Ep 384 | Job, Come Follow Me 2026 (August 10-16)

**Bryce Dunford** (0:03)
Hey, everybody, welcome to Talking Scripture, a podcast where we illustrate relevance and application of the Scriptures in Come Follow Me.

**Mike Day** (0:10)
We also dive into the history and cultures of the text.

**Bryce Dunford** (0:13)
Thanks for taking the time to share and subscribe to this podcast.

**Mike Day** (0:16)
For show notes, head over to our website, talkingscripture.org. Welcome to Talking Scripture, I'm Mike.

**Bryce Dunford** (0:26)
And I'm Bryce.

**Mike Day** (0:27)
And today we're going to be in the Book of Job.
Overall, the book is this struggle that Job has because he's perfect and these bad things happen to him. And the frame is chapters 1 and 2, and also chapters 42 verses 7 to the end. The poem is essentially chapter 3 to 42 verse 6

**Bryce Dunford** (0:44)
Now, let me be clear what we mean by the frame. Can you picture you're looking at a beautiful portrait on the wall, and there's a frame around the edge of that. That's what we mean by frame. The first two chapters, the very last part of the last chapter, that's the frame of Job. And that's the one that says, yeah, bad things happen, but it's going to get better. It's going to go away. And your blessings in the end are going to be great. That's that frame message. And then what we call the poem is kind of the inner portrait. It's the lengthy debate within the inner chapters about pain and its relationship in mortality.
And I think there's a unique balance between the frame and the poem.
For some people, the frame message is exactly what they need to hear. And then there are others, and there are other situations where the frame promises don't come and the pain lasts a lot longer. And we begin to ask deeper questions, and that's when we move into the poem.

**Mike Day** (1:43)
And I think the typical thing we do in the church is we teach the frame. But this podcast, one of the purposes of this is to kind of allow us to navigate the complexities and look at this from different angles and look at these different viewpoints to try to see what Job is saying, but also to look at this through the lens of the gospel. Because I think the gospel of Jesus Christ really does help make things plainer.
And the book of Job has a perspective that is in conflict with itself.

**Bryce Dunford** (2:08)
Yeah, this is not a simple book of scripture. It can bring great comfort to people, and it can bring great pain to people. If you walk around and interview the average member of the church, they will tell you that the book of Job is about never questioning God when you are in pain, and that in the end your pain goes away, and your blessings are multiplied, and your blessings are so great that you don't remember the pain.
Most people would say that's the story of Job. And they're right. That story is there. And it's very powerfully taught. If you boil the book of Job down to the first two chapters and the last chapter, that's the message you're going to get.

**Mike Day** (2:50)
I think in the Church, because we're limited with time, that's really what you're going to focus on. Also because it kind of matches our expectations, what we want the book of Job to say.

**Bryce Dunford** (2:58)
Yeah. And I think that's exactly what the Lord does to Joseph Smith when Joseph was in pain. Joseph needed to hear that message. And so the Lord quotes the story of Job to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. But sometimes we actually cause harm when we're trying to comfort. Sometimes people in pain don't want to hear that things will just get better. Sometimes what people need is us just to sit down in their grief with them.
And so when you look at the inner chapters of the book, you get a very, very different story. Because Job does shake his hands at heaven and say, where are you God? You're not doing what you're supposed to do. Just like Joseph Smith says, where are thou? And where is the pavilion that covered the hiding place? And so we do need to deal with that reality.

**Mike Day** (3:51)
The fact that gross evil exists in this world is challenging to those that believe in God. Many atheists and agnostics have wrestled with the problem of evil. The Book of Mormon wrestles with this. Bryce, would you say that the Book of Job is wrestling with this idea?

**Bryce Dunford** (4:06)
It is.

**Mike Day** (4:06)