by Tom Nettles | Jan 2, 2024 | Old Testament, Practical Theology
*Editor’s Note: This is the eighth installment in a 9-part series on the book of Job by Dr. Tom J. Nettles. As more installments are released, each part of the series will be linked to each post.
To read part 1, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/have-you-considered-job-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 2, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-heavenly-origin-of-earthly-events-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 3, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-name-of-the-lord-is-to-be-blessed-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 4, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/it-is-your-fault-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 5, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/it-is-very-difficult-to-discuss-a-matter-with-god-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 6, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-will-just-listen-to-me-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 7, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-be-against-us-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 8, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-be-for-us-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 9, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/write-my-words-tom-j-nettles/
We left Job in the posture of pure and earnest prayer. He continues interspersing prayer with his own form of anathema against his flint-headed, obnoxious, and censorious advisors. In 16:18, Job does not want any of his life struggles to become a mere nullity, to perish simply with the brutally sterile quietness of a universe with no heart, no ears. Surely, we do not live in a world in which merely natural forces are the final reality. One’s blood is covered only by the dust of the ground and one’s cries finally die as their echo against the rocks is absorbed by the competition of a thousand upon a thousand airwaves produced by lifeless forces. The search for the human heart cannot be more profound than the source of that search. “Thou hast made us for thyself O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee” (Augustine in Confessions).
All of this leads him to affirm that man has a witness in heaven, one to testify on high, one that will argue the case with God, one that somehow has a knowledge of and sympathy with the human condition. “My witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high” (16:19) How close this is to the affirmation of the beloved apostle, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:2). Also compare Hebrews 2:14-18. This mediator is a very perplexing person, for Job believes that he is “on high,” the place reserved for God; in addition, Job, from bitter experience, knows that no mere man may come before God to “testify” and to “argue the case of a man.” Somehow, he must have such exaltation that God will listen to him, but at the same time, his interest would be to argue the case “of a man” in the way that “a son of man does with his neighbor” (21). Both the honor of God and the interest of man must be present in this one person.
In spite of all that is against him, Job refused to concede that the kind of hope for which he looks, and that he indeed has, is a mere chimera. Such a longing of the soul, such a desire for an audience with God does not arise from nothing but must be drawn from the soul by the soul-maker.
Job is convinced that the near future holds death and the present will be characterized by mockers constantly perfecting their art of provocation. Biological life will soon terminate and the social relations until then hold no joy but only the presence of bitter self-righteous accusers. Here (17:3, 4) Job seems to ask God to provide a surety for him. None of his friends will do this. They only blame him; who will intercede? Matthew Henry noted, “Some make Job here to glance at the mediation of Christ, for he speaks of a surety with God, without whom he durst not appear before God, nor try his cause at his bar.” Job also seems to think that since all earthly friends indicate that they have no understanding (God has not opened the minds of any of them to help Job sort out these issues), their analysis cannot be the final word. Their viewpoint will not triumph, so God himself will provide an answer.
Most observers continue to mock him and find him despicable. To them, he is a “byword” and like one “in whose face men spit.” So insignificant he has become in community issues and so withered and diminished in physical presence that “all my members are like shadows” (17:7). He cares nothing for the mockers and their words do not phase him at all. “I shall not find a wise man among you” (10). The righteous have no answer; truly they are “astonished,” even “appalled” at this condition and the vision of the formerly regal Job. They continue, nevertheless, to serve God and resist the way that the self-righteous stab at Job with their words. “The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless” (17:8).
Job now looks to the rapid approach of death and considers whether death and the silence of the grave, and the corruption of the body in the soil is actually to be the final word. Is he, a man, no more than the pit in which he is thrown or the worms that will live alongside his decaying body? (14). The loftier aspirations of his soul, his unquenchable thirst for God, to see his face, to stand in his presence, to learn the purpose of such an exquisite display of destruction,–are all of these things nothing? Is the grave, the silent abode of death, that seemingly inescapable prison of breathless stillness the final identity of soaring desires that rise above the despicable appearance of his physical state?
