an incredible read.

[Coyle]

"Job is a difficult book. Not only do awful things happen to an otherwise innocent man, they happen with God’s explicit permission. Then, when God shows up to speak with Job, He doesn’t give the ‘behind the curtains’ explanation that Satan had challenged Job’s faithfulness, and that Job had proven his faith through the trial. Instead, we get yet more challenge to Job: are you God? Did you make the world?

Yet I think even with those difficulties, it may be that the biggest challenge of Job is the thirty-six chapters in between the action and the conversation with God. That… is a lot. Those of us who have heard a sermon series through Job have almost certainly heard sermons on Job 1, 2, 3-37, and 38-42. Which means a book that has forty-two chapters is largely skimmed over from the pulpit–or in our own devotional times, for that matter. Even knowing where to start with this behemoth of a book (heh) can be overwhelming."

Read the rest here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeff...

[Eilidh · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great wee book! I read it at the same time as our church studied through the book of Job and the author really helped me to dig in deeper to understand the book of Job. It helped me to see so much more of the bigger picture that although initially the biggest theme appears to be suffering, we actually learn so much more about God -who he is and how he is completely sovereign and that we have to trust Him when we don't see the full picture. It is a hugely humbling book as God's speech at the end helps us to know our place and realise our need for repentance and dependance on Him. Would definitely recommend the book to anyone wanting a helping hand as they study the book of Job!

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great and very readable commentary on the book of Job, a book of the Bible which has always alluded me until now. What I like about this book, is that Christopher Ash gives us permission to be frustrated and angry with God at the presence of evil and suffering. However, he ends the book, as in the Bible by explaining that all suffering is to some extent a mystery and that we have to trust God that although he doesn't create suffering and evil in this world he does seem to allow it if we believe that he is an all powerful and in control God.

[Lauren DuPrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trusting God in the Darkness is an incredibly helpful volume by pastor and author Christopher Ash. This short volume is packed with many deep truths about the book of Job. I consider Ash an expert on Job considering he’s written other volumes about it including a commentary. One of the aspects of the book that I most enjoyed is that while it does focus on the message of Job, it also examines it from a literary standpoint. I was fascinated as I learned that the content of Job is about 95% poetry. Ash begins the book with the observation that, “Job is the neglected treasure of the Christian life,” (pg. 11). The primary reason I chose to read Job earlier this year was to find hope in the midst of my miscarriage and having read it, I understand and share Ash’s sentiments toward the book.

One of the biggest questions I had, as I read Job, is how does it point to Jesus? The events of Job occur at a curious point in the story of Scripture as they fall between Genesis 11 and 12. It is clear from Job 42:2 that even Job’s suffering couldn’t stop God’s plan and we understand from Genesis 3:15 that ultimately, God’s plan was to send Jesus. I found it fascinating to learn that Job served as a foreshadow of Jesus or what theologians commonly refer to as a type of Christ. Regarding this, Ash wrote, “. . . two thousand years ago another blameless believer was with three friends, in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-42). And as he suffered in anticipation of the agony of the cross, he too was deeply alone. ‘Could you not watch one hour?’ (14:37). But they could not. And then on the cross he too was in deep darkness. Deeper than the darkness of night. Deeper even than Job’s darkness. And from his lips came the cry of dereliction, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mark 15:34). And this believer has so plumbed the depths of human sorrow that he alone can walk with human beings in their sorrow,” (pg. 43).

Trusting God in the Darkness helpfully brings to light many of the details of Job’s story that are obvious but often missed. Learning that he was unaware of the conversations between Satan and God and that he never had his questions answered was new to me. It was especially interesting to read about what Job’s friends had right as they counseled him and what they had wrong. As I process through my loss and grief, I’m thankful that Ash highlighted the importance of speaking the truth in love to sufferers and doing so in a manner that is gentle and timely.

