Many people consider Job to be the oldest book of the OT, possibly around the time of Abraham around 2000-1800 BC. The author is unnamed. Job is from the land of Uz, and he was considered the greatest man among all the people of the East. This first Book of Poetry, is a combination of various literary styles, such as the beginning and ending are narrative, then we have dialogue, soliloquy, discourse, and even a hymn in chapter 28. The purpose of this book is it deals with the issue of why good people suffer, why bad things happen to good people, and is God just? In "A Survey of the OT," by Hill and Walton, they say, "God's policies are placed on trial here, not Job" (p. 408). Job is described as blameless and upright, who feared God and shunned evil. Satan enters the picture before God, and God asked him to consider Job. Test one, God allowed Satan to take all he had, but he could not touch Job, himself. Job still worshipped and praise God by saying, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." Satan approached God a second time, and with test two, Satan was allowed to inflict Job's body, but not take his life. Job had sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, and still Job said, "Should we accept good from God, and not trouble?" The narrator said, "In all this, Job did not sin in what he said." Job's three friends came to comfort Job in his distress, and they sat in silence for seven days. If the story ended there, Job's friends would have been amazing. Job is mentioned in Ezekiel chapter 14 as a righteous man, and in the New Testament, James in 5:11 praises the endurance of Job, and because we know his story, we also see that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. He is an example to us today.
