Anyone who lives beyond their adolescence becomes increasingly aware of the reality that life’s circumstances can be fickle. One minute all can be well. The next, the bottom can be falling out!
The story of Job recounts such a scenario. It includes a series of conversations between Job and his ‘friends’ - who seek to console Job by trying to persuade him to take personal responsibility for the calamity that has befallen him (some friends right?!).
Job, for his part, exhibits remarkable resistance to his friends’ persuasion. Even as the friends claim to speak for God, Job cries out to God to vindicate him.
What are we to make of this tussle that is more familiar than we might first realise.