God's Servant Job by Douglas Bond

I want to thank P&R Publishing for providing me with a copy of God’s Servant Job: A Poem with a Promise in return for my honest opinion.

I had only followed Jesus a couple of years when I got sick with a respiratory infection that just wouldn’t clear. I’d come from a health and wealth background, and when I got diagnosed with asthma, and found myself fighting for control of my health, I was mighty confused.

It was during that time that I read the Bible through in 86 days. The book of Job resonated with me, and I read it again and again. I prayed from Job 1:20:

“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”

I read from Job 38-41, where God answers Job’s complaints, over and over again. It was as though God was answering my complaints and confusion personally. I learned that God is sovereign, that our trials are ordained by Him, and that through our trials, He is glorified and we are sanctified. I learned to submit–not an easy lesson for this former super-feminist.

At the time of my diagnosis (about a year into getting sick), my youngest boys were three and four. The boys listened to The NIrV Little Kids Adventure Bible on CDs at night before bed, and my littlest guy was really taken by the story of Job. For him, God’s sovereignty became so real and so important. It was something we had many conversations about (on a three-year-old level).

All that to say, Job is an incredibly important (and very overlooked) book. I believe we owe it to our children to teach them the lessons of God’s work in Job’s life. The themes of the book are vital to a proper understanding of theology.

Douglas Bond (one of my very favorite authors) has written a new book on Job for kids ages 4-9. God’s Servant Job (P&R Publishing, 2015) is incredible. The illustrations by Todd Shaffer are amazing. I’m especially taken by the marvelous drawings depicting Satan as pipe-smoking mad scientist. The illustrations of the angels are vague, glowing, and from the back, with no representation of God in the illustrations. I know that many will appreciate that.

Douglas Bond has written the book in rhyme, which is not easy to do, and has condensed 42 chapters of dense conversation, theology, and story to 32 pages. The last spread has vocabulary, a quiz, and Let’s Think! discussion questions.

Throughout the book, Douglas Bond emphasizes God’s sovereign rule, Satan’s role as accuser (subject to a sovereign God), and the purpose of suffering. It’s an incredibly powerful message, incredibly well-written and well-illustrated, and incredibly important. God’s Servant Job: A Poem with a Promise is a book that belongs in every home, church, and school library.

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