Bible Study for Pr-Servants
The Wisdom and Poetic Books
W1:The Book of Job
The Book of Suffering
May 14, 2011
Book
Job
Topic
Pain and
Suffering
Prayer and
Historical
Worship
God Seen
as...
Sovereign
Man seen...
Theme
On his face
Woe
before God
Psalms
Holy One
Before the
Worship
throne ofProphetical Books
Pentateuch
Poetical Books
Books
God
Books ofConduct
History
Books of Experience
of Hope
Proverbs
All-wise
Receiving BooksWisdom
instruction
The historical past
The spiritual present
The prophetic future
Ecclesiastes
andof Creator
for
Moral life of Meaning
National life
Spiritual life ofLooking
the
FutureWhy?
life of the
Significance
the people
the people
people satisfaction people
under the
sun
Song of
Love
Lover of His In a love
Wedding
Solomon
people
relationship
Poetic Literature
Psalms
Song of Solomon
Wisdom Literature
Job
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Poetic Books
Wisdom Books
The Narrator is
viewed as a normal
man.
Touch the heart.
The Narrator is viewed
as the wise voice of
experience.
Touch the mind.
Focus upon human
emotion.
Love for God & for
others.
Focus upon wisdom.
Living before God and
with others.
Overview of the book of Job
Chapter 1-2
Chapters
3-31
Historical
Prologue:
Job’s test
Job’s
three
friends
Chapters
32-37
Elihu’s
speeches
Chapters
38-41
Chapter 42
God speaks Historical
Epilogue:
Job’s
restoration
Dialogue & Discourse
Facing Inexplicable Suffering
• Most of us have experienced examples of this:
– Loved one has long painful illness before dying
– Young person cut off in the prime of life
– We ourselves experience suffering that seems
purposeless
• The book of Job is helpful in understanding
some of the most difficult such cases.
The Cast of Characters
•
•
•
•
•
Job
Mrs. Job
God
Satan
Three Friends
– Eliphaz
– Bildad
– Zophar
• Elihu
How the Book Begins
• Job's circumstances:
– Most righteous person on earth in his day
– Very wealthy
– Happy family
• God's evaluation
– No one on earth like him
• Satan's response
– Job is well-paid to be good !
– Take his wealth away, he will curse you to your face !
The Tests
• God permits a test to see whether Satan’s
challenge is warranted.
• First test (chapter 1)
– Satan takes away Job's:
• Wealth
• Children
– Satan times arrival of messengers to build impact.
– But Job doesn't curse God.
The Tests
• Second test (chapter 2)
– Satan is not about to admit he is wrong.
– He raises the stakes.
– Job will curse God if his health is taken away.
– Satan takes away:
• Job's health
• The support of his wife
– Still Job doesn't curse God.
The Rest of the Book
• Why chapters 3-42?
– Wouldn't the message be clearer with just a
chapter or so on Job's friends, plus another for
interview with God?
– Looks like God continues the test to take away
things Satan didn't (not sure what part Satan
plays in this):
• Support of friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar)
• Support of being right (Elihu)
• Support of God (who comes with accusations)
The Rest of the Book
• When God finally does appear with many questions
to Job (ch. 38 and 39), Job doesn’t curse him.
– Job comes to see his own sins, and repents.
– If we find it hard to imagine ourselves doing this, it just
shows we aren’t in Job’s league !
• Then God praises Job …
– … though he said things he shouldn’t have
• God rebukes Job’s friends …
– … who were trying hard to defend God
The Rest of the Book
• Job remained (relatively) faithful under far
more difficult circumstances than his friends
faced.
• Finally – ruining the story for many liberals –
God gives Job double what he had lost.
• Let us look at God’s questions to Job in Ch. 38
and 39.
God’s
Questions to
Job
Ch. 38 and 39
14
Without the Bible
You can believe in a
Creator
“For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even
his eternal power and Godhead; so that they
are without excuse” Romans 1:20
15
Over 60 Questions God asks Job to answer
Even today we do not have the answers to many of these
questions.
All through the discussions of Jobs three friends, Job
continues to question God.
God, Job says, let me just speak to you.
Let me have my two cents worth.
So God says to Job, OK. But first let me ask you a few
questions.
Remember these questions were asked over 4000 years
ago (Job was written before Abraham’s period of time)
Historically we know the book of Job is the oldest book
written when science was not available at this time.
God’s Questions to Job
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who laid the foundations of the earth?
How were the dimensions determined?
Who did the surveying?
What supports its foundation?
Who laid the cornerstone?
Who decreed the boundaries of the sea?
Who clothed them with clouds and thick
darkness?
