Job is about the problem of human suffering. Listen to Henry H. Halley, author of the widely respected HALLEY'S BIBLE HANDBOOK, as he grapples with this troublesome issue:
"Very early in history men began to be troubled over the awful inequities and injustices of life: how a good God could make a world like this, where there is so much suffering, and so much of the suffering seems to fall on those who least deserve it.
"And I don't know that we understand the problem one bit better than they did in Job's day. We come into life, having nothing whatever to do with bringing ourselves here. As we grow up, we open our eyes, and look around, and we are just a great big question mark: What's it all about? And the older we grow, and the more we see of the world's inequities and injustices, the bigger grows the question mark, How could a good God make a world like this.
"But even though we may not understand the problem any better than they did in Job's day, we have more reason to be reconciled to it. For, in the meantime, God himself came down here, and, in the person of Jesus, became a partaker with us of our suffering. The story of Jesus, the world's most righteous man, and the world's greatest sufferer is an illustration of God suffering with his creation. And we ought not to have any difficulty in believing it is all for some good purpose, even though we cannot now understand. And, one day, when all is come to fruition, we shall never cease our hallelujahs of praise to God for having given us such an existence." (Henry H. Halley, HALLEY'S BIBLE HANDBOOK, 24th edition [Zondervan, 1965], p. 242).
