Sometimes overlooked in the whole of scripture, Job is not at all marginal when it comes to questions of faith in the face of adversity and the universal human quest for meaning and order in a world that consistently mocks both. For when excruciating unfairness strikes us directly and personally, no faith question is more central than the agonized "Why?" addressed to God.
When excruciating unfairness strikes us directly and personally, no faith question is more central than the agonized “Why?” addressed to God. Wharton concludes that the function of the Book of Job is not, and never has been, to provide answers but to keep the questions urgent and contemporary for all who set out to honor and serve God. At the simplest and most important level, Job provides faithful people with this slim comfort: it resounds with our cries of the heart and honors those cries as an authentic dimension of faithfulness.