Introduction

Out of the Ashes: God's Presence in Job's Pain

The “law of the harvest” is easy to understand. Like produces like. As the apostle Paul writes to the first-century church in Galatia, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (galatians 6:7).

The same idea was expressed much earlier in the book of Job. One of Job’s friends, implying that somehow Job deserved the calamities that had ambushed him, asked, “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (job 4:7-8).

As it turns out, the law of the harvest can be one of the most misleading of all ideas. For that reason alone, I hope that the following pages written by Bill Crowder get a wide reading and stir up renewed interest in one of the most ancient and important stories of the Bible.

Mart DeHaan