2026 Book Review #15:Job, A Story of Unlikely Joy

 

I signed up for a womens class at my church for Monday mornings and we began this book at the end of January.  There are just 7 chapters but 14 weeks of class.  We have 4 more classes as today's had to be cancelled.  I am through with the book though and although some of the questions were deep, probing and needed commentaries to answer, I learned alot about Job and what God was actually doing in his life and how to comfort people who are suffering.  The what to say and not to say points were awesome. Some of it I already knew, as I had training to be a small group leader in 2009 at my church and we learned about "not singing songs to a wounded heart"....i.e. no cliches like "God has a purpose" or "you can always adopt" or "time heals all wounds", etc etc. 

BOOK SUMMARY

This is an indepth look at pain.  Pain in our lives is inevitable. God never promises that we will not suffer any trials when we become Christ followers. We might have emotional, mental, physical, relational, financial, or spiritual pain.  There is all kinds of pain.  

But regardless of your pain, there is a way to respond to it and there is a way to respond to others and their pain. 

Job was a godly man  who had some serious losses. It didn't seem fair at all. 

But..his closest friends...his comforters became critics. 

And Job's questions weren't answered. 

But in the middle of all that darkness, he clung to hope and the light of Life peeked through...and eventually...joy came out of the darkness and pain. 

Each chapter includes readings from Job in the Old Testament as well as various Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments in the reading portions as well as the homework portions. 

The book includes an Introduction. 

The chapter titles are as follows:

1. Subtracting Insults from Injuries
2. The Lonely Aisles of Ache
3. The Expulsive Power of the Cross with Regard to Pretense
4. The Serenity of Surrender
5. A Better Kind of Wound Care (I loved this chapter!!)
6. Seeing You Settles Me (another great chapter that really spoke to my heart)
7. Your Journal of Unlikely Joy

The book includes some  tips for leaders so this is a good book for small group leaders to use as well as people who teach the bigger classes.  In our class we had 45 women signed up but on most Mondays, we had about 35 women separated into groups of 6 or 7 at tables. 

Each session involves either watching the author, Lisa Harper, on dvd or discussing the homework/discussion questions.  The class instructor chose which questions we would discuss. Many times we only had time to do 4-5 out of about 10. Some were deeper than others. All of them tied in with Scriptures or were self reflective. 

There are also EndNotes in the back of the back and a short bio on the author at the beginning of the book. 

MY THOUGHTS

This made for a good class discussion.  The reading was easy, although there was a lot of it each week.  The questions were thought provoking and some were based on Scripture and  most were self-reflective.  

There were blank pages with lines for note taking while watching her videos. 

There are also large blank spaces to write in your answers which I found useful as no notebook was needed. 

In my opinion, this study is appropriate for  ages 17 and older and for Christ followers.  New Christians or non Believers might find it rather difficult. 

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.