Job

1
Job
2
Big picture

• Did you notice my servant Job? the Lord asked.
  There is no one on earth as faithful and good as
  he is. (Job 18 GN)
• You did not speak the truth about me, the way my
  servant Job did. (Job 427 GN)

3
Satans challenge

• When the day came for the heavenly beings to
  appear before the Lord, Satan was there among
  them. The Lord asked him, What have you been
  doing? Satan answered, I have been walking here
  and there, roaming around the earth. Did you
  notice my servant Job? the Lord asked. There is
  no one on earth as faithful and good as he is. He
  worships me and is careful not to do anything
  evil. Satan replied, Would Job worship you if
  he got nothing out of it? You have always
  protected him and his family and everything he
  owns. You bless everything he does, and you have
  given him enough cattle to fill the whole
  country. But now suppose you take away everything
  he hashe will curse you to your face! All
  right, the Lord said to Satan, everything he
  has is in your power, but you must not hurt Job
  himself. So Satan left (Job 16-12 GN).

4
Trial 1 loss of family and wealth

• One day when Job's sons and daughters were
  eating and drinking wine in their oldest
  brother's home, a messenger came to Job. He said,
  While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were
  grazing nearby, men from Sheba attacked. They
  took the livestock and massacred the servants.
  Im the only one who has escaped to tell you.
  While he was still speaking, another messenger
  came and said, A fire from God fell from heaven
  and completely burned your flocks and servants.
  Im the only one who has escaped to tell you.
  While he was still speaking, another messenger
  came and said, The Chaldeans formed three
  companies and made a raid on the camels. They
  took the camels and massacred the servants. Im
  the only one who has escaped to tell you.

5

• While he was still speaking, another messenger
  came and said, Your sons and your daughters were
  eating and drinking wine at their oldest
  brother's home when suddenly a great storm swept
  across the desert and struck the four corners of
  the house. It fell on the young people, and they
  died. Im the only one who has escaped to tell
  you. Job stood up, tore his robe in grief, and
  shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and
  worshiped. He said, Naked I came from my mother,
  and naked I will return. The LORD has given, and
  the LORD has taken away! May the name of the LORD
  be praised. Through all this Job did not sin or
  blame God for doing anything wrong. (Job 113-22
  GODS WORD)

6
God 1 Satan 0

• When the day came for the heavenly beings to
  appear before the Lord again, Satan was there
  among them. The Lord asked him, Where have you
  been? Satan answered, I have been walking here
  and there, roaming around the earth. Did you
  notice my servant Job? the Lord asked. There is
  no one on earth as faithful and good as he is. He
  worships me and is careful not to do anything
  evil. You persuaded me to let you attack him for
  no reason at all, but Job is still as faithful as
  ever. Satan replied, A person will give up
  everything in order to stay alive. But now
  suppose you hurt his bodyhe will curse you to
  your face! So the Lord said to Satan, All
  right, he is in your power, but you are not to
  kill him (Job 21-5 GN).

7
Trial 2 Physical suffering

• Then Satan left the Lords presence and made
  sores break out all over Jobs body. Job went and
  sat by the garbage dump and took a piece of
  broken pottery to scrape his sores. His wife said
  to him, You are still as faithful as ever,
  aren't you? Why dont you curse God and die? Job
  answered, You are talking nonsense! When God
  sends us something good, we welcome it. How can
  we complain when he sends us trouble? Even in
  all this suffering Job said nothing against God
  (Job 27-10 GN).

8
Jobs depression

• I hate my life I do not want to live forever.
  Leave me alone because my days are so brief.
  (Job 716 GODS Word)

9

• This earth is a spectacle for the whole world of
  angels (1 Corinthians 49 - GN)
• God, who is the Creator of all things, kept his
  secret hidden through all the past ages, in order
  that at the present time, by means of the church,
  the angelic rulers and powers in the heavenly
  world might learn of his wisdom in all its
  different forms (Ephesians 39,10 GN).
• God revealed to these prophets that their work
  was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as
  they spoke about those things which you have now
  heard from the messengers who announced the Good
  News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from
  heaven. These are things which even the angels
  would like to understand (1 Peter 112, GN).

