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?

Today’s passage: Job 12

Helpful thoughts:

• Zophar’s poignant rebuke took one chapter. Job’s response will take three.
• In this chapter, Job calls on his friends to remain humble and reiterates (Or defends) his understanding of the greatness and sovereignty of God.
• Verse 6 reminds Job’s friends and the reader that there are plenty of wicked people who are presently experiencing some earthly comfort (Psalm 73).
  • It is too simplistic to view a life of apparent ease as an absolute confirmation of reward from God.
  • It is also too simplistic to view times of suffering as an absolute confirmation of judgment from God.

Questions to consider:

1. What can we learn from the fact that Job felt like a laughingstock during his suffering (Verses 4-5)?  Why do we sometimes distance ourselves from people (Or “ghost” people) who are suffering?  When we see people suffering, how can we minister to them in a way that doesn’t make them feel “lower” (More inferior) than they already feel?
2. When did God do exactly what Job describes in verse 24 (See Daniel 4:33)?  What was the purpose of this humiliation, the intended result (Daniel 4:34-37)?  In Job’s state, what would be a humble response before God?  How did his friends’ counsel make it tempting to not respond in humility?
3. If we take the examples from verses 13-25 of all the things God can do, how could we see Him moving throughout the week of the passion of Jesus Christ to bring about our salvation through His death and resurrection?

Today’s passage: Job 11

Helpful thoughts:

• After Eliphaz and Bildad seemed to fail to get Job to budge, Zophar takes a crack at it.  He doesn’t mince words.
  • Zophar is convinced that if Job got the meeting with God he’d hoped for, it would result in his condemnation.
• Like Bildad, Zophar urges Job to repent.  He believes that if Job will just turn from his secret sin, God will bless him once again.
• Once again, many things are said in this chapter that are theologically correct.  The question is whether these truths are being applied correctly in these rebukes.  We must continue to be careful to interpret correctly as we read through the book.

Questions to consider:

1. As an example of the final “Helpful thought” from above, in what way is the end of verse 6 true?  What would be a good way to minister this truth to someone?  How is it being used against Job?
2. How has God given us less than our guilt deserves and more than any of our righteousness deserves (Romans 3:21-26)?
3. What is Zophar promising Job in verses 13-20?  Is this a valid promise?  (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)  How could Zophar’s incorrect view lead a person to be angry with God?

Today’s passage: Job 10

Helpful thoughts:

• Job continues his response to Bildad.
  • Bildad claimed Job must have been guilty of something or else there would be injustice.
• Job laments and desires to ask God freely for an explanation for his suffering.
  • He believes God is just and good.  He also believes his suffering is not for sin.  He longs for answers.
• One of the sufferings Job asks God about is the words of his friends!  He acknowledges God has allowed even this to take place in his life, he just doesn’t understand why?

Questions to consider:

1. What honesty do we find in Job’s response?  What is he feeling, thinking, wanting?  Is it wrong for him to pray this way, to ask God these questions (1 Peter 5:7)?
2. How does verse 15 indicate what’s going on in Job’s heart?  Is he being adamant at this point against God?  What do you think he is trying to express?
3. What help is Job asking for in what he says in verse 17 and from chapter 9, verse 33?  What would he like his friends to do to help him?  How could they have heard this request and changed course in a way that would have been a comfort to him?

Today’s passage: Job 9

Helpful thoughts:

• Job’s reply to Bildad covers both chapters 9 and 10.
• Bildad had said in 8:20, “God will not reject a blameless man…”  Job asks, “How can a man be in the right before God?”  No one is truly blameless.
• Job believes that Bildad has oversimplified the way God works, and he responds by reminding Bildad just how big and magnificent God is.
• Rahab (Verse 13) was the name of a mythological beast in the Ancient Near East.  This is not a reference to the woman Rahab from Jericho.

Questions to consider:

1. If we followed every person and charted out how “good” and how “evil” they had been, would their blessings and sufferings in life all work out with statistical precision?  Is that how God works?  Is that how good works work?  Why does blessing come on any of us?
2. If you know the conclusion of this book, how do verses 15-21 foreshadow the ending?  What does Job think would happen if he were to be able to have a conversation with God?  In what ways is he perplexed and why?
3. What has Job not yet accounted for?  Where does he think suffering comes from?  How is his limited thinking causing him to be in further distress?

