Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job

Title: Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job
Author: Layton Talbert
Publisher: BJU Press, 2007
Number of pages: 375
Begun: February 2, 2009
Finished: April 15, 2009
Rating: *****

I used this book as a guide for my private devotional studies of the book of Job over a two-month period of time. It helped to provide some of the most enriching times of spiritual meditation I have experienced in a very long time—perhaps ever. There is so much to unpack in this story of God’s seeking to reveal more of Himself to a man through affliction, thereby demonstrating His authority to afflict, the necessity of human submission to Divine affliction, and the vast mercy He shows through affliction.

Though Talbert refuses to call his book a commentary, he clearly and thoroughly covers the background and context, as well as interpretational keys, and does a great job of expositing the text, if not always in a verse-by-verse manner, at least in a way that addresses every section and theme, and in a very readable and easy-to-attain style. (I was actually surprised at how easy to read the book was.) Perhaps the most challenging thing about the format of the book was having to stop so frequently to read the endnotes—but they were worth every bit of the price of the book! I highlighted nearly as much in the endnotes as in the rest of the book.

I profited so much on so many different levels from this book that the thought of trying to communicate all of that in a book review that would be short enough for you all to still want to read it is quite the daunting task! I will let it suffice to say that the overwhelming message that I walked away with is that God has all authority to do whatever He pleases, and I am responsible to submit to anything He chooses to do, and that in whatever He chooses for me, He is showing great mercy, however pleasant or ill it may seem at the time. (Sound familiar? Seems like I just said that.) To give you a little taste I will paste in the six lessons Job learned which Talbert cites in chapter 21. I used these as an outline for a lesson I taught in a ladies’ Sunday School class recently.

• Man is ignorant of the vastness of God’s ways and works, and it is imprudent to advertise that ignorance by unwarranted theological confidence (Job 42:3).
• God is free and sovereign to purpose what He pleases and to perform what He purposes (Job 42:2).
• Man is small and demonstrates supreme contemptibility by speaking rashly to God and about God (Job 40:4).
• Personal familiarity with God is worth supremely more than secondhand hearsay and academic knowledge (Job 42:5).
• Correct theology expresses itself practically in personal humility and submission before God (Job 42:6).
• It is necessary for an individual’s spiritual well-being to forgive those with well-intentioned or but erroneous or ill-applied theology (42:7-11).

And what can we learn from the book of Job about how a believer should respond to trials?

1. Believe Him implicitly, with or without proof, because He has spoken.
2. Trust Him submissively, with or without understanding, because He is sovereign and good.
3. Worship Him reverently, with or without reward, because He is worthy.
4. Wait for Him patiently, with or without reprieve, because He will come (James 5:7-11).