What do you think?
Rate this book
Consider the Ostrich: Unlocking the Book of Job and the Blessing of Suffering
We all know the story of creation in the Bible. In the beginning, God created. But what if creation isn’t where things started? Not in the Bible anyway.
What if the first book of the Bible wasn’t about creation…it was about pain.
Scholars have debated for years about what the first book of the Bible really is. Most have concluded that the Book of Job was probably the first book written.
Think about what if the message God wanted us to receive wasn’t about how we were created, but what to do when life gets bad.
Being a Christian means happiest. Joy. It means you get that white picket fence and have friends that bring you companionship. Hardship and spiritual warfare may be words that Christians know, but it’s not exactly something we talk about.
Job is a complicated and messy story because it address the elephant in the giant room that is that believing in God doesn’t mean happiness. Or wealth. Or even goodness.
Job is a story that teaches us an ugly truth about what we that things aren’t always better on the other side of the mountain—that good things don’t always happen to good people—and that sometimes life is just messed up.
Most people know the story of Job. He’s the guy who had bad things happen to him. But we often look to the story as more a Sunday school fairytale. Sure, it’s believable. But we often look at it as a moral tale about a guy who had it all taken away.
There’s more to it than that. Rarely do we study it to find out what God is trying to teach us.
The lesson here is deep, and one every believe should hear.
Scholars have debated for years about what the first book of the Bible really is. Most have concluded that the Book of Job was probably the first book written.
Think about what if the message God wanted us to receive wasn’t about how we were created, but what to do when life gets bad.
Being a Christian means happiest. Joy. It means you get that white picket fence and have friends that bring you companionship. Hardship and spiritual warfare may be words that Christians know, but it’s not exactly something we talk about.
Job is a complicated and messy story because it address the elephant in the giant room that is that believing in God doesn’t mean happiness. Or wealth. Or even goodness.
Job is a story that teaches us an ugly truth about what we that things aren’t always better on the other side of the mountain—that good things don’t always happen to good people—and that sometimes life is just messed up.
Most people know the story of Job. He’s the guy who had bad things happen to him. But we often look to the story as more a Sunday school fairytale. Sure, it’s believable. But we often look at it as a moral tale about a guy who had it all taken away.
There’s more to it than that. Rarely do we study it to find out what God is trying to teach us.
The lesson here is deep, and one every believe should hear.
194 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2023
51 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 25, 2023
This book is a study of the Book of Job, considered by the author and many scholars to be the oldest [intact] book of the Tanakh/OT (the debate on this doesn’t appear to be nearly as settled as stated by the author, with most scholars place it in the 7th century with the final version circa 4th century BCE). The timing really doesn’t have much impact on the author’s exegesis; however, it does provide an interesting take on the creation story that seems less formed that what we have in the final redacted version in Genesis.
The Book of Job is primarily interested in answering the question of "why God allows believers to suffer.” Before diving into the book, the author provides a brief introduction to Job and his friends who drive much of the Socratic dialog that explores this theme. Then we get to the prologue of the book that setups a celestial courtroom drama by which the story of Job’s suffering unfolds … and to be honest, I have never found Job to be an easy read with the continual repetition and verbosity making it difficult to pay attention and focus on the details. This is where the humor and organization of the author saves the day to break up what to me is a monotonous and overly formal dialog … and provides an interesting interoperation that I had not considered before (and rather like). Ultimately there is no real answer to the question of suffering, only an example of how we should respond to it … with an overlooked perspective on how the friends of Job treated him in his suffering … highlighting a way of interpreting Job as a modern critique for how we respond to the suffer of others around us (something that seems to be lacking in today’s world).
I. Introduction
Chapter 1 - Job: A Biography
Chapter 2 - Why Did God Allow for Job to be Tested
Chapter 3 - The “Friends” of Job
Chapter 4 - The Literary Structure of Job
II. Job, the Prologue
Chapter 5 - Job, the Prologue (Job 1-2)
III. The Sparing of Words Between Friends
Chapter 6 - Job Laments (Job 3)
Chapter 7 - Do We Deserve Bad Things (Job 4-5)
Chapter 8 - The Heavy Load of Job (Job 6-7)
Chapter 9 - The Reason For Pain (Job 8)
Chapter 10 - Don’t Ask Why, Ask Why (Job 9-10)
Chapter 11 - Discomfort The Broken (Job 11)
Chapter 12 - Supported By Wisdom (Job 12-14)
Chapter 13 - Does Wisdom Have to Come With Grey Hair? (Job 15)
Chapter 14 - Life, Unexpected (Job 16-17)
Chapter 15 - Accept the New Normal (Job 18)
Chapter 16 - The Dark Path of Job (Job 19)
Chapter 17 - The Gluttony of Zophar (Job 20)
Chapter 18 - Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People (Job 21)
Chapter 19 - Eliphaz 2.0 (Job 22)
Chapter 20 - Fear God (Job 23-24)
Chapter 21 - Bildad’s Last Stand (Job 25)
Chapter 22 - Misunderstood (Job 26-27)
Chapter 23 - Job Comes to Terms With Grief (Job 28)
Chapter 24 - Here is My Cross (Job 29-31)
