The review of Job and the Problem of Suffering was written by Steve Bradford. Steve is a member of The Compass Church in Naperville, Illinois. Steve serves as an usher at the church. Every Sunday Steve greets members and visitors with a friendly smile. I invited Steve to offer his reaction to what he read about Job and suffering. Below is Steve’s review of the book.

Job and the Problem of Suffering
A Review by Steve Bradford

For the past several years of ushering at our church, The Compass Church in Naperville, Illinois, I have had an opportunity to meet and talk to Claude Mariottini.

I have learned that Claude loves the Lord and loves teaching and writing about the Old Testament. His expertise helped him provide a good exposition of the book of Job. I enjoyed reading Job and the Problem of Suffering and learned much from what Claude wrote about Job’s suffering.

Job and the Problem of Suffering gave me a new and deeper awareness of suffering that I never really gave the proper time and attention to in the past. It was a good wake-up call for me and came at a time shortly after losing one of my two best friends who I watched suffer with pulmonary fibrosis for the past three years.

My joy was knowing that he is with the Lord and his suffering is over. I believe the lesson that I learned from spending a great deal of time with my friend during his time of suffering and seeing his Job-like attitude was that God has things under control and it is best if we do not try to help him do what he is so good at – being God.

Job had three know-it-all friends, a passerby, and even his wife barraging him with reasons for his situation and how he should deal with it.

Job had been through more than anyone could ever fathom, a suffering that was almost impossible to deal with. Job was a righteous man whom God loved, so it was very difficult for him to understand God’s justice in allowing his suffering without providing an explanation for it.

As Claude points out in his conclusion of his book, the lesson we should learn from the book of Job is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The reason we should read Job and the Problem of Suffering is to understand a bit better that through our suffering and our faith on the brink of collapse, God will not abandon us.

Steve Bradford

I would like to thank Steve for this review. After Steve read the book, he said that he underlined most of the book.

In recent days, two readers of the book told me that they are planning to use the book for their small Bible study group. This news is very gratifying because the book addresses the problem of suffering and offers a positive way to deal with suffering.

Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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