WRESTLING WITH JOB:
Defiant faith in the face of suffering
By Bill Kynes and Will Kynes
InterVarsity Press. 238 pages. £20
ISBN 978 1 514 000 762
There is no shortage of excellent studies on Job, both academic, and less so but still scholarly.
For instance, the exceptional Robert Fyall’s Now My Eyes Have Seen You (Apollos), and the Christopher Ash’s Job: The wisdom of cross (Crossway) and his Out of the Storm: Grappling with God in the book of Job (IVP).
Yes, there is room, if a further volume appears – especially one of the high quality of the book reviewed here, and more especially if there is one that neatly complements the current corpus – it is to be welcomed. And Wrestling with Job by father-and-son Bill and Will Kynes is exactly that.
Bill is a long-time pastor, holding a Cambridge PhD, and this shows in every page. Will (also PhD, Cambridge) is a Professor of Biblical studies at Samford, and appears to have written the more scholarly content. The two combined, the pastor and the academic, have produced this new study that embodies together both the pastoral heart and the rigorous exegete. Because of this well-blended combination, this is now my favourite Job study on my shelves. It is not a conventional, verse-by-verse commentary. Rather, the authors have split Job into well-defined sections, sometimes a significant single chapter (the stand-alone Job 28), sometimes a few, sometimes multiple chapters of Job, but each under a topical heading – e.g., The Cynic’s Taunt, Cold Comfort, A Sufferer’s Protest, God Speaks.
The bulk of each chapter is a thoroughly helpful, decidedly pastoral account of the message of Job under the chosen heading, certainly written by an experienced pastor, embodying sound Biblical exegesis but with very helpful and thoughtful application. And at the end of each chapter is a series of more academic, theological vignettes addressing a number of chosen knotty topics, such as Calvin on Satan, Retribution in the OT, Who is Job’s Redeemer?, Wisdom and the Fear of the Lord, and many others, each a gripping read.
The beauty of this arrangement is that a less academically-minded reader can skip these theological vignettes, deriving great benefit from the main body of each chapter less cerebrally, whilst the more theologically minded can lap them up. There is a masterly treatment of wisdom, demonstrating the chasm between the godly wisdom of the Bible and the sophistry of Greek philosophy, and likewise a very helpful study of the Biblical theme of rest, and many other pearls. Thoroughly recommended.
