Reviewing commentaries is a tricky business – particularly for me as a generalist, and an in-publisher editor of commentaries! I tend to offer my review based on the format and content of the volume, and its utility or otherwise to preachers and pastors. Occasionally I’ll digress into particularly theological or stylistic quirks.
Barry G. Webb may be known to some as the author of the Bible Speaks Today volumes on Isaiah and Zechariah, as well as his NSBT ‘Five Festal Garments’, so I was delighted to see that he’d contributed the volume on Job to Lexham’s Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. This series, originally published by B&H under a different title, is one that I’ve really enjoyed, with the volume on Joshua by David Firth being one of my books of the year last year. At 500 pages, not including the front matter, this is a relatively major commentary, though the dense smaller hardback format Lexham use makes it quite a handy little volume! Webb’s introduction (88 pages) really whets the reader’s appetite, and I warmed to the book immensely at it’s opening paragraph:
“Every book of the Bible is there for a purpose. Some recount God’s dealings with his people in the past, and in doing so reveal much of the character and ways God – the God we, as followers of Jesus, have come to know as our heavenly Father. Some give us words of prayer and praise to address to him. Some give us instruction about how to live a life that pleases him. Others, like the book of Job, confront head-on the deep and troubling issues that life throws at us as we try to live in trusting obedience to God” (p. 1)
Webb goes on to suggest that Job should be seen as a wisdom book, with the note that “Wisdom is basically skill in living” (p. 5), whilst also noting that “Wisdom is essentially relational and behavioral. That is the theme of the book of Job” (p. 27. A helpful Appendix on the historicity of Job (I wonder if this might have been better labelled an excursus, or perhaps put in the normal place for an appendix?) is well worth perusing – with the intriguing comment that “Historicity is not the same as historical context” (p. 12), and a very helpful look at what this means in terms of biblical authority, with reference to the importance of genre. The way these two thread together has powerful application for today, in terms of the repentance that Job and his friends in different ways live out – “At it’s heart repentance is an attitude of humble, trustful submission to God. It is a lifelong thing…” (p.50). He concludes his introduction by summing up the message of the book of Job as “Be wise. Don’t let undeserved suffering turn you against God as Satan hopes it will. There are good reasons to believe God is sovereign, merciful, and just, and the outcome, if you endure, will be vindication and blessing.” (p. 78). Webb then outlines the book with a breakdown of Job’s 50 chapters over 10 pages – one observation I had for the hypothetical preacher of Job is that rather than preaching 50 sermons, chapter by chapter, Webb’s 12-part outline could be a viable scheme.
One of the most enduringly fascinating aspects of the book of Job is of course God’s speech, to both Job and to Satan. Early on, though, Webb notes that “it is God who opens and closes the central dialogue, showing that he retains the initiative in spite of Satan’s challenge” (p. 114).Webb demonstrates throughout that Job is a deeply theological book, and that it’s titular character “speaks as a true monotheist here, attributing everything to God” (p.154). Yet at the same time this is a book that is profoundly aware of the very human suffering of the man Job, and of it’s/his readers today. A particularly moving vignette is offered from Webb’s own experience with depression (p. 203) – and the complexities that this kind of suffering throw up around prayer, for example. And the mysterious sovereignty of God is always hovering in the background: “far from breaking through all his defenses, God himself is his defense, for it is God who has guarded his life by setting a strict limit on what Satan can do (2:6)” (p. 222).
In the complex interplay between God’s speech and action, human suffering, and everything else going on in the book of Job, Webb also draws out some particularly poignant application. For example, he comments that “It was not God’s gifts Job valued most, but God himself, and God’s friendship the thing he most missed now. His piety was real.” (p. 328). This is a challenging invitation to real piety – rather than mere gratitude. Similarly, the challenging honesty of lament features in a variety of ways throughout Webb’s commentary, but it is particularly pronounced when contrasted to/with worship in commenting on 30:24-31 (p. 340-1). And it is in this that Webb demonstrates his writers’ skill in crafting a commentary, for as we move towards the end of the book of Job, he writes: “This is the challenge for us. Are we prepared to meet God? Whether our personal meeting with him is now or in the future, are we prepared to be nothing that he may be everything? There is a sense in which God is always coming, and that we should always be ready to meet him. He has both come and is coming.” (p. 408). And this shapes Job’s response to what occurs – in a way that can resonate with us today: “In view of all that Yahweh has shown him, Job realizes that the only proper course is to leave the settlement of his affairs in God’s hands. It is for God to vindicate him, if he chooses to do so, in his own time and way. As it turns out, Job’s vindication is closer than he realises” (p. 455).
I really appreciated this commentary – certainly as an example of a commentary that can be read devotionally, as is my habit. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of Firth’s Joshua in the same series, and there are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I felt that occasionally Webb was a little wordier than needed, and that occasionally the format was a little off. The most glaring example of this was the aforementioned appendix – was it an appendix or an excursus? Secondly, for a commentary on Job published in 2023, it appeared from the author’s preface that it was finished in 2019 – the four year delay might explain some omissions from the bibliography, but by no means all. Notably, Atkinson’s BST, Balentine’s SHBC, Janzen’s Interpretation commentary, Thomas’s Welwyn, and Alden’s NAC volume weren’t in the bibliography. A number of important books on Job from an evangelical/biblical theology perspective have also been published in the four-year publication window – such as Eric Ortlund’s NSBT Piercing Leviathan, and commentaries in Crossway’s ESVEC and B&H’s exposition series. Whilst this might seem niggly, for the more academically-oriente pastor, this will be worth noting, and one wonders if the commentary could have come out a little sooner! To be fair, both of these criticism might be better directed at the publisher than the author – so I will bear the latter in mind in future EBTC reviews. Overall, though, this is a helpful, and very devotionally warm commentary on Job, which largely succeeds in the series’ aims in terms of biblical theology and evangelical spirituality. Whilst it isn’t perfect, I appreciated it and was edified by it. And this line has stuck with me: “Within the storm there will always be a golden glow” (p. 409).
4.5/5
I reviewed another commentary on Job – Katharine Dell’s little BRF ‘People’s Bible Commentary’, and I’d continually recommend Christopher Ash’s short book ‘Out of the Storm’.
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