17
God’s Questions to Job
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who barred them limiting their shores?
Have you commanded the morning to appear?
Did you cause daylight to spread?
Did you end the night for the wicked?
Have you ever robed the dawn in red?
Have you disturbed the haunts of wicked men?
18
God’s Questions to Job
• Have you stopped the arm raised to strike?
• Have you explored the springs that come from
the sea?
• Have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
• Do you know the location of the gates of death?
• Do you know the extent of the earth?
19
God’s Questions to Job
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do you know where light comes from?
Do you know how it got there?
Do you know about darkness?
Do you know where darkness comes from?
Can you find its source?
Can you go to its source?
20
God’s Questions to Job
• Have you visited the treasuries of snow?
• Do you know where hail is made and stored?
• Where is the path to the distribution point of
light
• Where is the home of the East wind?
21
God’s Questions to Job
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who dug gullies for the rains?
Who laid out the path for lightning?
Do you know if rain has a father?
Where does dew come from?
Who is the mother of ice and frost?
Can you hold back the stars?
Can you restrain Orion and Pleiades?
22
God’s Questions to Job
• Can you ensure the proper sequences of
seasons?
• Can you guide the constellation of the bear?
• Do you know the laws of the universe?
• How do the heavens influence the earth?
• Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain?
• Can you make lightning appear?
23
God’s Questions to Job
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who gives intuition and instinct?
Who is wise enough to number the clouds?
Who can tilt the water jars of heaven?
Can you stalk prey like a lion?
Who provides for the ravens?
Do you know how mountain goats give birth?
24
God’s Questions to Job
• Do you know how many months of
pregnancy?
• Who makes the wild donkey wild?
• Will the wild ox be your servant?
• Will he stay by your feeding crib?
• Can you use a wild ox to plow with?
• Will he pull the harrow for you?
25
God’s Questions to Job
•
•
•
•
Will you let him decide where to work?
Can you send him out to bring in the grain?
Have you deprived the ostrich of wisdom?
Did you make the ostrich swifter than a
horse?
• Have you given the horse strength?
26
God’s Questions to Job
• Have you clothed his neck with a mane?
• Have you made him able to leap like a
locust?
• Do you know how a hawk soars?
• Is it in your command to raise eagles high?
27
A Study of Positions
What is a position?
A position is a theological or philosophical
stand regarding an issue.
Who had positions in the book of Job?
Satan, Mrs. Job, Job’s friend, Job, Elihu, and
God.
Satan’s Position
“Does Job fear God for nothing?” 1:9
“Skin for skin, a man will give up all he has for his
own life”2:4
 Serving God is only behaviorally contingent upon its
rewards-1:9,10
 Removal of God’s contingency of rewards results in
apostasy-1:11
 Application of an aversive stimuli in the sense of
punishment would result in the extinction of God fearing
behavior-1:11
 Adversity must produce apostasy-1:11
 This life is everything- 2:4,5
Mrs. Job’s Position
“Are you still holding on to your integrity, curse God
and die” Chap 2: 9
 Integrity should be conditional, shaped by
contingencies of reward.
 Apostasy results in immediate judgment.
 The sufferings of this present time are too much
cost compared to the glory that will follow.
Position of Job’s Friends
In three cycles of speeches they rebuke Job:
1) Cycle 1 of Speeches and Job's ResponseGod Punishes the Wicked and Blesses the Good: 4:1-14:22
2) Cycle 2 of Speeches and Job's Response-
The Wicked Suffer and Perish because They Are against
God: 15:1--21:34
3) Cycle 3 of Speeches and Job's ResponseGod Is Majestic, but Job is Wicked: 22:1--27:23
Eliphaz versus Job
• Eliphaz 1: Eliphaz accused
Job of being inconsistent
since suffering results from
sin and no one is pure
before God; thus he urged
Job to ask God to help him
and affirmed that God would
deliver him after He had
disciplined him 4:1--5:27
• Eliphaz 2: Eliphaz affirms
that Job's words are
meaningless, that he is
guilty, and that he is like the
wicked because he is in
distress 15:1-35
• Eliphaz 3: Proclaiming God's
disinterest in Job for his
social deviations and
spiritual defiance, Eliphaz
urges him to repent for God
is great 22:1-20
• Job: Job responded by affirming
that his suffering was causing his
rash desire to die, Eliphaz's
response has disappointed him,
