THOUGH I AM HARDLY a psychiatrist, and the Book of Job is far from a textbook on mental health, we can easily see how much Job’s experience displays the classic symptoms of clinical depression. And though the text is not intended as therapeutic, it can provide hope and clarity to individuals grappling with mental health…
Author: Curtis L. Mattson
Stock Exchange on the Range
ANOTHER THEME THAT ECHOES through the conversation between Job and his friends—sometimes loudly, sometimes quietly—involves his wealth. Unfortunately for his friends, their words reveal more of their attitude toward money than it does about Job’s. If you recall, the book states right from the start that Job was among the richest men of his time…
Theology Is for Cowards
THROUGHOUT THE BOOK of Job, we find Job’s three friends spouting theology of greater or lesser accuracy and applicability to Job in the face of his adversity. Their knowledge of God is praiseworthy, considering what little revelation of God’s character and plan would have been available by the date this book was presumably written. However,…
Justice Delayed and Blessings Denied
One of the most difficult things about the Christian life — one that perhaps requires the most faith — is God’s apparent delay in dispensing both judgment and blessing. If we’re honest, in some cases this delay is a good thing. That is, the Lord himself says he is “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6; Numbers…
The Deepest of Disappointments
What if someone or something you love so deeply turns out to be something different? Turns out to disappoint you, deceive you. How do you feel after you have worked so hard, given up so much, and built your whole life around him, her, or it, then that person or thing changes—or worse, abandons you?…
A Friend Can Stop a Failure of Faith
ONE OF THE BEAUTIES of Scripture is that, from one verse to the next, its subject matter may range from cosmological truth to personal tragedy. The entire Book of Job is a case in point. And within that book there is a verse that seems to contain both extremes in the confines of only six…
When Good Advice is Bad for You
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN a friend’s advice is actually the devil talking? Maybe what a friend says sounds right, but (1) it either doesn’t fit you, (2) it doesn’t fit the circumstances, (3) it comes from bad theology, and/or (4) it comes from bad motives. After Job loses everything, his friend Eliphaz leads off the barrage of…
Playing Peek-a-boo with God?
A GOD WHO HIDES—several Old Testament writers use the term. And obviously it is a great theme in Job as well (13:24). The writers of the Psalms, the prophet Isaiah … it is the common experience of God’s people ever since the Garden of Eden, where we hid ourselves from God. At the risk of…
Not In Our Stars but In Our Selves
IN A RECENT SERMON, I was reminded of a verse that I’ve always felt was very helpful but very “under-preached.” That is, I don’t recall ever hearing a minister of the word speak directly on what it addresses. But to me, it’s one of those verses that clears up so many things, especially when it…
Shut Up and Listen
IN LIGHT OF RECENT societal unrest over continuing racial injustice, I am moving up the calendar on this post entitled “Shut Up and Listen” (or, more politely, “Listening is Better than Speaking”). And it will be an abbreviated one. Judging someone as guilty is a major theme in the Book of Job and continues to…