If one concludes that such is the true final state of man, then it is just as rational to call the worm, “My mother” or “my sister.” Job cannot bring himself to believe that that is the truth. His own state and the false and implacable rigidity of his increasingly strident accusers render it unthinkable to Job that hope shall die with his body. He does not speak of hope in the abstract as a thing in humanity in a general sense, but his peculiar hope, the hope that irrepressibly surges in his own breast. “Where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?” (17:15, 16)
Job’s questions in 13-16 indicate the glory of ever-increasing revelatory truth. He asks these questions with the implication that surely the most apparent answer cannot be true, but with no evidence that another option exists. Grave, darkness, corruption, Sheol, dust, and unrealized hope loom before him as invincible enemies while his inquisitive spirit and yearning conscience abhor the finality of nihilism. What does God think? This we need to know. Soon another saint of God will say, “How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” He can answer Job’s perplexities with confident answers to the questions: “Where shall I go from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. … If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ even the night shall be light about me; indeed darkness shall not hide from You” (Psalm 139:17, 7-12).
Dr. Tom Nettles is widely regarded as one of the foremost Baptist historians in America. He joined the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he was professor of Church History and chairman of that department. Previously, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He received a B.A. from Mississippi College and an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Southwestern. In addition to writing numerous journal articles and scholarly papers, Dr. Nettles has authored or edited nine books including By His Grace and For His Glory, Baptists and the Bible, and Why I Am a Baptist.
Courses taught: Historical Theology of the Baptists, Historical Theology Overview, Jonathan Edwards & Andrew Fuller.
by Tom Nettles | Jan 2, 2024 | Old Testament, Practical Theology
*Editor’s Note: This is the seventh installment in a 9-part series on the book of Job by Dr. Tom J. Nettles. As more installments are released, each part of the series will be linked to each post.
To read part 1, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/have-you-considered-job-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 2, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-heavenly-origin-of-earthly-events-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 3, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-name-of-the-lord-is-to-be-blessed-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 4, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/it-is-your-fault-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 5, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/it-is-very-difficult-to-discuss-a-matter-with-god-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 6, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-will-just-listen-to-me-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 7, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-be-against-us-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 8, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-be-for-us-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 9, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/write-my-words-tom-j-nettles/
We now begin to look at the second cycle of speeches by Job’s friends and the corresponding responses of Job. It includes a more intensified version of the same theological ideas of the accusers, an excursion into bitterness on the part of Job, the brushing aside of the shallow impertinence of his interlocutors’ arguments, and a deepening of his own determination to discover the divine rationale behind his experience.
In his original speech, Eliphaz concentrated on the oppressed condition of Job as an indication of divine displeasure over Job’s supposed secret sin. In this speech, Eliphaz first condemns Job for his impertinent and meaningless talk, for his lack of submission to the moral concepts of the friends’ advice, and then returns to the idea that Job is suffering because he is evil.
Job’s words arise, so insists Eliphaz, from his unruly, irrational, and evil posture toward God. Not only are his words mere wind, and unprofitable, but they show he has no fear of God and arise not from an interest in righteousness but from a heart of iniquity. “For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty” (15:5)
According to Eliphaz, Job considers his observations as more profound and relevant than those of his friends and even the wisdom of the ages. “Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know?” “Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us.” Probably it is not wise to take a position against the absolutely unanimous opinion of others. When these opinions, however, arise only from limited data and reflect the rather narrow sphere of knowledge available to them, to press for a better informed and thus more sound answer is the duty of any serious observer, either to confirm or expand the present state of judgment. The data available to Job was more expansive than that taken into account by his comforters, the mystery of suffering more deeply puzzling, and the answer more relevant existentially. He could not consent to their platitudes.
Undeterred by Job’s profound, and bitter, resistance, Eliphaz continues to lance the wound. If Job had any respect for the infinite purity of God, he could not possibly persist in his call to present his case before God. What case could he present to one whose holiness transcends even the purest of created things? “What is man that he can be pure?” “Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight.” (15) God’s transcendent holiness and infinite excellence undergirds all his ways with his image-bearers. Merely stating the glorious fact, however, does not do justice to the multiplicity of ways in which his simple holy goodness engages moral beings in their various situations. A grasp for deeper understanding does not violate the posture of worship and reverence we always should observe before our sovereign Creator.
Eliphaz now returns to the original contention, which Job apparently defies by his words and actions. One must recognize that evil comes on people because they are evil in their heart toward God. “The wicked man writhes in pain all his days.” (20) “He will not be rich and his wealth will not endure” (29) “For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery” (34). Each of the speeches in this round reconstitutes this main idea.
