outreach to Muslims.
————————— 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.
44 Baffled to Fight Better
better than anywhere, but the very breath is drawn in the fear of the Lord, and the heart is strong in the hope that grades higher than faith.
sages, undoubtedly caused Oswald and Biddy to consider publishing all of the talks in this series. Almost as soon as the talks on Job were ended, Biddy was working to transcribe her shorthand notes and prepare them for publication. On April 5, 1917, OC wrote to a friend in England, "Hope to send you a book on Job soon (at least Biddy does, I take no more responsibility after having spoken my mind)."
October 30, 1916: Job 24 reminds me of Ibsen's
plays more than of any recent thing. Ibsen's clearsightedness and his sense of the inexorable results of sin without any sense of forgiveness, seem to me most massively expressed in this chapter.
In a diary entry for August 13, 1917, OC noted: "I am at present, with Biddy's help, getting the last sheets of my talks on Job read for the printer, the book is to be entitled Baffled to Fight Better."
November 1, 1916: There was nothing of the Phari-
see about Job, he sticks to it that he is not a sinner, and he also sticks to it that God is just, knowing implicitly that a lie could never justify God, even if it apparently justified "Bildad & Co." And of chapters 29–31, what can one say—it is a never-tobe-equalled expression of vast personal sorrow and agony. Chapter 31:35–37 is Job's autobiography, written in tears and blood. And now "the words of Job are ended," and still no light and no "way" yet.
When Chambers died suddenly and unexpectedly in November 1917, Baffled had already been sent to press in Egypt.
Baffled to Fight Better is one of only three books compiled and printed before Chambers' death. The other two are Biblical Psychology (1912) and Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (1915).
The title comes from Robert Browning's "Asolando":
November 3, 1916: The remaining chapters of Job keep
my mind and heart in a glow of lifted wonder and worship.
One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better Sleep to wake.
Oswald gave these talks to British troops in the spring of 1917. Because the men were always in training and transition, few could attend all the classes. This, along with their heartfelt response to the mes-
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contents
Foreword to the First Edition .........................45 Foreword to the Third Edition ........................45 The Unseen Universe ...................................46 Dazed and Amazed ......................................47 The Passion of Pessimism ............................49 The Light That Failed .................................51 De Profundis ................................................53 The Interrogative Plaster ..............................55 Agnosticism ..................................................57 Bombast .......................................................60
On the Trail .................................................61 Ponderosity ...................................................64 The Frontiers of Despair ..............................66 The Bitterest Hurt in Life ............................68 The Primal Clash .........................................70 Parables ........................................................73 The Passion for Authority ............................76 The Passion for Reality ................................79 Locks v. Keys ................................................81 Disguise of the Actual ..................................83