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Why Lord? The book of Job for today

Why Lord?
The book of Job for today
By Gary Benfold
Day One Publications. 148 pages. £6.99

Do we have enough helpful teaching on suffering and the stresses it brings? I think not. It has long been woefully inadequate. Nowadays, triumphalism is very much the order of the day, and talk of what Scripture says about affliction, tribulation and patient endurance is usually conspicuous by its absence.
A book about Job is therefore welcome, and doubly so when it is attractively produced and easy to read. There are ten chapters with catchy titles like 'Healthy, wealthy and struggling?' or 'Fools rush in'. The author's method is to ask us to read some named sections of Job and then proceed to his next chapter. In 'The Pilgrim's Progress', Benfold deals with such things as self-pity, anger, terror and assurance in Job's case, and in ours. The style is light and assured, enlivened with quotation and anecdote. The book is not a commentary, but an attempt to draw out some of the great themes of the book of Job. As such, I think it succeeds well in pointing out and illustrating some of Job's main issues.
It is very refreshing to find a writer who writes sensibly about Satan, at a time when 'demonising' is used so commonly by some as to be devalued and debased. Benfold is also willing to criticise such things as prosperity theology, and ask us to think more constructively about related topics. It is a sad fact that many Christians are still made to feel that their suffering is due to some sin or failure of faith on their part. I hear this from patients, week in, week out, who tell me of incredible things they have been told along those lines. We should do all we can to avoid rushing to judgment and find ourselves among those who might be told, in the words of Job 38.2: 'Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?'
One of the best chapters is 'Fools rush in' on the way we can try and say things that are undiscerning, arising out of our own ignorance and self-confidence. We can be, as Benfold says, both unjust and unfeeling to our suffering friends. He recommends other excellent books in his footnotes, and will, I feel sure, hope that we will turn afresh to commentaries and to the book of Job itself.
Why Lord? comes with high commendation from Stuart Olyott, and is dedicated to a psychiatrist, Dr. Rosemary Wool: it is exceptional to find a psychiatrist thanked publicly for help given. I hope this book will be reprinted and much read: may I suggest that a more accurate form of the title might be Why, Lord?

Gaius Davies