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Wrestling with Job: Defiant Faith in the Face of Suffering
The unique richness of the book of Job cannot be simply explained—it must be experienced. While Job presents challenges for scholars, ministry leaders, and laypeople, it also contains powerful lessons on faith and perseverance in the face of suffering that we all need to hear.
In Wrestling with Job, Bill Kynes, a lifelong pastor, and his son Will Kynes, a Job scholar, guide readers on a journey through this complex text. Each chapter combines exposition, spiritual application, and a deeper look at some of the thornier aspects of the text. Complete with reflection questions for groups or individuals, this book equips anyone wondering how the lessons of Job apply to their own lives to consider how they too might practice defiant faith.
In Wrestling with Job, Bill Kynes, a lifelong pastor, and his son Will Kynes, a Job scholar, guide readers on a journey through this complex text. Each chapter combines exposition, spiritual application, and a deeper look at some of the thornier aspects of the text. Complete with reflection questions for groups or individuals, this book equips anyone wondering how the lessons of Job apply to their own lives to consider how they too might practice defiant faith.
248 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 30, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 5, 2023
A very helpful commentary on my favorite book in the Bible. Both father and son do a wonderful job balancing the intellectual and the spiritual.
October 23, 2022
Sharp and sharpening. In my reading, I try to have a rotation of fiction books and theological books. Inside my theological books, I try and flip between pastoral books and scholarly books. Wrestling with Job is the perfect combination of a pastoral exegesis of Job and a scholarly analysis of the book of Job. I cannot praise the structure enough which gives the spotlight to both authors and a fleshed-out view of the book of Job. The pastoral sections are sharp and illuminate the book of Job for the Christian reader while the scholarly sections sharpen as they ask difficult questions that many scholars disagree on. Along with feeling shepherded and informed the book always pointed back to The Gospel making it one of the best books I've read all year and my new go-to for anyone saying they need a book on Job.
January 16, 2023
Bill Kynes and Will Kynes are a father/son team who bring to their collaboration the long-game and boots-on-the-ground wisdom of pastoral ministry (Bill) as well as scholarly insights and commentary from the academic world (Will). The book of Job has been a conundrum to Bible readers of every era. Questions abound over authorship and date, but there’s no question about the book’s central message: “We will suffer. You can be sure of it.”
More specifically, Job’s story affirms the uncomfortable truth that there is such a thing as innocent suffering. News reporters and off-the-mark theologians rush either to blame or exonerate God when tragedy hits our newsfeed, but God refuses to explain himself. He even dismisses the meanderings of Job’s friends (self-proclaimed experts on God’s behavior) as insufficient and inaccurate.
In Wrestling with Job, there are no pat answers offered for the thorny questions the book raises. Instead, the reader is encouraged to embrace paradox and submit to God’s sovereignty without cynicism or fatalism. As with Job, our own seasons of suffering reveal what’s in our hearts and serve to clarify the content of our questions. May we, too, find grace to leave behind our own version of “Why” and receive God’s self-revelation as the answer our hearts had been longing for all along.
Many thanks to IVPress for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
More specifically, Job’s story affirms the uncomfortable truth that there is such a thing as innocent suffering. News reporters and off-the-mark theologians rush either to blame or exonerate God when tragedy hits our newsfeed, but God refuses to explain himself. He even dismisses the meanderings of Job’s friends (self-proclaimed experts on God’s behavior) as insufficient and inaccurate.
In Wrestling with Job, there are no pat answers offered for the thorny questions the book raises. Instead, the reader is encouraged to embrace paradox and submit to God’s sovereignty without cynicism or fatalism. As with Job, our own seasons of suffering reveal what’s in our hearts and serve to clarify the content of our questions. May we, too, find grace to leave behind our own version of “Why” and receive God’s self-revelation as the answer our hearts had been longing for all along.
Many thanks to IVPress for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
April 17, 2023
The main chapters are basically sermons in a series, and very accessible in a way that actually reading the book of Job is not. So it was helpful to me to read about Job, without actually having to read Job.
The discussion of issues by the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) professor, and son of the other writer, added a lot of depth. The father-son duo did a great job of playing off each other’s strengths.
It was encouraging to know that lots of people with more education and experience than me have struggled with Job. Maybe that’s the point. If the story was so easy to grasp, then Job would not have struggled either. But the struggle of Job is mirrored by other innocent sufferers throughout the Bible, culminating in the ultimate innocent sufferer, Jesus. Thanks to the Kynes for enlarging my understanding of suffering and the great good that God can bring in the midst of it.
The discussion of issues by the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) professor, and son of the other writer, added a lot of depth. The father-son duo did a great job of playing off each other’s strengths.
It was encouraging to know that lots of people with more education and experience than me have struggled with Job. Maybe that’s the point. If the story was so easy to grasp, then Job would not have struggled either. But the struggle of Job is mirrored by other innocent sufferers throughout the Bible, culminating in the ultimate innocent sufferer, Jesus. Thanks to the Kynes for enlarging my understanding of suffering and the great good that God can bring in the midst of it.
May 25, 2025
A solid outing
Nothing in this book stands out as earth shattering or original. It is solid scholarship mixed with pastoral care, which is why it is worth reading. You can tell that the book is written with a pastor’s heart and what the pastor, spiritual director, or disciple leader does with it is in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing in this book stands out as earth shattering or original. It is solid scholarship mixed with pastoral care, which is why it is worth reading. You can tell that the book is written with a pastor’s heart and what the pastor, spiritual director, or disciple leader does with it is in the hands of the Holy Spirit.
April 13, 2025
Excellent commentary on Job. Very thorough. At times more academic than my usual taste, but the deeper breakdowns are helpful in getting a better understanding of Job and the context around it. Highly recommend!
September 6, 2024
Best book/commentary I’ve come across in Job. I love so many aspects of this book. Highly recommended!
October 13, 2022
Not just a wonderful book on Job, it is a wonderful book. It is accessable to all yet the Digging Deeper sections of each chapter add texture, nuance and depth to the material. A must read for all Christians.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews