Today's passage: Job 42

Helpful thoughts:

• When Job tried to enter into God's realm of wisdom and expectation of justice, he stepped into a territory that was above his ability to fully comprehend.
  • The more Job saw of who God is, the more he realized the vast difference between the Lord and his creation (Job included).
• Immediately after Job's repentance, God makes him and intercessor for his friends.  God is willing to hear his prayer.
• In rebuking Job's friends, God confirms that the counsel they gave to Job was full of error (Verse 7).
  • This is why it is so important to read the Scriptures correctly in their context!
• After Job's repentance and after his willingness to intercede for those who had caused him suffering, God blesses Job with a double-portion of what he had before (1:1-3).
  • The fact that he didn't have twenty more children gives evidence to the significance of mankind in God's creation.  In total, Job had twenty children, the death of the first ten did not render him as having none.

Questions to consider:

1. For what did Job actually repent?  There wasn't a sin that caused his initial suffering, so what did he need to turn from by the end of this book?
2. When God confronted Job, why didn't Job throw his friends under the bus first?  What did being in the presence of God do in Job's mind concerning the actions of others versus his own?  What truly mattered at that point?  For whom was he accountable?
3. Keeping in mind that Job's friends often misrepresented God, why do you think the Lord gave Job this “double-blessing” for the remaining 140 years of his life?  Did Job get all that because he was such a righteous guy?  What was God communicating to the world through Job?

Today's passage: Job 41

Helpful thoughts:

• The chapter break from 40 to 41 divides two illustrations concerning two creatures, which both make the same point.
  • God speaks of the vast power of the behemoth (The massive land beast) in the end of 40, and the Leviathan (A sea creature) in chapter 41.
  • Both animals are mentioned to exemplify God's ability to govern things beyond man's control.
• The Leviathan is obviously an animal we do not see around today!  Some have tried to suggest it is a crocodile (But that idea seems to fall way short of this description).
  • Leviathan is also mentioned in Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26 and Isaiah 27:1.
    • In every instance, God is shown to be more powerful than this feared creature.

Questions to consider:

1. What is the point of describing this creature?  What is God asking Job to consider?
2. How do verses 10-11 help us to answer this?  What is the answer to what God asks in these verses?  Who can stand before the God who made, owns and controls such creatures (And everything else under heaven)?
3. Where does man stand in relation to God?  Are we peers?  Do we brainstorm what is best together as a team?  Does He learn things from our intellectual accomplishments?  Does He bow to our will?  What is our responsibility before Him and why does that necessarily point us to our need for Christ?

Today's passage: Job 40

Helpful thoughts:

• The beginning of chapter 40 serves as a conclusion of the Lord's words through chapters 38-39.
  • God calls on Job (The “faultfinder”) to respond.
  • Job knows the best thing to do is keep his hand over his mouth.  There are no faults with God.  He never makes a mistake.
• Then, in verse 6, round two of God's revelation of Himself begins.  It will conclude at the end of chapter 41.
• God calls Job out for the idea that God could act unjustly.
  • God is adorned with majesty.  Job simply cannot achieve that on his own.
  • God is able to know the thoughts and actions of everyone in the world and bring ultimate justice.  Job could never hope to possess and maintain that knowledge, let alone rightly respond to it.
• The word “Behemoth” (In the plural) often referred to cattle, or beasts of the land.  Some have taken this passage to refer specifically to the hippopotamus, or possibly an animal that is now extinct, like a dinosaur.
  • In the next chapter, God will also reference “Leviathan,” a sea creature.  It is possible that these words also refer in general to large beasts or animals of the land and sea.  Or, there could be specific creatures God (And Job) had in mind.
  • The point of the illustrations is this, God is able to create and govern creatures that man cannot.  God is able to govern all aspects of the world perfectly, man cannot.

