Job

Summary

Job is a book that strips away easy answers. It begins with a righteous sufferer, moves into long and often painful debates, and ends with the Lord speaking in a way that both humbles and restores. Many Christians know Job as a story of patience, but that is too thin. Job is a theology of worship under pressure. It forces us to face the limits of human wisdom, the dangers of tidy moral calculus, and the reality that the Lord is not accountable to our assumptions. A commentary on Job must therefore do more than explain words. It must help the preacher keep the tone, the argument, and the pastoral aim clear.

This volume is designed to support serious engagement with the text. Job contains narrative, poetry, dialogue, and speeches that move in cycles. It also includes sections that can feel repetitive, especially when the friends keep returning to the same mistaken framework. A good commentary helps you see why the repetition matters. It is the way the book exposes the poverty of their categories and the loneliness of Job protest. It also helps you track where the arguments shift, where the friends become harsher, and where Job moves from bold complaint to a more chastened posture.

For preaching, Job is difficult because it speaks about suffering without giving a simple formula. It does not teach that suffering always comes from a particular sin. It does not teach that a small amount of faith will remove pain. Instead, it teaches that the Lord is wise and good even when His ways are hidden, and that worship can be faithful even when the heart is shattered. A careful commentary helps you preach that without coldness and without sentimentality.

Strengths

The first strength is assistance with the shape of the book. Job is long, and pastors can lose the thread if they treat it as a series of isolated speeches. A solid guide helps you plan a preaching series that respects the narrative frame, the cycles of debate, the speeches of the younger voice, and the final words of the Lord. That planning is essential if the congregation is to feel the force of the book rather than only the confusion.

A second strength is help in distinguishing what Job and the friends are saying, and what the book itself is teaching. This is a common problem in preaching Job. The friends speak many sentences that sound orthodox, yet the book exposes their misuse of truth. A careful commentary can help you avoid quoting the friends as if they were reliable teachers. It can also help you show the congregation how true doctrine can be applied cruelly when it is detached from compassion and from humility.

A third strength is pastoral usefulness for counselling theology. Job touches questions that arise again and again, why suffering, why the righteous, why now, why so long. The book does not answer every question, but it reorients the believer. It calls us to fear the Lord, to speak honestly to Him, and to recognise the limits of our own insight. A commentary that keeps those priorities clear can help pastors walk with sufferers more wisely.

Limitations

The main limitation is the inherent difficulty of Job. Even a good commentary cannot make every section easy to preach. Some parts will still feel dense, especially long stretches of poetic argument. Pastors will need to decide what level of detail to bring into the pulpit and what to summarise. Another limitation is that the most important pastoral work in Job is tone. A commentary can clarify meaning, but the preacher must still speak with tenderness, especially where the text presents raw grief and anger.

Also, Job invites careful connections to the wider canon, especially themes of innocent suffering, intercession, and the limits of human wisdom. A commentary can point to those connections, but many pastors will benefit from pairing it with a biblical theology lens when preparing a longer series.

How We Would Use It

Use this commentary to plan before you preach. Map the sections, decide where you will slow down, and decide where you will summarise. In weekly preparation, read the passage repeatedly, then use the commentary to confirm structure and clarify the main claim of each speech. When applying, keep the book message clear. Job corrects the instinct to explain suffering too quickly. It warns against the pride of assuming we can read providence like a chart. It teaches that faithful worship can include lament, and that the Lord is worthy of trust even when answers are withheld.

In pastoral care, Job can be a long book to read with someone, but its key themes can be brought in carefully. Use it to show that the Lord welcomes honest prayer, that friends can wound when they rush to judgement, and that the final comfort is not a neat explanation but the presence and majesty of the Lord.

Closing Recommendation

This is a strong option for those who want a serious companion for preaching and teaching Job. It is well suited to pastors in training and to preachers who want to handle the book with reverence, clarity, and pastoral care. Used well, it can help a church learn to suffer without cynicism and to worship without pretence.