Bible Character Explorer
Patriarchal Period (traditional dating) • Uncertain; often placed in the patriarchal era
Job
The Blameless SuffererThe blameless man whose undeserved suffering raises the deepest questions of faith
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him."
Job 13:15 (KJV)
Overview
Job was a wealthy, blameless man of the land of Uz whose faith was tested through the sudden loss of his wealth, his children, and his health, all within the framework of a heavenly wager between God and Satan that Job himself never saw. Rather than a simple story about patience, the book of Job is an extended wrestling match with the problem of undeserved suffering, culminating in God's own overwhelming response from the whirlwind and Job's restoration.
Gospel Connection
Job's cry, 'I know that my redeemer liveth,' expresses a hope for vindication beyond death that finds its full answer in Jesus Christ, the redeemer who lives and who will one day stand upon the earth. Job also stands as a partial picture of the suffering righteous one, a man who did nothing to deserve his affliction, foreshadowing the far greater innocent suffering of Christ, who, unlike Job, bore not his own trial but the sins of others, and whose vindication in the resurrection answers every believer's deepest hope that suffering is never the final word.
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See how this life points to Christ in the Gospel Connection section above.