Job’s fourth answer shows that he expects no comfort or substantial reasoning from his friends. He observes the desperateness of his condition, the way in which he is viewed by his contemporaries, and the present condition in which God has placed him; but he does not utterly despair of advancing toward an answer to his troubles or of finding an effective spokesman. His situation presents a disturbing ambivalence to observers, but he cannot bring himself to resign all possibility of advancement in the knowledge of God and his ways. Harrison summarizes Job’s words in 16:18 – 17:16 with the observation, “Overwhelmed by this thought, he relapsed into a hostile attitude towards God.” I think Harrison misses the mark on this as Job has a highly nuanced surge of confidence in this section. Paul House is much more true to the text as he observes, “Job responds with a second bedrock confession of faith.” [433]
Job returns the observation to Eliphaz that his own words are mere wind. If the tables were turned, Job could offer such hostile speech, but he contemplates a more empathetic and redeeming posture on his part (5). He gives graphic observations as to how this situation is in itself a display of God’s own aggressive destruction of Job’s security and pleasant conditions. God has set himself against Job. God “has worn me out, . . . has shriveled me up,” and “has torn me in his wrath and hated me.” He has set ruffians against him. Verses 10 and 11 could easily be transferred into the New Testament as an account of the treatment of Christ before Pilate and Herod. God is relentless in his removal of all comfort from Job and has, as it were, so removed every comfort from him that he could just as well have disemboweled him.
Even with all this, however, Job knows that his only hope is in God. His great lamentation of his condition, prompted by no immediate reason that he can conceive, does not diminish his continuing contention that God will grant him a hearing. Though crushed by this almighty relentless power that has apparently become his adversary, he nevertheless maintains an outgoing of his soul in prayer (16, 17). Job then expresses a fundamental faith that his condition calls for a more profound understanding of the ways of God with men than he had been presented by his friends. If he himself cannot come before God, if he himself finds that rejection is the only response to his pleas to be heard, then this means that another will be an advocate for him. God surely will not show such a radical moral judgment on one of his creatures without providing some mediator to communicate the truth. Surely such desires as he has for knowledge of God will not fall to the ground with universal silence being the only response.
In our next entry, we will look at Job’s increasingly dolorous and intensely theocentric contemplation.
Dr. Tom Nettles is widely regarded as one of the foremost Baptist historians in America. He joined the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he was professor of Church History and chairman of that department. Previously, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He received a B.A. from Mississippi College and an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Southwestern. In addition to writing numerous journal articles and scholarly papers, Dr. Nettles has authored or edited nine books including By His Grace and For His Glory, Baptists and the Bible, and Why I Am a Baptist.
Courses taught: Historical Theology of the Baptists, Historical Theology Overview, Jonathan Edwards & Andrew Fuller.
by Tom Nettles | Jan 1, 2024 | Old Testament, Practical Theology
*Editor’s Note: This is the sixth installment in a 9-part series on the book of Job by Dr. Tom J. Nettles. As more installments are released, each part of the series will be linked to each post.
To read part 1, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/have-you-considered-job-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 2, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-heavenly-origin-of-earthly-events-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 3, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-name-of-the-lord-is-to-be-blessed-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 4, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/it-is-your-fault-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 5, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/it-is-very-difficult-to-discuss-a-matter-with-god-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 6, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-will-just-listen-to-me-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 7, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-be-against-us-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 8, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-be-for-us-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 9, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/write-my-words-tom-j-nettles/
Job has not relented in his resistance to the rather stilted and detached form of absolutism that informed the words of his counselors. Nor have they changed their approach or allowed Job’s resistance to sway them for what is becoming a personal attack on Job. Zophar now joins the parade of accusation against Job. His is the shallowest. His words are repetitive of other ideas already mentioned both by Job, Eliphaz and Bildad, and the most aggressive yet. While Job looks to God and says, “You know that I am not guilty,” (10:7), Zophar countered, “God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves” (11:6b ESV). In the network of conflicting ideas in these theological exchanges, both assertions are right, and both are wrong.
Zophar accused Job of arrogance. “Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you?” (11:3 ESV). Job, so Zophar contended, holds to his righteousness in defiance of God’s obvious righteous judgment on him. In fact, the punitive measures poured on him fall far below what he deserves. Since his present trouble is the immediate result of his badness, if Job will repent, then all will be well. “You will forget our misery, … you will feel secure, … many will court your favor” (11:16, 18, 19 ESV). If you simply come clean on your sin, you will feel good and everyone will like you.
