The Book of Job opens with a brief history of a godly, praying man named Job, the greatest of all the men of the east (Job 1:3). In the first two chapters, we read of Satan's accusations against Job and the ordeal God permitted him to experience to test his faith. Job proved God could trust him to be faithful even through life's most painful experiences.

God said: There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job (1:1). Uz was a descendant of Noah's third son Shem, through whom the Messiah would come (Genesis 10:22-23). The land of Uz (Job 1:1) is not specifically located, but it was situated in the area of the tribes of the Temanites, the Shuhites, and the Naamathites, as well as the Buzites (2:11; 32:2; compare Genesis 22:20-22). It also would have been within raiding distance of the Sabeans and Chaldeans (Job 1:15,17). Jeremiah wrote of all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (Jeremiah 25:20). Most of these are well-documented places. In Lamentations 4:21 it appears that Uz was located in Edom, just below the Dead Sea: O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz. The exact locations are unimportant, but the spiritual insight concerning how we should understand and accept our circumstances and suffering is of utmost importance, relevant, and applicable to every age.

In the Book of Job we see the reasonings of God, Job, his wife, his three friends, Elihu the Buzite, and Satan who is exposed as the instigator of all suffering. As you read through each chapter, carefully distinguish between the wisdom of godly Job and the well-meaning, but inaccurate, half-truths and misleading humanistic arguments of his friends. God highly complimented Job as being perfect (blameless) and upright (Job 1:1,8) for having spoken the truth.

Job's friends and Elihu reveal how deceptive and unreliable human reasoning can be. The only satisfying answers to the needs of all of us are found in the only infallible, Holy Word of God.

In each day's reading, note the intensifying of Job's suffering but also the development of his spiritual insight. In the final chapter, God once again removes all doubt concerning Job's righteousness and truthfulness when the Lord said to Eliphaz: My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath (42:7).

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