and by asking for forgiveness if
he has sinned 6:1--7:21
• Job: Job responds rebuking his
friends for being no help, desiring
to plead his case with God, and
affirming is situation of despair
16:1-- 17:16
• Job: Job longs to plead his case
before God 23:1--24:25
Bildad versus Job
• Bildad 1: Bildad affirmed that
history has confirmed that if
Job is righteous God will
restore him, unlike the
ungodly who perish 8:1-22
• Job: Job responds by
affirming God's wisdom and
power, asking why He is
against him, and requesting
to die 9:1--10:22
• Bildad 2: Bildad rebukes Job
for his arrogant words about
them, and affirms that the
wicked, like he, are
weakened, ensnared,
diseased, insecure,
forgotten, hated, and alone
18:1-21
• Job: Job rebukes his friends
for tormenting and insulting
him, affirms that God has
wronged him, urges his
friends to have pity on him,
and affirms that God will
prove his innocence after his
death and judge his friends
19:1-29
• Bildad 3: Bildad affirmed that
because God is great and
man is small and impure
there was no hope for Job to
be just and clean 25:1-6
• Job: Job affirms that his
friends are not help to him
since he knows that God is
great and powerful over
nature 26:1-14
Zophar versus Job
• Zophar 1: Zophar rebukes
Job by affirming that God
should show him true
wisdom and by affirming
that if he would turn to
God, he would be blessed
11:1-20
•
Zophar 2: Zophar accuses
Job of insulting him and
reminds him that the
wicked may be blessed,
but they will then loose
their riches 20:1-29
• Job: Job responds by
criticizing Zophar for not
telling him anything
new, not helping him,
and not representing
God well, whereupon,
he again asks God to
let him die 12:1--14:22
• Job: Job retorts that his
impatience is excusable
and reminds Zophar
that the wicked prosper
and live (unlike he)
21:1-34
Job’s Final Remarks
 Transitional Discourse on God's Wisdom: Job affirms that
although man is skillful in mining, wisdom is harder to find for it
is God who knows where wisdom is 28:1-28
 Job's Desire for His Former Estate of Glory: Job wishes that he
was in his former days of spiritual blessing, material prosperity
and social prestige which occurred because he helped the
needy, exercised justice and counseled others 29:1-25
 Job's Lament of His Present Miserable Humiliation: Job
proclaims his misery as he is mocked by poor young men and
vagabonds, and his humiliation as he is in pain and nobody
helps him 30:1-31.
 Job's Ultimate Challenge--An Oath of Innocence which 'Legally'
Calls God to Answer" 31:1-40
Elihu’s Position
i.
Four Speeches by Elihu: 32:1--37:24
ii. Introduction of Elihu: 32:1-5
iii. Elihu's First Speech- God Instructs people
through Affliction: 32:6--33:33
iv. Elihu's Second Speech to the Three Friends
and Job—God is Just : 34:1-37
v. Elihu's Third Speech to Job—There are
Advantages to Piety: 35:1-16
vi. Elihu's Fourth Speech to Job (and Friends)–
God is Great and Job is Ignorant: 36:1-37:24
God’s Position
“Brace yourself like a man, I will question you and
you shall answer….” 38:9
God interviews Job in two speeches:
1. First Interview with Yahweh-- Job is Limited in
Knowledge: 38:1--40:5
1) Yahweh Challenged Job: 38:1-3
2) Yahweh Questioned Job Regarding Two Areas of
Creation: the physical and animal world.
Here God asks Job to listen.
2. Second Interview with God –Job is Limited in
Power: 40:6--42:6
1) Yahweh Challenged Job to Listen: 40:6-14
2) Yahweh questioned Job Regarding Two animals
of Creation: the Behemoth and the Leviathan
Job’s Reply
• Job Replied with Repentance: 42:1-6
• “…Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
Lessons from Job
• God is both all-loving and all-powerful
• There are no simple answers
• Expression of grief & trouble is appropriate, but
not to pass judgment on God
• God is in control, even when it is not obvious to
our eyes
• God has a purpose in what he allows, even if we
do not know what it is
• Tragedy can serve as a wake-up call
• God has not remained distant from us in our pain
Job as a Type of Christ
• In the character Job, Christ is certainly foreshadowed.
• Like Christ, Job was suffering innocently.
Compare Job 16: 10,11 to Ps 22:13, 35:21
• Both were tried by Satan- Chap 1&2, Matt 4:1-11
• Both were regarded as being smitten by God and afflicted by himIsaiah 53:4
• Both made atonement for the sins of their adversaries-Job 42:7-10,
Dan 7: 13-14, Rom 5:10, Col 1:10
• Both learned submission to God through the things they suffered42:1-6, Heb 5:7-10
• After their suffering, they became designated High priests, and
neither was Levite- Job 42:7-10, Heb 5:7-10
• Both were restored to glory- 42:12-17, Matt 28:18, Mark 16:19, Heb
1:2-13