10

• Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God
  is true. As the Scriptures say, He will be
  proved right in what he says, and he will win his
  case in court (Romans 34, NLT).

11
Trial 3 The friends

• While they were still a long way off they saw
  Job, but did not recognize him. When they did,
  they began to weep and wail, tearing their
  clothes in grief and throwing dust into the air
  and on their heads. Then they sat there on the
  ground with him for seven days and nights without
  saying a word, because they saw how much he was
  suffering (Job 212,13 GN).

12
Eliphaz speaks

• Once a message came quietly, so quietly I could
  hardly hear it. Like a nightmare it disturbed my
  sleep. I trembled and shuddered my whole body
  shook with fear. A light breeze touched my face,
  and my skin crawled with fright. I could see
  something standing there I stared, but couldnt
  tell what it was. Then I heard a voice out of the
  silence (Job 412-16 GN).
• But you you terrify me with dreams you send
  visions and nightmares (Job 714 GN).

13
Eliphaz

• Can anyone be righteous in the sight of God or
  be pure before his Creator? God does not trust
  his heavenly servants he finds fault even with
  his angels. Do you think he will trust a creature
  of clay, a thing of dust that can be crushed like
  a moth? (Job 417-19 GN).
• Can human beings be really pure? Can anyone be
  right with God? Why, God does not trust even his
  angels even they are not pure in his sight. And
  we drink evil as if it were water yes, we are
  corrupt we are worthless. (Job 1514,15 GN)

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God doesnt trust anyoneWe are worthless

• But yet, hadnt God just declared Job as good?
  Perfect and upright (Job 18 KJV).
• Abraham But you, Israel my servant, you are
  the people that I have chosen, the descendants of
  Abraham, my friend (Isaiah 418 GN)
• The LORD would speak with Moses face-to-face,
  just as someone speaks with a friend (Exodus
  3311 GN)
• David is referred to as a man after his own
  heart (1 Samuel 1314, KJV)
• Daniel, you are very precious to God (Daniel
  1011, NLT)
• How damaging to hear this in a parent-child
  relationship

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God doesnt trust anyoneWe are worthless

• Jesus I do not call you servants any longer
  because servants do not know what their master is
  doing. Instead, I call you friends (John
  1515).
• Jesus When the Son of Man came, he ate and
  drank, and everyone said, Look at this man! He
  is a glutton and wine drinker, a friend of tax
  collectors and other outcasts! (Matthew 1119
  GN)
• Jesus Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the
  prophets and stone the messengers God has sent
  you! How many times I wanted to put my arms
  around all your people, just as a hen gathers her
  chicks under her wings, but you would not let
  me! (Matthew 2337 GN)

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Worthless to God?

• Bildad
• Then what about a human being, that worm, that
  insect? What is a human life worth in Gods
  eyes? (Job 256 GN)
• Job
• Who inspired you so speak like this? (Job 264
  GN)
• God
• For God so loved the world that he gave his only
  Son (John 316 GN)

17
Eliphaz again

• Good people are glad and the innocent laugh when
  they see the wicked punished (Job 2219 GN).
• The people I love are doing evil things
  (Jeremiah 1115 GN)
• How can I give you up, Israel? How can I abandon
  you? (Hosea 118 GN)
• Tell them that as surely as I, the Sovereign
  LORD, am the living God, I do not enjoy seeing
  sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning
  and live. Israel, stop the evil you are doing.
  Why do you want to die? (Ezekiel 3311 GN).

18
Is suffering evidence of Gods curse?

• Eliphaz asks Job
• Think back now. Name a single case where someone
  righteous met with disaster (Job 47 GN)
• Happy is the person whom God corrects! Do not
  resent it when he rebukes you (Job 517 GN)
• Is God correcting or testing Job in this story?
• Job You have gone far enough. Stop being
  unjust. Dont condemn me. Im in the right (Job
  620 GN)

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Do good people ever suffer loss?

