Job

Summary

We preach Job under pastoral pressure. People in our congregations suffer without neat explanations. Some come with guilt, some with anger, some with numbness. Job refuses easy answers. It gives us truth that is steady, yet it also gives us speech that is raw. A commentary on Job therefore needs more than technical competence. It needs judgement, humility, and a willingness to let the book unsettle our tidy instincts. A substantial evangelical commentary can help us hold the tension faithfully.

Job is also a literary work of high complexity. There is narrative, poetry, dialogue, irony, and theological argument. If we flatten the book, we will mislead our people. If we treat it as an abstract debate, we will fail to care for them. We need help following the movement from the prologue, through the long speeches, to the Lord’s final address. We need to see what Job’s friends get right, what they get wrong, and why their wrongness is so spiritually dangerous.

This kind of commentary serves us when it helps us handle the text carefully, especially in the poetic sections where translation and imagery matter. It also serves us when it helps us think about application. Job is not mainly about giving sufferers a technique. It is about meeting God, learning reverence, and refusing the pride that demands to sit in judgement over Him.

Strengths

First, we are helped when the commentary takes the poetry seriously. Job’s speeches are not filler. They are the heart of the book. If the exposition attends to structure, imagery, and argument, it equips us to preach the speeches rather than skipping them. That is one of the biggest practical needs. Many pastors preach the opening chapters, then leap to the end. A fuller commentary encourages patient, faithful progress.

Second, we need assistance in handling the friends. Their theology is often orthodox at the sentence level, yet their application is cruel. They turn truths about God into weapons. A careful commentary helps us name that danger, which is not only a counselling issue. It is a preaching issue. We can preach true statements in a way that becomes false in effect. Job helps correct that, and good exposition helps us preach with tenderness and truth together.

Third, a serious commentary can help us keep God central. Job is not a book that ends with a moral lesson. It ends with divine self disclosure. The Lord does not answer every question we ask. He reveals Himself. That is both humbling and comforting. A good commentary will not soften that ending. It will help us preach it with reverence and with pastoral steadiness.

Limitations

The limitation of a large commentary is accessibility. Not every week allows deep technical consultation. We should also remember that Job raises questions that no commentary can resolve fully. The book itself teaches us to accept limits. A commentary can guide, but it cannot remove the need for humble worship in the face of mystery.

We also need to avoid treating technical detail as a substitute for pastoral wisdom. We may have more information and yet speak badly to the suffering. We should use a work like this to deepen understanding, then pray for grace to speak well.

How We Would Use It

We would use this as a primary reference when preaching Job, especially for the poetic middle. We would pair it with repeated reading and with careful outlining of the debate. We would also use it for pastoral preparation, so that our sermons do not merely analyse the speeches but also help believers endure. We want our people to see that lament can be faithful, that shallow answers can be destructive, and that the fear of the Lord is wisdom.

In teaching settings, it can also help train leaders to read poetry with attention and to avoid proof texting Job for simplistic conclusions.

Closing Recommendation

This is a substantial resource for those who want to handle Job with care. It rewards time and patience, and it can help us preach this difficult book with both accuracy and pastoral sensitivity.