A
study of the Book of Job
Introduction
The book of Job is one of the most interesting and intriguing
works in the Bible. The idea that God and Satan would enter into an agreement
that would ruin a man just to prove whether or not he has faith is a stretch
for our sensitivities. And yet we study Job because it is a great illustration
of faith tested, tried and endured. Some people hate Job while others love it
with all that they are. The interesting thing is that I have rarely found
anybody that is in the middle of the road. I have had people who want to argue
the unfairness of the story grounding their argument on the wager rather than
the story. While others want to argue the merits of the test as grounds for
testing our faith without regard to its fairness at all. So what we have is a
unique story that in the sense of the Old Testament doesn’t fit the
chronological flow of the Biblical story of the early people and the story of
developing Israel
There are many different interpretations of what an outline
of Job would look like. Mine is based in part on making this a short eight week
study and breaking it where it makes changes in literary style of key points in
the story. The outline of Job is:
1 Prologue and the Test (Job 1: 1 – 2: 13)
a. This section provides and introduction to the story of Job.
It is here that we are introduced to the conversation between God and Satan, a
conversation that Job never hears nor is made aware of throughout his trial.
This is essential in order for us to understand the story and to appreciate
Job’s assurance of his own innocence.
2 Job Responds (Job 3: 1 – 19)
a. Hear we find the response of Job to his trial and
tribulations. We see his pain and his raw emotional response. It is in this
chapter that many readers will identify their own response to tragedy and pain
as they hear their own words in Job’s emotional response.
3 Friends Respond (Job 4: 1 – 27: 23)
a. Job’s three friends begin to dialogue in an effort to
explain to Job and more likely themselves what is transpiring in Job’s life.
Here we receive the benefit or condemnation of their experiences, beliefs and
prejudices. To each Job responds constantly confirming in his mind his
innocence. In the first two sections the sequence, Elphaz, Job, Bildad, Job,
Zophar and Job are followed with Zophar curiously silent in the last section.
These themes concerning your infirmities are a result of your own sin run still
today in our culture.
4 Trying to make sense – is there any wisdom here? (Job
28:1-28)
a. In this chapter, which is unique in its writing style and
presentation, develops a theme on wisdom from the author. Whether this chapter
was included in the original story or added after in order to try and provide
some understanding of the story is subject to much discussion among
theologians. Regardless of where it came from, our belief in the inspired
teaching of the Holy Spirit provides the basis for it to be an integral part of
the Book of Job.
5 Job in the mirror (Job 29:1-31:40)
a. This section could very well be re-titled, Job in
Reflection. Here Job reflects on his life and all that God has given him that
was good before the test. And then he laments and even lashes out to God about
all that has happened in recent days while still proclaiming his obedience to
God and his innocence.
6 Elihu, a young man’s perspective (Job 32:1 – 37:24)
a. Elihu is a young man who has apparently been party to all
that has been transpiring in Job’s life. His perspective provides words of
wisdom, biblical teaching and guidance and understanding of God to Job. Whether
this was included in the original story is also subject to discussion. His
words are never interrupted nor countered. This might suggest that his words
are meant for the reader to hear the frustration we humans have with life and
the difficulties that we encounter and our human response to a God who allows
them.
7 THE LORD SPEAKS (Job 38:1 – 42:6)
a. GOD SPEAKS! Those two words sum the entire section that we
study here. God finally decides to answer Job’s lashing out and define for Job
his place in the world. Some of the most beautiful language defining our place
in the world and the majestic power of God can be found here.
8 How it all ends (Job 42:7-17)
a. The cleanup section of the Book of Job! For the reader,
this section finishes the story and let’s us know “…the rest of the story…” as
Paul Harvey used to tell us.
The reader of Job may struggle to answer the most basic
questions about God and ourselves. Do we have the right to believe that we
could ever understand God? Are we entitled to knowing when God and Satan decide
to make a wager with us in the middle, especially when we are on the receiving
end? Are we ever going to truly know the “Why” question of why things happen to
people, especially bad things to good people? Is faith based on how many
blessings we receive or something much deeper than that? When we are finished,
none of these questions may be answered, but let’s have fun anyway.
