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?

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?