IV. Eli-Who?
Chapter 25 - Eli-Who? (Job 32-37)
V. God Speaks
Chapter 26 - Consider the Ostrich (Job 38-41)
VI. The End?
Chapter 27 - And They All Lived Happily Ever After (Job 42)
Discussion Questions
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#ConsiderTheOstrich #BookSirens
The Book of Job is primarily interested in answering the question of "why God allows believers to suffer.” Before diving into the book, the author provides a brief introduction to Job and his friends who drive much of the Socratic dialog that explores this theme. Then we get to the prologue of the book that setups a celestial courtroom drama by which the story of Job’s suffering unfolds … and to be honest, I have never found Job to be an easy read with the continual repetition and verbosity making it difficult to pay attention and focus on the details. This is where the humor and organization of the author saves the day to break up what to me is a monotonous and overly formal dialog … and provides an interesting interoperation that I had not considered before (and rather like). Ultimately there is no real answer to the question of suffering, only an example of how we should respond to it … with an overlooked perspective on how the friends of Job treated him in his suffering … highlighting a way of interpreting Job as a modern critique for how we respond to the suffer of others around us (something that seems to be lacking in today’s world).
I. Introduction
Chapter 1 - Job: A Biography
Chapter 2 - Why Did God Allow for Job to be Tested
Chapter 3 - The “Friends” of Job
Chapter 4 - The Literary Structure of Job
II. Job, the Prologue
Chapter 5 - Job, the Prologue (Job 1-2)
III. The Sparing of Words Between Friends
Chapter 6 - Job Laments (Job 3)
Chapter 7 - Do We Deserve Bad Things (Job 4-5)
Chapter 8 - The Heavy Load of Job (Job 6-7)
Chapter 9 - The Reason For Pain (Job 8)
Chapter 10 - Don’t Ask Why, Ask Why (Job 9-10)
Chapter 11 - Discomfort The Broken (Job 11)
Chapter 12 - Supported By Wisdom (Job 12-14)
Chapter 13 - Does Wisdom Have to Come With Grey Hair? (Job 15)
Chapter 14 - Life, Unexpected (Job 16-17)
Chapter 15 - Accept the New Normal (Job 18)
Chapter 16 - The Dark Path of Job (Job 19)
Chapter 17 - The Gluttony of Zophar (Job 20)
Chapter 18 - Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People (Job 21)
Chapter 19 - Eliphaz 2.0 (Job 22)
Chapter 20 - Fear God (Job 23-24)
Chapter 21 - Bildad’s Last Stand (Job 25)
Chapter 22 - Misunderstood (Job 26-27)
Chapter 23 - Job Comes to Terms With Grief (Job 28)
Chapter 24 - Here is My Cross (Job 29-31)
IV. Eli-Who?
Chapter 25 - Eli-Who? (Job 32-37)
V. God Speaks
Chapter 26 - Consider the Ostrich (Job 38-41)
VI. The End?
Chapter 27 - And They All Lived Happily Ever After (Job 42)
Discussion Questions
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#ConsiderTheOstrich #BookSirens
January 12, 2024
I do not agree with many of the thoughts and ideas in this book but it certainly gave me a lot to think about.
I received this book free from the author, publisher, or other source. My only obligation is to provide a fair and honest review.
I received this book free from the author, publisher, or other source. My only obligation is to provide a fair and honest review.
April 10, 2024
I really liked the book because it helped me to understand the reason of suffering and how we can deal with it.
Great and nice reading, indeed!.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Great and nice reading, indeed!.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Read
August 4, 2024This in-depth analysis of the book of Job is interesting and brings up some good points. The author tries to inject some levity, but I’m not a fan of it. I guess I don’t appreciate this author’s particular sense of humor. Job is hard book, and it’s an important book. I think more believers should spend some time in Job, and this book can help us to understand the background and concepts presented.
As someone who has been on the receiving end of “there’s got to be an explanation for why you’re suffering, and if you just repent, your life will go back to normal,” I think this is a concept that needs to be addressed in the church. I encourage readers to study the book with others and use the discussion questions in the back. That is probably where the most insight and depth are to be found – in working through these hard concepts with others.
So, not a perfect book, but a good one. As our world gets more difficult and painful, there are a lot of good lessons to be gleaned from this ancient text.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily
As someone who has been on the receiving end of “there’s got to be an explanation for why you’re suffering, and if you just repent, your life will go back to normal,” I think this is a concept that needs to be addressed in the church. I encourage readers to study the book with others and use the discussion questions in the back. That is probably where the most insight and depth are to be found – in working through these hard concepts with others.
So, not a perfect book, but a good one. As our world gets more difficult and painful, there are a lot of good lessons to be gleaned from this ancient text.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews