God is (if I can put it this way) completely enthusiastic and even proud of his servant: “There is no one like him in all the earth!”. In Suffering Wisely and Well, Eric Ortlund explores different types of trials throughout Scripture, particularly the story of Job, revealing the spiritual purpose for pain and reassuring readers with God’s promise of restoration.

But when God says “there is no one like him in all the earth” (Job 1:8), he uses a phrase which is occasionally used for other humans beings (e.g., Solomon in 1 Kings 3:12), but most often found elsewhere in the Old Testament to describe God himself (1 Kings 8:32 Pss. Calling Job his servant is, of course, high praise in itself, for it puts Job in the same company as Abraham (Gen. I would locate the first hint of this deep joy not in Job’s happy life under God’s blessing (Job 1:1–5) but in God’s extremely high regard for his servant (Job 1:8). We mostly see it in God’s perspective on Job and all creation, and the way God reveals this to Job at the end of the book. But it has a quality of joy which is easy to miss but very profound. Job is a very difficult book to work through and to understand. What could be less joyful than the nightmare of Job’s suffering in Job 1–2? And does anyone find it joyful to wade through over thirty chapters of intense, agonized poetry as Job and his friends try and try and fail to figure out why Job’s tragedy happened? There are some very moving moments as we watch Job persevere in trusting God (Job 19:25–27 Job 23:3–7), but I always come to the final chapters of Job with a sense of relief. “Joy” is probably the last word most of us would use to describe the book of Job.

What is the opposite of joy