Today’s passage: Job 21

Helpful thoughts:

• Job responds.  In a way, his response could cover many of his friends’ accusations.
• Job argues that there are many wicked who have prospered and lived long lives on this earth (Or again, as we might say from the book of Ecclesiastes, “Under the sun.”)
  • In verses 14-16, he even refers to those who knowingly reject God.  This is not an earthly prosperity that is obtained in ignorance of God, but in the midst of opposition.
• There are wicked and righteous who prosper and there are wicked and righteous who are impoverished.  All of them go to the grave just the same.
  • For this reason, Job calls his friends’ charges against him, “empty nothings.”

Questions to consider:

1. In what way was Job’s response a good summary to all of his friends’ arguments?
2. What do you think Job meant in verse 22 and following?  Did Job think God needed reminding on how He is supposed to exercise justice?  Or, was Job saying that if his friends were right, then God is unjust?
3. What does the reality of verse 26 teach us about riches in this life versus eternity?  How could this chapter encourage us to remember the truths of Matthew 6:19-20?  How does one live a life with our eyes and values placed on eternity whether we are rich or poor in this life?

Today’s passage: Job 20

Helpful thoughts:

• Zophar takes another swing at Job.
• He shares his frustration with being insulted by Job in verses 2-3.
• Then for the rest of the chapter, Zophar describes the wicked and his fate.
  • Realize, Zophar is saying that all this is characteristic of Job.  Zophar is describing Job in this manner to his face.

Questions to consider:

1. Which descriptions in this chapter are the most striking and hurtful?
2. If Zophar was a friend of Job, what must he have been thinking about all the good he had seen Job do over the course of his life if this is what he now truly thinks of him?
3. In what way is Zophar’s statement in verse 27 in keeping (Or in contrast) with what Job has been asking for in previous statements?  In what way are these men right in acknowledging that God is the final judge?  In what ways have they gone beyond their place in stating their views?

Today’s passage: Job 19

Helpful thoughts:

• Job responds to Bildad.
  • He got his wish in verses 23-24.  In more abundance and with a different message then he expected.
• After all he had been through, Job’s faith remained steadfast in the fact that God would be his vindicator.  He believed there would be a day when his Redeemer stood on the face of the earth, when he (Job) would be alive after death (The resurrection), and that all would be made right.
• Because Job’s friends were convinced that the cause of all this calamity was Job’s fault (“The root of the matter was found in him” – Verse 28), Job warns them of the judgment that could come back on them.  False accusation is a serious matter.

Questions to consider:

1. What did Job believe his friends were doing based on his response in verses 2-5?  In what way does he evidence he understands their argument against him well?
2. What do you think Job is asking his friends in verse 22?  How can you discern when not to help a person out of the hardship they are in (Because it could be God’s doing/consequence of sin)?  How do you discern how to help a person endure hardship without adding to the hardship?
3. How can Job’s hope in verses 25-27 be a model for believers in any time in history before Christ’s return?  What was he hoping in?  What has God promised to all who turn to Christ as Lord and Savior?  What will happen to all suffering?

Today’s passage: Job 18

Helpful thoughts:

• In today’s passage, Bildad takes his second stab at Job.
• Bildad believes that Job has brought all of this suffering on himself, laying a trap for himself.  He recounts aspects of what has befallen Job (For example, verse 19 and the loss of all his children).
• The general argument is this: These terrible things happen to wicked people.  Therefore, Job must be wicked.

Questions to consider:

1. How did Bildad express his anger toward Job in the first few verses?  How does he feel about the things Job has said about him and his words?  Does he appear to be instructing Job to help him or is he venting anger?  Did venting his anger resolve any problems?
2. Given the argument that Bildad makes, why does he think he is more qualified to speak to Job’s suffering than Job is?  What is the problem with his thinking?
3. If someone you are speaking with does not know God, to what (and to whom) do you want to point them?  (Matthew 11:28)

Today’s passage: Job 17

Helpful thoughts:

• Job continues his response.
• Verses 1-5 are addressed to God concerning these friends.  When Job feels they should have been loyal and supported him, they have acted against him.  He believes they will suffer for it.
• If Job were to put his hope in his friends’ promise (That he would be cured if he just repented of his secret sin) night would turn to day and light to darkness (Verse 12).  He could not put his trust in what was not true, only in God.  But he would be all alone in doing that (Verse 15).

