base area for British, Australian and New Zealand troops. Site of the Imperial School of Instruction (1916–19).
————————— 8 ————————— Baffled to Fight Better
Job and the Problem of Suffering
Oswald Chambers
First published in 1917 This edition ©1931 Oswald Chambers Publications Association Scripture versions quoted: kjv; rv
IntroductIon
Source These were talks given by Oswald Chambers to soldiers during the evening classes at Zeitoun,1 March 10–April 4, 1917.
the conviction that Tragedy is the basis of things and Redemption the way out.
October 8, 1916: The fourth and fifth chapters of Job
make most stately reading. The searching of vv. 3–6, chap. 4, read with Romans 2:21–24, is a most beneficial thing for those of us who are always talking to others. It is easy to become an intolerable prig, a dogmatic superior person, without knowing it.
Publication History • This material was first published as a book in December 1917. It was printed by the Nile Mission Press2 in Cairo, and shortly thereafter was published in England. • Subsequent editions were published in Britain and the US.
October 10, 1916: Job 6 is a fine full expression to mul-
titudes in the valley of agony and sorrow just now. I believe of all the books of consolation none will be so great or grand as the Book of Job because an expression to sorrow, as to joy, means a great rising to face life again as its master.
In the autumn of 1916, Chambers had just begun his second year as YMCA secretary to British Commonwealth troops at Zeitoun Camp, near Cairo.
October 14, 1916: Job . . . as I read him this morning . . . is
For several weeks during the months of October and November, Chambers' personal Bible reading each morning centered in the book of Job. Excerpts from Oswald's personal diary best express the impact of Job on him and his vision of what Job would mean to people after the war.
not affected or sentimental, but gripped by the real and appalling agony of mystery and pain, free from spite, and yet so honest in expression of pain and distress.
October 28, 1916: Job 23 is surely the classic of deep woe
rolling out across the very universe: "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" All through the Book of Job there is a heartbreaking devotion to God in the midst of inexplicable complexity of sorrow. I feel growingly sure that Job is the Book of consolation for the sorrowtossed and bereaved and broken by the war, for not only is the voice of human suffering expressed here
October 7, 1916: How profoundly in harmony with
fundamental life the third chapter of Job is in its actually apparent discord. How many a man and woman could say in deepest anguish—"Wherefore is light given to him that is in [deep] misery, and life unto the bitter in soul?" Deeper and deeper grows
1. Zeitoun (zay TOON). An area 6 miles NE of Cairo. Site of YMCA camp, Egypt General Mission compound and a large base area for British, Australian and New Zealand troops. Site of the Imperial School of Instruction (1916–19).
2. Nile Mission Press was established by the Egypt General Mission in 1905 to print Christian materials primarily for outreach to Muslims.