Lesson
1
Read
in Scripture: Job 1:1 – 2: 13
The
main idea of this first section is to describe its background, time and author,
its authenticity, the characters, the course and the test
Theologians suggest that Job
may be carved from similar stories that circulated in the Middle Eastern
cultures in ancient worlds. Job is the most difficult book for many to
understand and it forces us to study carefully our understanding of our
relationship with God and who we are in the world. Job is divided into eight
sections for this study as given to you in the outline that you have of the
study. We will be discussing various aspects of each section each week and it
would be helpful for you to have read the section and attempted the questions
that will be given to you. As we begin, our hope is that at the end of the
study each of us will have a better understanding of who we are in the world
and how the test of Job helps us with that understanding. And we hope that we
can answer some basic biblical questions. They are:
a.
How
is it possible that an omnipotent and all powerful God who
is full of love and
grace allows evil to exist in the world?
b.
Is
suffering a part of the world we live in or the result of our
actions (sins) in the
world in which we live?
c.
Why
does it appear that the wicked prosper while the rest of us
suffer?
d.
How
is true faith displayed in the lives of the faithful?
e.
Is
there redemption from God in the course of life’s adversities?
There is little to tell us
when Job may have been written and by whom. Some suggest that it was written before the time of Moses and was
incorporated into his written record of the world. When it was written may
not be as important as why it was written and what it means to us. There are references to Job in Ezekiel and
James and to the land
of Uz Israel land of Israel
We have no knowledge of the
author of Job. None is given in the story or in any of the historical records
that exist. In fact, there are even questions as to whether the complete book
was written at the same time. Some theologians suggest that the Elihu section
came later as a wisdom section, but there is no conclusive evidence to prove
that one way or the other. The land of
Uz would likely have been in the
northern part of Saudi Arabia
or southern Jordan
The writing is a mixture of
prose and poetry which is common to ancient writings from the time of Abraham
and before the literary writings of more modern times like the days of David
and later.
So what do we learn from Job?
That is the question that we will be exploring as we develop this study around
the test of Job. What we do know is that
without the prologue, the story would have no meaning. We need to be
introduced to the characters, Job, God and Satan in order to have any
understanding of what is happening to Job. What is truly unique to this story
is that neither Job nor any of his so called friends have any knowledge of the
test either. They are simply characters on a stage trying to make sense of
things, not unlike we humans trying to make sense of our world. And therein may
lay the most basic understanding of why Job was included in the canon of the
Bible.
We are introduced to Job as a
man who is blameless. What does it mean to be blameless? We are told that he
has 7 sons and three daughters. These are not random numbers. In the ancient
world, 7 had significant meaning. It was considered the perfect or complete
number. There are seven days in a week. And he has three daughters. Combined
that equals ten. There are Ten Commandments. Ten is another number that in the
ancient world meant completeness. And his wealth is also in combinations of
three and seven.
Why Job? Verse eight in
chapter one provides the clue. God sees Job as the perfect human. And he
presents him to Satan as an example of the way humans should be with God. It
also provides us with one of the important points of the story. God is
intimately aware of each of us. God knows us by name and by our lives and our
actions. But Satan will have none of it. Satan
suggests that the reason that Job is so good is that God has been good to him.
Is this the measure of faith? What do you think? And so the test is created.
It begins as a test of Job’s
material wealth. And so God gives Satan control of all of Job’s possessions and
Satan removes them through theft and destruction. And what is Job’s reaction?
He gives one of the classic lines of the scripture. What God has given, God takes away or in Old English, What the Lord
giveth, the Lord taketh away. But he does lose his faith. In fact we see
just the opposite, he stands firm in his faith to God. And so Satan comes again
and asks for more. And God grants it. This time Job is allowed to be hurt. And
Satan punishes him severely the scripture tells us. What is Job’s reaction this
time? Job still stands firm. We begin to see that he fails to understand what
is happening, but his faith is still firm. And it is here that we are
introduced to his three friends.
Questions
Answer the following questions in discussion group:
1.
What
do you think of the statement that Satan is free to roam the world?
2.
How
is Job’s character described and why is it important to the story?
3.
How
is the test important to your understanding of who we are in the Kingdom of God
4.
What
is the purpose of the test?
5.
How
does your sense of right and wrong deal with the test
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