The book concluded with Ash encouraging readers to leave their questions at the feet of Jesus. It was helpful for me to learn about a saint who went before me in suffering and who had also experienced what it is like to have questions that went unanswered. My heart was filled with hope as Ash drew many parallels between Job and Jesus that I hadn’t observed before. I quickly devoured Trusting God in the Darkness and was sad when it came to an end. This is an incredibly helpful resource that I look forward to reading again.

I received Trusting God in the Darkness compliments of Crossway in exchange for my honest review.

[Matthew Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Job is one of the books of the Bible that can be the most puzzling. The majority of the book is simply a conversation. From the very beginning we are told that Job was a righteous man and yet our natural view of what he should experience in life quickly falls apart. After nearly everything is ripped from him, we see the wisdom of the world come forth and we would be wise to consider how it still speaks today.

While the world may offer its version of wisdom we must remember that God's wisdom is different. Through this book, Christopher Ash takes us through a quick, broad overview of what the story of Job can teach us. We are all going to experience sufferings, but how we respond to our suffering and the suffering of others should be rooted in God's wisdom. Ash makes a point to speak to the things that Job and his friends got right and likely where that wisdom came from, but he also does not shy away from telling us where they were not even close to the mark.

If I had to select one book to give to someone to help them understand the book of Job, it would be this one. The author uses a language that is easily read while also giving his readers many things to ponder. I am confident that this book could easily find its way to the shelf of the scholar as well as the student and all would be well served by it. I would highly recommend you pick up this book to help minister to you in your suffering and help you minister to others.

Crossway sent this to me for review. They only asked for an honest review. The words above are my own and have not been influenced in any way outside of the written manuscript.

[Josh Roland · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few books in my list that I would give as high a recommendation as this one. I just finished a 3 month study through the book of Job and this book has been a joy and such a help to read. I found it extremely clarifying and devotional. It helps one deal with the complexity that is found in Job and within our own suffering by pointing us to God and the greatest of human sufferers, Jesus. It helps expand ones worldview to the size of the cosmos and realize the great warfare that is happening is actually on the battleground of our own hearts and lives. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to deeply wrestle with God and like Job say, “now I have seen you with my eyes and I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes”. This book will not leave you in the dust and ashes, but raise you up to walk in the fullness of Gods mercy and steadfast love!

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was immensely helpful in making sense of the spiraling circle of the book of Job! He helped to continually bring the focus back to the beginning of the book, the set up of the trials. He points out the active steadfast love of God towards Job, of Job towards God, and the lack thereof in his friends. He points out the fulfillment Jesus brings to Job, and finally the role we believers have in sharing in that suffering as co-heirs. “For it is this God, who is God even of the wild, evil, and seemingly random fringes of life, we are called to love and to trust. In the footsteps of the Lord Jesus we too may entrust ourselves to him who judges justly.”

[Cm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very short, but helpful commentary on Job. Could he have gone longer? Yes, and if you want that, he repeatedly points you to his longer commentary.

Despite the brevity, I thought Ash offered very thoughtful and pastoral insights into the book of Job. In particular, I thought he showed nuance on how to interpret the speeches of the friends, acknowledging the good, the bad, and the missing parts of their theology. I also appreciated how he tied Job as suffering believer to the gospel. And I found that my “yes, buts” were also addressed. Like Job, perhaps I didn’t get the direct answer I wanted, but Ash took pastoral care to direct a meaningful line of questioning.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that this author delves into the discourses that make up most of the book of Job, rather than focusing only on the beginning and ending narratives. He writes that the book is to be "lived in," not just studied.

"[G]odly wisdom is not so much a word spoken to the human heart from the outside, as a character formed in the believer by the Spirit of God working by the Word of God at the deepest level of the human heart. In setting before us in Job these speeches in which truth and error are mixed, God invites us to think for ourselves, to puzzle, to engage with the process of wisdom fashioning our minds and hearts. "

[Mhughessc · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Trusting God in the Darkness", by Christopher Ash, is a good summary of the book of Job. Containing only about 150 pages, this book does a good job of summarizing the main events in Job's life, as well as what we can learn from it. I enjoyed how quick and easy this book was to read, and it would be good for anyone who is looking for a short primer on the book of Job.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.