Job and His Friends
Overview
Why does God permit pain and suffering? Why are godly individuals such as Job subject to divine testing? The book of Job is filled with unresolved problems, unanswered questions, unhelpful advice, and theological dilemmas. Mackintosh’s exposition on the book of Job in Job and His Friends attempts to fill a gap in scholarship on the book by constructing a theology of suffering and examining the pitfalls of the advice of Job’s friends.
The book is divided into three distinct sections: who Job was, what he had, and what he did. Beginning with this threefold approach—not with ancillary issues such as authorship and dating—Mackintosh aims to offer practical remarks on Job which address the difficult depiction of God and the honest lament of Job. In this way, his interpretation of Job represents a subtle jab at the liberal criticism of his day.
Suffering—whether Job’s or ours—commands a response. Sometimes that response comes in the form of rebellion; other times it prompts lament. Still other times, we might solicit advice or work our way out of our problems. Whatever the case, suffering should prompt a re-examination and return us to God. Job and His Friends portrays Job as an exemplar for the times in which we encounter tragedy and despair.
Top Highlights
“To get right thoughts about God is to begin to get right about every thing. If I am wrong about God, I am wrong about myself, wrong about my fellows, wrong about all.” (Page 67)
“No flesh shall glory in His presence;’ and we must all learn our utter powerlessness, in every respect, in order that we may taste the sweetness and comfort of the truth, that Christ is made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” (Pages 13–14)
“Eliphaz belonged to that class of people who argue very much from their own experience” (Page 26)
“Job’s heart was still unreached. He was not yet prepared to cry out, ‘Behold, I am vile.’ He had not yet learnt to ‘abhor’ himself, ‘and repent in dust and ashes.’” (Page 21)
“He will expose us to ourselves, so that we may judge ourselves, and thus learn to mistrust our own hearts, and rest in the eternal stability of His grace.” (Page 22)
Man’s complete ruin in sin, and God’s perfect remedy in Christ, are fully, clearly, and often strikingly presented [in Mackintosh’s writings].
—Andrew Miller, a leader of the Plymouth Brethren movement
- Title: Job and His Friends
- Author: C. H. Mackintosh
- Series: C. H. Mackintosh Collection
- Publisher: Loizeaux Brothers Publications
- Pages: 69