GOOD MORNING, FAMILY

1
GOOD MORNING, FAMILY!

• List three ideas, truths or insights that you
  gained from chapters 3-5 that we studied last
  week
• Share your thoughts with someone near you
• Be ready to tell the class one of your insights,
  or an insight of your partners
• For next week, please study chapters 9-11

2
THE POEM THE FIRST DEBATE CYCLE -- JOB 3-15

• Job 6-8 Job responds to Eliphaz and hears from
  Bildad

3
JOBS EMOTIONAL JOURNEY ALIENATION (61-13)

• 61-7 Job agrees with E that God is behind his
  misery the arrows of the almighty are in me
  
• 68-9 Job wishes God would put him out of his
  misery, that God would loose his hand and cut
  me off!
• 610 And all this despite that fact that Job
  has not denied the words of the Holy one.
• 611-13 Job feels totally alone in truth I
  have no help in me and any resource is driven
  from me
• In light of (1) his circumstances, (2) the words
  of his friends and (3) his own misguided beliefs,
  is it any wonder Job feels as alienated, confused
  and, eventually, furious about his situation??

4
JOBS EMOTIONAL JOURNEY BETRAYAL (614-23)

• 614 J seems to accuse his friends of
  withholding kindness. Why?
• Because their words indict, sting w/o
  justification rather than comfort and explain
  much like our words today when we mouth the
  conventional wisdom to those in distress!
• 615-17 J says his friends are
• treacherous (15)
• Temporary, disappearing like icein time of
  heat (i.e., when things get tough) (15b-17). Is
  this fair of Job? Have his friends disappeared?
  
• 622-23 J reproaches his friends, saying he
  didnt ask anything of them gifts, comfort or
  even delivery from the adversarys hand.
  Lesson for us nothing is more unwelcome than
  unsolicited advice!

5
JOBS EMOTIONAL JOURNEY INDIGNATION (624-30)

• 624-25 Mocking tone
• Teach mehow I have erred. J knows that cant
  because he hasnt! (24)
• Their reproval reproves nothingbecause J has
  done nothing! (25)
• 626-28 J indignantly accuses his friends of
  being callous and heartless in condemning one
  already in despair
• 629-30 J challenges his friends to find
  anything wrong on my tongue

6
JOBS EMOTIONAL JOURNEY SELF-PITY (71-10)

• 71-3 Job describes his life as
• like the days of a hireling (1)
• like a slave who longs for shadow (2)
• months of emptiness and nights of misery
  (3)
• 74-6 Jobs
• night is long (4)
• flesh is clothed with worms and dirt (5a)
• skin hardens, then breaks out (5b)
• days arewithout hope (6)
• May sound whiny, but can we blame him?

7
JOBS EMOTIONAL JOURNEY ANGER (711-21)

• 711 J angrily declares that he will not be
  silent before his friends or God, but will speak
  in the anguish of my spirit and will complain
  in the bitterness of my soul.
• 712-21 Job takes his complaints and angry
  pleas to the Lord

8
JOBS ANGRY COMPLAINTS TO GOD 712-19

• You treat me as if I were some monster needing
  guarding (12)
• You terrify me when I am at ease (13-14)
• You cause me to loathe my life (16a)
• Let me alone! (16b-19)
• What is man, that thou doest make so much of
  him? (contrast Ps. 84ff)
• J resents Gods constant presence in the form of
  tormenting him (18)
• J begs God to let me alone (19) (contrast
  Christs agony in being abandoned by God Mk.
  1534)

9
JOBS ANGRY COMPLAINT TO GOD 720-21

• 720 J cannot understand what he has done to
  become a burden to God and thus earn His wrath
• 721 J momentarily seems to agree w/ his
  friends that he must have sinned to be thus
  treated by God, and so asks God why He dost not
  pardon my transgressions

10
BILDAD RESPONDS IF YOU WILL SEEK GOD
(CHAPTER 8)

• V. 1 B calls Js speech so much great wind
• Vv. 3-7 God never acts unjustly, always
  punishing the guilty and rewarding the upright
• V. 4 By Bs reasoning, Js children got what
  they deserved!
• V. 5 Therefore, all J has to do is to seek
  God and be pure and upright, and
• Vv. 6b-7 God will make everything right in Js
  life once again
• Like Eliphaz, B is correct in principle, but
  utterly wrong in application!

11
BILDAD RESPONDS CONSIDER WHAT THE FATHERS HAVE
FOUND (8-19)

• Vv. 8-10 We all know good things happen to good
  people and bad things to bad people, because
  thats what our fathers, grandfathers, and
  great-grandfathers believed and told usso it
  must be so!
• Vv. 11-19 What our fathers understood God
  sees that the unrighteous fall and the righteous
  are upheld
• Againdead-on in principle, completely wrong in
  application to Jobs earthly circumstances

12
BILDAD RESPONDS SUMMING UP (820-22)

• V. 20 God accepts a blameless man but not
  evildoers. True?
• Yes (1 Peter 312)but Job is blameless! (18)
• Vv. 21-22 If J will repent, God will fill your
  mouth laughter and avenge J against those who
  hate you
• Is Bildad right?
• No John 1518-20
• Yes Revelation 210

13
PROCESSING OUR LEARNING

• How can Bildad and Eliphaz be so very right in
  principle but so completely wrong in their
  understanding of these principles?
• Discuss with someone near you
• For next Sunday, please study chapters 9-11