This simplistic and accusatory tirade makes Job decide that he should take his case directly to God. This shows that he is reaffirming his trust in God’s integrity. As for his friends, their reasoning is utterly worthless; they “whitewash with lies” and they all are “worthless physicians” (13:4 ESV). Job affirms that his understanding is not inferior to theirs, Theirs does not probe the immensity of this problem but only repeats commonly affirmed platitudes. “Who does not know such things as these?” (12:3).
Job began to lay out the complexity of the problem. He who had formerly been seen as blessed because righteous, now, though he has done nothing other than the good he had done before, is a laughingstock. Even though he is still, in the same way as formerly, just and blameless, he is now a joke. At the same time, the tents of robbers are at peace and idolaters are secure. Something doesn’t add up.
None can boast of virtue and wisdom simply because they presently are secure. Those now at peace or in positions of authority and power might be thrust into deep darkness at any moment. “He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless waste” (12:24 ESV; NKJV). “He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people, etc” (NASB). Job has observed all this, so he probes a new explanation for these events. He warns his accusing friends to beware for they are worthless physicians and might be arguing a case for God that God himself does not embrace. “Your maxims [or platitudes] are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay” (13:12).
Job reaffirms his trust in God but also asks that God be willing to let him argue his case before him “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face” (13:15 ESV); or, “even so I will defend my own ways before him” (NKJV). Job asked God to stop oppressing him by his mere power and be willing to listen to him argue his case. (21, 22) He wants to know what is going on. Why does God hide from him? If his problem is sin, then make it known. Unless God is pleased to show himself to man, he perishes as a mere nothing (14:1-12). But if God will deal with a man’s sin in such a way as to provide for the forgiveness of iniquity, fellowship could be restored (14:13-17). As it stands, however, death will come before any satisfactory answers are given. God is powerful, has all the prerogatives, and seems content to let man pass with no hope. (14:18-22). “Man breathes his last, and where is he?” (14:10 ESV). A godless man would not be willing to lay himself open to such a confrontation.
Job’s friends, in Job’s opinion, provide nothing that can help him in his struggle to find the purpose of God and see the face of God in this situation. They are worthless. He, however, has moved from abject despair and bitter hopelessness to a renewed confidence in the final goodness of God. He needs to find some way to come before him and set forth his case. If sin is the cause of these calamities, then he asks God to show it for what it is and open up the way for forgiveness and restoration. But what a meaningless and hopeless tragedy it would be for God to have a creature that yearned to see his face, to know him, to be reconciled to him, and for silence to be the only response. Job would not wait long until God showed up with a series of questions of his own. These would shut Job’s mouth while expanding Job’s grasp of divine sovereignty, justice, and mercy to an extent that Job had never contemplated even in his most intense meditations.
Dr. Tom Nettles is widely regarded as one of the foremost Baptist historians in America. He joined the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he was professor of Church History and chairman of that department. Previously, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He received a B.A. from Mississippi College and an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Southwestern. In addition to writing numerous journal articles and scholarly papers, Dr. Nettles has authored or edited nine books including By His Grace and For His Glory, Baptists and the Bible, and Why I Am a Baptist.
Courses taught: Historical Theology of the Baptists, Historical Theology Overview, Jonathan Edwards & Andrew Fuller.
by Tom Nettles | Jan 1, 2024 | Old Testament, Practical Theology
*Editor’s Note: This is the fifth installment in a 9-part series on the book of Job by Dr. Tom J. Nettles. As more installments are released, each part of the series will be linked to each post.
To read part 1, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/have-you-considered-job-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 2, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-heavenly-origin-of-earthly-events-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 3, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/the-name-of-the-lord-is-to-be-blessed-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 4, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/it-is-your-fault-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 5, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/it-is-very-difficult-to-discuss-a-matter-with-god-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 6, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-will-just-listen-to-me-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 7, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-be-against-us-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 8, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/if-god-be-for-us-tom-j-nettles/
To read part 9, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/write-my-words-tom-j-nettles/
The failed attempt of Eliphaz to subdue Job to admit that secret sin had brought the power of God against him, emboldens Bildad to reprove Job, advocate the “goodness brings blessing and badness produces vanity” approach, and issue a call to repentance. He accuses Job of meaningless talk and of avoiding the obvious truth that his sin has brought God’s judgment on him (2, 3). Bildad cruelly insinuates to Job that the loss of his children was a deserved punishment on them (4). He gave what R. K. Harrison called “the popular punitive interpretation of such events” (Introduction, 1029).
