That the book of Job is superb poetry doesn’t negate the fact that it is also dramatic biography.
“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job” (Job 1:1). Some suggest that the uncertainty of Job’s time and place in history, the extremity of his circumstances, and the extravagance of the arguments in the book leave us with only one conclusion: the story of Job is a parable. No one, they say, would lose everything in a matter of days, nor could they respond as Job did, worshiping God in the moment of catastrophic ruin. But, they add, Job is a glorious example of Everyman. We all face sufferings in life, so we can identify with Job, finding comfort in his example. After all, does it matter whether Job was real or not? On its face, this argument collapses. When the divine account begins, “There was a man…,” we can accept that as fact, especially when his home country, his character traits, the number of his children, and the size of his holdings are all given. In corroboration, Ezekiel places him in a triad of outstanding historical characters. “‘Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,’ says the Lord God” (Ezek 14:14; see also v 20). We can hardly assume that one of the three is a fiction. As well, James (5:11) wouldn’t use Job as an example of patient endurance if no such persistence had actually occurred. To top it off, the book of Job is quoted as authoritative by the apostle Paul (Job 5:13 in 1 Cor 3:19; Job 41:11 in Rom 11:35). At the beginning of the Church Age, Paul is held up as an example of the kind of sinner God can save, the “chief” of sinners (1 Tim 1:15). And at the dawn of human history, Job, the chief sufferer, is presented as the kind of saint the Lord can sustain. Thus there is hope—for salvation and solace—for every struggling soul.