Today’s passage: Job 8

Helpful thoughts:

• Eliphaz failed to convince Job, now it’s Bildad’s turn.
  • Right out of the gate, he tells Job the words of his mouth are a great wind.  He was being very direct.
  • He believed Job’s children died because of their own transgressions, though Job would need to repent as well.
• Bildad’s offer of repentance is found in verses 5-6.
• He believes Job has lost his way, having become distanced from God.  Therefore, Bildad compares Job to a plant that no longer has it’s root in the watered soil.
• In an effort to end his message with hope, Bildad assures Job that God will bless him again once he turns back to the Lord.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way was Bildad’s approach worthy of admiration?  What was he trying to accomplish?  How did he communicate it?
2. Even if the approach was flawless, what was Bildad still assuming?  How does assumption make even the best executed rebuke sound foolish (Proverbs 18:13)?
3. What would have been a better thing for Bildad to do before making accusations and telling Job what to do?  How would Job have known that Bildad (And his other friends) were really engaged in learning what all Job was going through and thinking?

Today’s passage: Job 7

Helpful thoughts:

• Job continues his response to Eliphaz in chapter 7.
• In verses 1-10, Job is speaking to Eliphaz.  In 12-21, he is speaking to God.  Verse 11 serves as the transition.
• Job is not asking for God’s attention.  He sees God’s attention as bringing him despair.  He wants God to leave him alone!

Questions to consider:

1. How would you summarize Job’s appeal to Eliphaz in verses 1-10?  His appeal to God in verses 12-21?
2. How does the heart behind what Job says in verse 17 differ from what we see in the context of Psalm 8:4?  What is Job actually asking God to do?  Is he right to say this? Why or why not?
3. Though Job does not believe his suffering is a result of any particular sin, what does he acknowledge in verse 21?  What is true of Job and true of all other people outside of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23)?  What did God actually do to pardon our transgression and take away our iniquity (Isaiah 53:5)?

Today’s passage: Job 6

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapters 6 and 7 contain Job’s response to Eliphaz, who believes Job’s suffering is a form of discipline from God because of sin.
• It is clear from Job’s response, he feels that Eliphaz’s rebuke has now added to his suffering.
  • He had not withheld information.  He does not believe he is under discipline (Which, he wasn’t).
  • Therefore, Job returns rebuke to Eliphaz.
• With everything he is enduring, Job desires death and sees it as mercy from the Lord.  However, he knows that if it is to come, it must come from the Lord.

Questions to consider:

1. What kind of comfort does it appear Job needed and desired?  What does it look like Job wanted his friends to allow him to do in his suffering?
2. What does Job think Eliphaz is accusing him of doing (Verse 28)?  If these men were friends, what would Job have already told the men if this suffering was a consequence of his sin?  How might they have comforted Job even if that all were true?
3. With this challenge from his friends, and now with the conversation taking on a horizontal plane (Between people), what will Job need to be carful he doesn’t forget?  What is the most important relationship at stake here and in every conflict we have with others?

Today’s passage: Job 5

Helpful thoughts:

• Eliphaz reiterates what he believes to be the general cause of calamity, sin and foolishness.
• He speaks of God as bringing swift justice on the earth and help to those in need.
• Finally, he encourages Job to receive the discipline of the Lord as a blessing.  Eliphaz believes Job needs to repent of his sin so that God will give Him a long life and take away all the hardship.

Questions to consider:

1. What parts of Eliphaz’s counsel sounded right? What passages from elsewhere in Scripture came to mind as you read (Perhaps something like Hebrews 12:7-11)?
2. What is the general argument Eliphaz is making?  If you do good, then your life will be…what?  If you sin, then your life will be…what?  In what ways can this be true?  In what ways could this be wrong? If Job had sinned and repented, would that have guaranteed the return of wealth and health?
3. Read John 9:1-3.  Is everything as clear cut as Eliphaz is making it?  How could he have asked questions instead of making assertions in a way that could have helped him to give better counsel to Job?

Today’s passage: Job 4

Helpful thoughts:

• The rebuke from Eliphaz is this: Job instructed others to endure suffering in the past, and now that he was suffering himself, he was personally unwilling to endure.
• As Eliphaz develops his argument in chapter 4, he makes these arguments:
  • Bad things always happen to bad people (Verse 7).
    • Asaph might have another opinion concerning this matter (Psalm 73:4-12).
  • Everyone has sinned (There is no one who is truly righteous before God) (Verses 12-21).
• In order to speak with authority, Eliphaz claims to have received these statements in a vision (Verses 12-16).

Questions to consider:

1. What has Eliphaz said so far that is correct?  What has he said that seems short-sighted, like there is more to the topic than what he is allowing for?
2. Where does it sound like his argument is going?  On what or whom do you think Eliphaz is going to blame Job’s suffering?
3. Why does Eliphaz think everyone should listen to him and quickly agree?  How is he utilizing this idea of having a vision?  Why is that so dangerous?  How could that method be abused and misused today in religious contexts?  From where do we get authoritative truth (2 Timothy 3:16-17)?