Let me pray with you and let's get started in the scriptures.

Lord, I've asked you for so much.

And now I'm going to ask you, Lord, for what I don't even know.

I ask you, Father, to make these glimpses and this draw to these pages so meaningful to us,

so rich to us,

that turning away from our fear of reading about hardship and suffering,

we look to the one, the captain of our salvation,

who for the joy set before him, endured the suffering.

We want your guidance, Holy Spirit. We need you. We need you. And I ask you, Father,

as we read through these words, that you will vivify them, that you'll animate them and bring

them to life and make us brave in our look at these chapters.

And even where it doesn't tidy up, Lord, make us so glad for the time that we spend in this

book together.

Now do what only you can do in the glorious and holy name of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Everybody say hallelujah and amen.

Job and the Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon, are easily the most passionate books of the Bible.

They are expressions of profound intimacy of the unbridled extremes of rage and love.

And that is why their distinctive tones differ greatly from what we hear most other places in the Bible.

These two books are extended examples of what is called limit language, limit language,

pushing the extreme edges of intelligible religious speech.

One reason why I wanted to make sure you had that particular quote and that you had it down

in your notes is because I want you to see her use the Book of Job as one of the two books that have this kind of profound and advanced

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