James Durham's Lectures on Job

I must confess, the biblical book of Job always gave me fits, I had a pretty good understanding what was going on in the first couple of chapters and the last couple of chapters, and chapter 29 has been called by some “the Proverbs 31” chapter for men. But there were all those discourses in the middle of the book that didn’t make sense. Job’s friends would be trying to convince him of sin and sometime use correct theological arguments, yet when God appears on the scene we know that they were wrong. I just had a hard time wrapping my head around it. Enter James Durham and his slim volume on Job entitled “Lectures on Job.”

James Durham lived from 1622-1658 and was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. In addition to this work on Job I own several of his other works: his exposition on the 10 commandments, his book on scandal in the church, a book of sermons on Christ and his volume of 72 sermons on Isaiah 53.

Durham’s “Lectures on Job” is a relatively short work (Joseph Caryl’s massive work on Job runs to 12 volumes) but it is rich and very helpful. Durham does not go verse by verse through the book of Job but instead chapter by chapter. In each chapter Durham explains what is happening and then expounds some of the biblical truths contained in the chapter, and completes his lecture on that chapter by giving what are called “Observations” but we would call them applications. And this is part of the real treasure of the work. You not only come to understand what God is teaching us in each chapter, but Durham then applies it to us. Durham is an excellent expositor and is able to get to the heart of the message without wasting a lot of words. He is also a pastor and so his applications are very helpful

The last time my family went through Job in family worship I used this book to prepare with. I didn’t read the whole chapter to them but I went through beforehand and highlighted those things I wanted them to understand about the chapter and then used the observations to apply it to their lives. It was a wonderful experience.

Now, you might be concerned that a book written in the 17th century would be difficult to read but Naphtali Press has done of great job of preparing it for a contemporary audience. They say of their method, “It [the book] has been revised in so far as possible without marring the author’s work, to reflect contemporary spelling, punctuation, and usage.” And I think they do a great job. Where there are words that Durham used that they felt that they needed to leave in but that would be foreign to modern readers they provide a translation. The book itself is hardback and printed on acid-free paper. It contains a scripture index and a name and subject index.

Is this a easy book to read? Yes and No. Durham’s writing is from a different age and sometime you need to think through how he is saying something. But this is not that very difficult. A well educated reader will have no trouble with this book and any time you spend wrestling with it will be time well spent. And Durham does not write in a dense prose like some of the puritans could (John Owen I’m looking at you!), but he is also not as terse and vigorous as Thomas Watson.

You need to understand the book of Job, Durham’s lectures are a good way to give you a good understanding of Job. I highly recommend this work. Go get it now!

5 out of 5 stars.

Renee's Drawing

Ok, so this isn't a review but I had to post this picture. My daughter Renee (#7 of 8) drew a picture of Carol and me. Carol had me take a picture to capture the moment.

Technical Details:
I used my Cannon SD400 and a bean bag to stabilize the camera (instead of a tripod). I learned this trick from a podcast I listen to called "Tips From the Top Floor." I cropped and sharpened the picture using a free (as in beer) program from Google called Picasa, which I am also using to publish to this blog.

This picture shows you one of the myriad reasons it is fantastic being a dad. With 8 kids I am greatly blessed by God.