• Abel, Isaiah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, John the
  Baptist, Jesus, James, Peter, John, Paul,
  Wycliffe, Tyndale
• For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good
  people alike, and gives rain to those who do good
  and to those who do evil (Matthew 545 GN).
• Job asks
• Was a wicked persons light ever put out? Did
  one of them ever meet with disaster? Did God ever
  punish the wicked in anger and blow them away
  like straw in the wind or like dust carried away
  in a storm? (Job 2117,18 GN).

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Rich/healthy blessed by GodPoor/sick cursed
by God

• Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind?
  Was it his own or his parents sin?
• Jesus answered, His blindness has nothing to do
  with his sins or his parents sins (John 92,3
  GN).
• How hard it is for rich people to enter the
  Kingdom of God! It is much harder for a rich
  person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a
  camel to go through the eye of a needle. The
  people who heard him asked, Who, then, can be
  saved? (Luke 1924-26 GN).
• Happy are you poor the Kingdom of God is yours
  (Luke 620 GN)

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You are being punished Job

• Put your heart right, Job. Reach out to God. Put
  away evil and wrong from your home. Then face the
  world again, firm and courageous. Then all your
  troubles will fade from your memory, like floods
  that are past and remembered no more (Job 114-6
  GN).
• But now you are being punished as you deserve
  (Job 3617 GN)
• God is punishing you less than you deserve (Job
  116 GN)
• Any sensible person will surely agree and the
  wise who hear me will say that Job is speaking
  from ignorance and that nothing he says makes
  sense. Think through everything that Job says
  you will see that he talks like an evil man. To
  his sins he adds rebellion in front of us all he
  mocks God (Job 3434-37 GN).

22
Job questions God

• You think you are better than I am, and regard
  my troubles as proof of my guilt. Cant you see
  it is God who has done this? He has set a trap to
  catch me. I protest his violence, but no one is
  listening no one hears my cry for justice. He
  has taken away all my wealth and destroyed my
  reputation. God has made my own family forsake
  me I am a stranger to those who knew me my
  relatives and friends are gone. Those who were
  guests in my house have forgotten me my servant
  women treat me like a stranger and a foreigner.
  When I call a servant, he doesn't answer even
  when I beg him to help me. My wife cant stand
  the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't
  come near me. Children despise me and laugh when
  they see me. My closest friends look at me with
  disgust those I loved most have turned against
  me. My skin hangs loose on my bones I have
  barely escaped with my life. You are my friends!
  Take pity on me! How I wish that someone would
  remember my words and record them in a book! Or
  with a chisel carve my words in stone and write
  them so that they would last forever (Job
  195-7,9,13-21 GN).

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Job questions God

• Was God offended by Jobs accusation and
  complaint? Was Job about to renounce God?
• Job continues
• But I know there is someone in heaven who will
  come at last to my defense. Even after my skin is
  eaten by disease, while still in this body I will
  see God. I will see him with my own eyes, and he
  will not be a stranger (Job 1925-27 GN).
• I still rebel and complain against God I cannot
  keep from groaning. How I wish I knew where to
  find him, and knew how to go where he is. I would
  state my case before him and present all the
  arguments in my favor. I want to know what he
  would say and how he would answer me. Would God
  use all his strength against me? No, he would
  listen as I spoke. I am honest I could reason
  with God he would declare me innocent once and
  for all (Job 231-7 GN).

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We can talk to God as a Friend

• Moses Lord, why do you mistreat your people?
  Why did you send me here? Ever since I went to
  the king to speak for you, he has treated them
  cruelly. And you have done nothing to help them!
  (Exodus 522,23 GN).
• Why have you treated me so badly? Why are you
  displeased with me? Why have you given me the
  responsibility for all these people? I didn't
  create them or bring them to birth! Why should
  you ask me to act like a nurse and carry them in
  my arms like babies all the way to the land you
  promised to their ancestors?...I cant be
  responsible for all these people by myself its
  too much for me! If you are going to treat me
  like this, have pity on me and kill me, so that I
  won't have to endure your cruelty any longer.
  (Numbers 1110-14 GN)
• Abraham Surely you wont kill the innocent with
  the guilty. Thats impossible! You cant do that.
  If you did, the innocent would be punished along
  with the guilty. That is impossible. The judge of
  all the earth has to act justly (Genesis 1825
  GN).
• The Psalms

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What was most painful of all for Job?