Questions to consider:

1. How does this unit in the book of Job set our thinking right about God's place and ours?
2. How is Job's response in verses 4-5 as it should be for every person?  Does God ever miss anything or do anything wrong?
3. Why is it difficult at times to not be angry with God?  Why is it important to first believe that He is perfectly working in providence, and then look at life through that understanding, rather than waiting until everything is the way we want it to believe?

Today's passage: Job 39

Helpful thoughts:

• In today's chapter, we read the rest of God's opening statement to Job.
• God is the one who made and oversees all of His creation.  Man simply lives in and enjoys all that God made.
• We observe the wonders that God discussed in this passage.  God decided they should all be the way they are.  He intricately and purposefully designed them and watches over their every move in providence.

Questions to consider:

1. What are some of the most striking examples in this chapter of God's creative power, intelligence and care?
2. What is this observance of creation and God's design and governing of it supposed to elicit in our minds (Psalm 19:1-6, Romans 1:18-20)?  When we see creation, are we to think less about God and question Him, or are we supposed to think highly of Him and seek to submit to His Lordship?  What instruction is God giving to Job through this lesson?
3. How does knowing that God created us for a purpose change our thinking about our own lives?  What happens when we start to think that God exists to make our lives meet our own expectations?  How do our questions toward Him change when we remember who He is and whose we are?

Today's passage: Job 38

Helpful thoughts:

• Contrary to his friends' expectations (35:9-13), God answers Job.
• Because Job made assertions about what God was doing while the truth was still hidden from him (Hidden=Darkened), God says that Job also darkened or shadowed truths about who He truly is.
  • When misinformed statements about God are made, those who hear become misinformed.
• In chapters 38-39, the LORD directs Job's attention to His sovereign power over creation.
  • He speaks to Job in many ways from the perspective of man (The way man might have described the things that God did and does).  For example, God referred to the constellations using the names man had given them (Verses 31-32).
    • God knows exactly where all those stars are in the universe (He put them there!), and He knows how they appear from the surface of the earth.  He knows what man thinks about them and what we call them.  God is willing to speak to us on our level so we can learn more about Him!

Questions to consider:

1. What is the idea of verse 3?  In calling on God to give an answer to what He allowed in Job's life, whom had Job challenged?  Who was he actually talking to now?  Is there any man who can actually “Man up” enough to match up with God's power, wisdom, intellect…anything?
2. What illustrations does God use in this chapter to showcase His creative and sustaining power?  Does the fact that we know more of “the science” of how many of these things work change the level of awe they should inspire?  Should our knowledge today make us think less of God or more?  Why?
3. As we read through God's responses, should we think of Him giving Job a good thumping or is God helping Job understand in a way that will give him joy and life?  Why has God “condescended” to man?  (Philippians 2:5-8)  How does getting “put in our place” with God actually result in joy and freedom?

Today's passage: Job 37

Helpful thoughts:

• In his conclusion, Elihu simply points to God's awesome power.
• With all the weather based themes, the call to “keep listening” to the thunder, and with the way God is going to arrive on the scene in the beginning of the next chapter, I have to wonder if a storm rose up while Elihu was speaking.
• The phrase, “He seals up the hand of every man” probably refers to man having to refrain from work and take shelter, just as the animals have to go into their dens.
• Verses 14-24 contain some of the greatest things Elihu says in his whole oration.  It would have been great counsel for all of them.

Questions to consider:

1. What is the irony of verse 16 compared to chapter 36, verse 4?  Who is perfect in knowledge and who is not?
2. How would the counsel given in this chapter have shaped the rest of the book (The rest of the friends and Elihu's counsel) should they have heeded it?
3. What reasons does Elihu give in verse 13 for these wonderful storms?  How could this have opened up the possibilities as to why Job was enduring this suffering?  How could this help us to be more patient when we are coming alongside a friend who is enduring suffering?