Bildad gives the quick answer to this entire problem. If Job will just admit his sin and seek God earnestly, all indications of divine favor will be restored, and, in fact, will be enlarged. This is the lesson of history (“inquire of past generations” NASB), he claimed. This is the rule that governs all things. “The hope of the godless shall perish. . . . God will not reject a blameless man.” (8:13, 20 ESV) Paul House points out that Bildad “rejects any notion that bearing injustice in faith provides glory for Yahweh. Apparently only those enjoying ease embody a lifestyle that honors God.” (Paul House, Old Testament Theology, 432).
Again, Bildad responds on the basis of a general truth but misappropriates it in a fallen world. Fundamental to the biblical understanding of Law and the corresponding doctrine of justification is the clearly established reality that God will “by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:7 ESV). Ontologically one must receive the truth that God is just and will not overlook injustice. Job’s friends grasped the certainty of this idea and applied it immediately to the case of Job. In this same passage, however, we learn that God also is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exodus 34:6, 7 ESV) Infused into the dynamic of the counsel of the friends and Job’s perplexity is the dilemma as to how God can be both of these. We are led through the anguish of Job to consider how divine sovereignty, divine justice, and divine mercy are all expressions of the singular goodness and wisdom of God.
Job admits, for the present, that the principle of the prosperity of the righteous and the destruction of the wicked is true. But this is the question: “How can a man be in the right before God?” (9:1 ESV) or “How should man be just with God?” (KJV) or “be righteous before God?” (NKJV). Job considers God from the standpoint of unfettered sovereignty and a transcendent righteousness that can always find fault even in the most righteous among men. “Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser” (9:15, ESV cf with verse 20). God is “wise in heart and mighty in strength” (4). He is omnipotent, omniscient, immanent, indwells, and upholds all things in ways that we cannot see. Somehow, both in matter and manner beyond our perception, God will find a way to accuse those that are not cognizant of unrighteousness in themselves; the only appeal, therefore, with such a mighty and exalted being is for mercy, not justice. “If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?” ((9:19 ESV) or “set me a time to plead?” (KJV). Neither by power nor by our perception of justice can any creature summon God or plead with him with any prospect of appearing other than perverse and guilty, Job observed. What is the hope of a mere creature in the face of such an unequal contest? From a standpoint of despondency, Job asked the question that the Psalmist asked from a standpoint of amazement at divine mercy. “What is man that you make much of him, visit him every morning and test him every moment? (7:17, 18 ESV), Job queried. The Psalmist looked at the divine majesty and asked, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have … crowned hm with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:4, 5 ESV). What a difference a revelational understanding of divine providence makes!
Given this oppressive reality, Job concludes that the clear lines of distinction drawn by his friend/accusers hold no validity in the face of God: “It is all one; therefore I say, He destroys both the blameless and the wicked” (22).
Job offers that tantalizing scenario in which one that could represent with clarity both the interests of God and the interests of man would take up the case and be able to plead it with effect. “For he is not a man as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both” (9:32, 33 ESV) “Nor is there any mediator between us,” the New King James Version reads. This anguished struggle on Job’s part clearly sets up the case for orthodox Christology in the context of the manner in which God justified sinners.
Though it is useless to present one’s case before a Being of such transcendence, Job viewed himself as the innocent victim of God’s desire to manifest his unopposable power. “You know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand” (10:7 ESV). “If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look upon my affliction.” (10:15 ESV). Since it appears that God is intent on destroying Job, why did he ever bring him into existence in the first place? (10:16-19) But since he does have existence, why does God not leave him alone for just a while so that this life can have some cheer before he slips into the land of “darkness and deep shadow” (10:20, 21). He revisits this request in 14:5, 6.
No skeptic has ever entered such wrenching questions about God as did Job. No investigation of the problem of pain has ever been approached from a more existentially relevant position. Has the seemingly fortuitous attack of evil ever had a more difficult example to solve than the condition of Job, or have questions as deep and unsearchable been proposed? We have been led to a brief consideration of the divine wisdom in making a path for mercy and lovingkindness.
Dr. Tom Nettles is widely regarded as one of the foremost Baptist historians in America. He joined the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he was professor of Church History and chairman of that department. Previously, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He received a B.A. from Mississippi College and an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Southwestern. In addition to writing numerous journal articles and scholarly papers, Dr. Nettles has authored or edited nine books including By His Grace and For His Glory, Baptists and the Bible, and Why I Am a Baptist.
Courses taught: Historical Theology of the Baptists, Historical Theology Overview, Jonathan Edwards & Andrew Fuller.