Questions to consider:

1. In what ways are we seeing Job display great faith?
2. What is the apparent contrast that is making this man of faith look like he is not blessed?  How can this continued dialogue help us to see earthly suffering differently?
3. What is the ultimate answer to verse 15?  Where is our hope, at all times?  Who will see our hope, both in this life, and in eternity?

Today’s passage: Job 16

Helpful thoughts:

• Job responds to Eliphaz’s harsh rebuke and condemnation.
• Job’s friends had come to bring him comfort and they have failed.  He asks them to consider how they would feel if they were in his place, how that would impact their words.
• Because his friends have turned against him, he now hopes in a heavenly witness alone to plead his case before God (Verses 19-20).

Questions to consider:

1. How does Job now view the purpose of his friends’ presence (Verse 7)?
2. How does Job’s description of himself differ from Eliphaz’s description in 15:25-27?  Is Job believing he is going to rise above and conquer to show everyone he was right or is he aware of his condition before God (Verse 15)?
3. Even if Eliphaz believed Job was wicked and deserved this, how could Job’s response have changed his approach?  Who is Job trying to talk to and give his focus to by the end of the chapter?  How could Eliphaz have turned his attention there as well?

Today’s passage: Job 15

Helpful thoughts:

• Today begins round two, the responses and second attempts of these three friends of Job.
  • Eliphaz believes Job is full of hot air (Verse 2) and pridefully absorbed with himself (Verse 27).
• Unlike in previous attempts, there is no hope offered here to Job.  There is no call to repentance, only the expectation of judgment.
• Eliphaz now regards Job as a man who has done away with the fear of God and as a wicked man who has finally begun to get what he deserves.

Questions to consider:

1. What is Eliphaz asking in verse 8?  What does the reader get to do in the first two chapters of this book?  Did Eliphaz know what we know when he asked this question?
2. What is the problem of Eliphaz’s question in verse 9?  Are these three friends right simply because they are more in number?  What method of argument is Eliphaz using now to try and convince Job?
3. Why do you think these men seem to be getting frustrated in their efforts?  What do they think they know?  What might we be learning about the things we think we know and how could that help us to minister to people in a better way?

Today’s passage: Job 14

Helpful thoughts:

• Job concludes his response to Zophar.
  • Though Job’s response is to Zophar’s accusation, he still speaks towards God.
• This chapter is speaking much in the same way as what we see in Ecclesiastes.  Job is speaking of life “under the sun.”
  • The “renewal” he would desire is the same kind of a renewal a tree could experience when a new shoot sprouts.  Job is literally comparing the idea of a root under the ground sprouting new limbs above ground to the impossibility of a man being buried (Sheol = the grave) and sprouting forth new life.
  • This kind of renewal is not something man experiences in this life.  Therefore, the hope of man is destroyed (Verse 19).
• The chapter on a whole indicates a man in the depths of depression.  Job is verbalizing sadness and hopelessness.

Questions to consider:

1. When we read verse 14, knowing what we do about eternal life and the resurrection, what answer could we give to Job? (1 Corinthians 15, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, Revelation 21:1-5)
2. How could this give to Job more hope than a tree has? (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
3. How is the hope and encouragement we have been reading about in these passages different than what Job’s friends (And even Job) have been focusing on?  In what way has their focus remained “under the sun?”  Why must we keep our eyes “above the sun” and on the Son in life?

Today’s passage: Job 13

Helpful thoughts:

• Job continues his response to Zophar, confirming he preferred the first seven days of silence to all the talking that has been going on since.
• In verses 6-12, Job argues that if God was allowing this suffering because of Job’s sin, his friends would all be in the same situation.
• After acknowledging the risk he is taking (Verses 13-16), Job makes an appeal to God in his own defense (Verses 17-28).

Questions to consider:

1. In what way should verse 11 give us pause to speak definitively on God’s behalf?  How might an awareness of God’s power, justice, and goodness have tempered the conversations from Job and all his friends in this book?  In our lives as well?
2. Verse 15 could also be translated as, “He will slay me, I have no hope.”  How does either translation fit here?  What does Job acknowledge could happen at any time?  How does he view the quality of his life and why is he willing to put it all in God’s hands, taking the risk of speaking to God directly?
3. How is Job’s willingness to take his lament and appeal to God better than proclaiming bitterness against God to others around him?  Even though he doesn’t understand what’s happening, how is Job still hoping in God?  How can this help us in our own times of suffering?