Book Review: Great Lives: Job : A Man of Heroic Endurance

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Great Lives: Job : A Man of Heroic Endurance     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Charles R. Swindoll
Class/Genre:   Non-Fiction   Biography   Religious Non-Fiction
W Publishing, Mar 2004, $15.95, 371 pp.

As he has done with other Great Lives biblical biographies (see David, Esther, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, and Paul), Charles R. Swindoll provides a deep look at Job. This is not a biblical biographical fictionalized account of the bible. Instead, he furbishes a study starting with the Old Testament passages that first paint a picture of a pious, happy and successful person until “Sahtan” challenges God to test the holiness of Job by stripping away his life. Job becomes the victim of the ultimate test of humankind’s faith in God when even the Lord apparently abandoned him. Will he lose his belief, as he suffers from one Sahtan atrocity after another; or will his faith enable him to endure?

Mr. Swindoll goes over the passages with a fine toothcomb providing modern day examples to explain the underlying lessons of Job. Most people who have read the biblical book find it difficult to accept why God would allow such an extreme experiment especially on a good person. Besides providing obvious insight into Job, Mr. Swindoll offers intriguing insight into the key “characters” who star in this drama and a theory as to why the events occurred. Biblical readers will appreciate this powerful deep look into Job, a man with the fortitude to endure incredibly devilish torture.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner