The Job of Mission
By happy coincidence my Bible in One Year plan has been taking me through Job at the same time as I have been reading Tim Davy's The Book of Job and The Mission of God , a Missional Reading of Job. I have read Job previously, and have usually found it hard-going. The long poetic speeches have tended to drag (why don't they just get on and say what they want to say?) and I've not really understood how Job, the man, is seen as blameless and upright when he spends so much time questioning God. This time, however, the text came to life. At a surface level I particularly enjoyed some of the insults that Job uses in response to his supposed-comforters' speeches. In chapter 13 Job bursts out, "if only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom." Aren't there a few people we think need to hear that?! Chapter 21 sees Job demand that his friends "Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on" and ask "So how can...