The author is founder of Ichthus Christian Fellowship in London and a prominent evangelical leader in the church in the United Kingdom. This book is a helpful and edifying exploration of the book of Job. It examines the issue of suffering against the background of the love of God. The writer comes at things from the background usually described as ‘open theism’ although he does so with some limitations. The underlying aim of the book is to encourage the Lord’s people to understand and live in the love of God in the midst of an uncertain and depersonalized world. In the writers interpretation Job’s suffering is not linked at all with any sin on his part, but in order that he should be identified with the God of love and be a person through whom that God is made manifest. This links with the testimony of God being declared as a triumphant contradiction of the accusations of Satan that set the whole story into motion. The three comforters each represent different closed systems developed by man to explain suffering. Eliphaz speaks to Job from the perspective of experience, Bildad advocates the doctrine of tradition and Zophar of reason. Elihu is reckoned to be ‘the angry young man’ righteously indignant against the apparent intransigent arguments of Job. It becomes plain that Job has limited understanding and in his pain and manifold trials cries out both his frustrations and his faith. Careful note is made of the flashes of light in Job’s utterances, things which indicate a continuing faith in the God who is more than simply the all powerful will, but also the God who answers and shall vindicate Himself. Job’s faith penetrates the veil and senses God’s grace which shall be revealed in time to come. As the words of the comforters come to an end God then calls Job to listen in two discourses in which He discloses the fact of the complexity of all things in the natural creation and then, in the Roger Forster’s estimation, in the spirit powers represented by Behemoth and Leviathan. Job lacks understanding of that complexity, he does not see the whole picture but as God declares Himself Job is comforted. A reading of this book presents a wide perspective of the heavenly and the earthly in which Job is participating and God is being glorified. This book is a good addition to a library and in its short compass presents vital perspective for us all.
