John Calvin on Job

Many of us are reading through Job now in our Bible-reading plan.

We’ve seen Job’s friends make the case that Job’s suffering is a direct result of his sin. That is wrong, but the friends argue relatively well. Job, in response, makes the counter case that he is innocent — his suffering is not the result of sin. That is correct, but the problem is that in asserting his own innocence Job pridefully questions God. God will respond to Job’s pride in Job 38-42.

John Calvin, in commenting on Elihu’s case against Job and his friends, sums this up nicely: he says that ‘Job’s friends pled a bad case well, and Job pled a good case poorly’ (quoted in Ben Patterson’s book Waiting).

Posted by Stephen Witmer on Nov 4, 08:28 AM