Job: Caught Between Heaven and Hell

By Craig Davis

An overview of the book of Job in four lessons, addressing the cause and effect of suffering.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Craig Davis
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780982956786

Craig Davis

After earning bachelor's and graduate degrees at the University of Missouri, Craig Davis toiled for 20 years at newspapers, and has spent a lifetime in biblical scholarship. He wrote his first story while in Kindergarten, about King Kong. An amateur musician, he was once wrestled to the ground by a set of bagpipes.

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Job: Caught Between Heaven and Hell

An Overview of the Book of Job in Four Lessons

By Craig Davis

Published by St.Celibart Press at Smashwords

23 Castlerock Cv. Jackson TN 38305

Copyright © 2019 Harry Craig Davis

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ISBN: 978-0-9829567-8-6

Davis, Craig, Job: Caught Between Heaven and Hell

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Lesson 1

The problem of suffering

The book of Job has a number of themes, but certainly the most prominent is the problem of suffering. This matter is especially problematic because of Job’s devotion to God – why do bad things happen to godly people? It is a vexing question. The book is thought to be the oldest in Scripture; Job may have been a contemporary of Abraham. No surprise there, for the problem of suffering is age-old and universal – we are all Job. The book presents many questions about human suffering, but it also offers answers. You just have to know where – or how – to look.

Mk. 10:29-31 reads, Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’ Hidden within the promises of blessing is a promise of persecution, and with that a hint that persecutions are the fount of our eternal blessings. Jesus is giving suffering in the here and now spiritual significance, and that is how it has playout out: When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:21-22). This encouraging scene