Job was recorded in the Bible to be a righteous man who was blessed with wealth and children.
The Lord put him to test by taking away his wealth and children, and also striked him with sickness.
Job remained righteous even in the face of such great adversities. The Lord blessed him with more prosperity than he had before the test.
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. JOB 1:1
Suffering the consequences of our wrong actions can be painful, but it pales in comparison to the pain that we feel when we suffer for no apparent reason of our own. That is why Job’s painful experiences move us so deeply.
Job was a very successful man, with seven sons, three daughters, and a wealth of livestock. In fact, “he was the greatest man among all the people of the East.” The Bible also makes it clear that Job was a righteous man. In a single day, however, nearly all his earthly blessings were snatched away: All his animals were either stolen or destroyed, and every single one of his children died in a terrible tragedy. Yet “in all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing” (Job 1).
But Job’s sufferings were not over yet. He himself was stricken with terrible sores from head to toe, and even his own wife prodded him to give up on God (Job 2). Finally, some of Job’s friends came to mourn with him; but in the end, each of them spent great energy trying to convince Job that he had caused his own suffering by some hidden sin.
In all of this, God was holding Job up as an example of a truly righteous man, someone who would remain faithful even when undergoing terrible suffering. That does not mean that Job did not question what God was doing and express anger over his condition.
When God finally did answer Job, however, He made it clear that His ways are far above human ways and cannot truly be understood by human beings.
Job humbly recognized his place before God, and God blessed him once again with even more children and livestock.
The book of Job is written in both poetry and prose. The prose sections include the introductory section (which sets the scene and informs the reader of the dialogue between God and Satan) and the conclusion (which describes Job’s restoration and blessing). The rest of the book is written in Hebrew poetry.