Dr Paul Allen

Image via Wikipedia "Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?" ( Job 4:18-19 )   This was the strange message delivered to Eliphaz , the first of the three friends who proved such "miserable comforters" to Job in his sufferings, by "a spirit" that "stood still, . . . an image . . . before mine eyes" ( vv. 15-16 ).  This "thing was secretly |literally 'stealthily'| brought to me," said Eliphaz ( v. 12 ), and there is little doubt that its original source was Satan himself, in his efforts to discredit and destroy Job.  The "spirit" who instructed Eliphaz was not sent from God , as he may have thought, but was one of those angelic servants who had been "charged with folly," when they followed Lucifer in his primeval rebellion.   Still smarting with wo...

Image via Wikipedia In the arena of biblical studies , there are five books that are generally included under the heading of “ wisdom literature ” or “the poetic books of the Old Testament .” They are the books of Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes , Song of Solomon , and Job. Of these five books, one stands out in bold relief, manifesting significant differences from the other four.  That is the book of Job . The wisdom that is found in the book of Job is not communicated in the form of proverb. Rather, the book of Job deals with questions of wisdom in the context of a narrative dealing with Job’s profound anguish and excruciating pain. The setting for this narrative is in patriarchal times. Questions have arisen as to the authorial intent of this book, whether it was meant to be historical narrative of a real individual or whether its basic structure is that of a drama with a prologue, including an opening scene in heaven, involving discourse between God and Satan , and moving clim...