Today's passage: Job 36

Helpful thoughts:

• Elihu's words in verses 2-4 are quite lofty.  It's ironic that he is about to speak about what he thinks God does to the arrogant.
• Once again, Elihu argues that God is to be revered and that He never does wrong.
  • The implication being that Job must be in the wrong.  If Job is questioning God as to why he is suffering, Job must be calling God a wrong-doer.
• We are getting close to the end of Elihu's argument.  We will see how it holds up once God Himself speaks.

Questions to consider:

1. What parts of Elihu's words in the chapter are compelling and accurate?  Where does the logic become inconsistent with what we know is happening?
2. For whom did Elihu say he was speaking?  Why was this presumptuous?  How can we really know what we are sharing with others is from God and therefore able to bear much fruit (Romans 10:17)?
3. How can we be bold when we share the Word of God with others without sounding prideful?  How might you reword verses 2-4 in a way that expresses confidence in the message being shared while also evidencing humility?

Today's passage: Job 35

Helpful thoughts:

• Elihu rebukes Job for presuming he (A man of God's creation) should think God must hear and answer him.
• The picture Elihu paints in this chapter is of a big God who made all things by His power, and a people who would be nothing without God treating Him as if He worked for them.  Elihu believes Job has taken on this mindset in wanting an audience with God for his defense.
• Because Elihu believes Job's cry to God is only for the purpose of self-exoneration (A complaint and charge of injustice against God), he is calling Job's plea “empty.”

Questions to consider:

1. Elihu likely believed he was defending God with his words.  Was he?  In what way did God need to be defended?  Did He need defending at all?
2. Were Job's cries for exoneration “empty?”  When these men learn the purpose behind Job's suffering, what answers are they going to get?  Who will they be learning about?
3. In what ways was Elihu calling for humility from Job?  In what ways would humility have corrected Elihu's rebuke?

Today's passage: Job 34

Helpful thoughts:

• Elihu believes Job should at least ask the Lord for insight into what he could have done wrong as opposed to altogether defending his innocence.  The idea being, if Job at least had a heart to be humble and learn from his mistakes, God could teach him and he could move forward.
• The argument of this chapter:
  • Job is guilty and being judged by God,
  • Since Job refuses to acknowledge his guilt then he is also calling God wicked.
  • In calling God wicked, Job is adding to his own sin.
• Verse 8 sounds much like what we read in Psalm 1.  God Himself knew and declared Job had not been a man who walked with the wicked (Job 1:8).

Questions to consider:

1. How does Elihu verbalize his conclusion concerning the innocence of Job, or the lack thereof (Verses 7-9)?  How did Elihu's decision (His judgment) necessitate the rest of his response and attempt at speaking with wisdom?
2. Why is it so important to keep the first chapters of Job in mind as we continue to read?  How could this book get confusing if you forget the context?  Is Elihu right?  Wrong?  Why?
3. What has Elihu said about God that is accurate and true?  How could we discern that as we read through his arguments?  Through what other information do we interpret tough passage in the Bible (Acts 17:11)?

Today's passage: Job 33

Helpful thoughts:

• After his introduction in the previous chapter, Elihu begins his message to Job and his friends.
• Elihu details what Job has said and uses the same imagery to argue his position.  He has been listening and seems to have a desire to reason with Job on his behalf.
• However, even with a different approach, the end result is the same.  Elihu believes God is allowing all this suffering to bring Job to repentance.

Questions to consider:

1. What does Elihu say are the two ways God speaks to man (Verses 15, 19)?  What is the purpose for God's speaking according to him?  How does this understanding fall short of what we know of God from Scripture?
2. Under this scenario (If God allowed Job to endure this suffering to cause him to turn in repentance), what would then be the “ransom” which God found in verse 24?  Could the loss of Job's possessions and the death of his children pay the penalty of his sin?
3. What is the only ransom God receives for our sin (Matthew 20:28)?  How does Elihu's view of sin, judgment, repentance and reward differ from what we know and enjoy through Christ and the gospel?