• Where is my Friend?
• I have searched in the East, but God is not
  there I have not found him when I searched in
  the West. God has been at work in the North and
  the South, but still I have not seen him. Yet God
  knows every step I take if he tests me, he will
  find me pure (Job 238-10 GN)
• If only my life could once again be as it was
  when God watched over me. God was always with me
  then and gave me light as I walked through the
  darkness. Those were the days when I was
  prosperous, and the friendship of God protected
  my home (Job 291-3 GN)
• I call to you, O God, but you never answer and
  when I pray, you pay no attention (Job 3020
  GN)
• Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him (Job
  1315, KJV).

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Jobs conclusion

• Will no one listen to what I am saying? I swear
  that every word is true. Let Almighty God answer
  me. If the charges my opponent brings against me
  were written down so that I could see them, I
  would wear them proudly on my shoulder and place
  them on my head like a crown. I would tell God
  everything I have done, and hold my head high in
  his presence (Job 3135-37 GN).

27
Elihu

• The three men refused to reply further to Job
  because he kept insisting on his innocence. Then
  Elihubecame angry because Job refused to admit
  he had sinned and to acknowledge that God had
  just cause for punishing him. But he was also
  angry with Jobs three friends because they had
  been unable to answer Jobs arguments and yet had
  condemned him. (Job 321-3, Living Bible)
• My knowledge is wide I will use what I know to
  show that God, my Creator, is just. Nothing I say
  to you is false you see before you a truly wise
  man. (Job 363,4 GN)
• Certainly, my words are not lies. The one who
  knows everything is speaking with you. (Job 364
  GODS WORD)

28
Elihu

• God corrects us by sending sickness and filling
  our bodies with pain. Those who are sick lose
  their appetites, and even the finest food looks
  revolting. Their bodies waste away to nothing
  you can see all their bones they are about to go
  to the world of the dead. (Job 3319-22 GN)

29
Elihu

• Have you ever seen anyone like this man Job? He
  never shows respect for God. He likes the company
  of evil people and goes around with sinners.
  (Job 347-8 GN)
• Job, have you confessed your sins to God and
  promised not to sin again? Have you asked God to
  show you your faults, and have you agreed to stop
  doing evil? Since you object to what God does,
  can you expect him to do what you want? The
  decision is yours, not mine tell us now what you
  think. Any sensible person will surely agree and
  the wise who hear me will say that Job is
  speaking from ignorance and that nothing he says
  makes sense. Think through everything that Job
  says you will see that he talks like an evil
  man. To his sins he adds rebellion in front of
  us all he mocks God. (Job 3431-36 GN)
• But now you are being punished as you deserve
  (Job 3617 GN)

30
Elihu

• Remember how great is Gods powerEveryone has
  seen what he has done but we can only watch from
  a distance. We cannot fully know his greatness or
  count the number of his years (Job 3623,25,26
  GN)
• Chapter 36 and 37 Gods power. He describes God
  as like a storm!
• I wont ask to speak with God why should I give
  him a chance to destroy me? Gods power is so
  great that we cannot come near himNo wonder,
  then, that everyone is awed by him, and that he
  ignores those who claim to be wise. (Job
  3720,23 GN)

31
God comes with power

• Then out of the storm the Lord spoke to Job.
• Who are you to question my wisdom with your
  ignorant, empty words? Now stand up straight and
  answer the questions I ask you. Were you there
  when I made the world? If you know so much, tell
  me about it. Who decided how large it would be?
  Who stretched the measuring line over it? Do you
  know all the answers? What holds up the pillars
  that support the earth? Who laid the cornerstone
  of the world? (Job 381-6 GN).
• Do you know where the light comes from or what
  the source of darkness is? Can you show them how
  far to go, or send them back again? I am sure you
  can, because youre so old and were there when
  the world was made! (Job 3819-21 GN).

32
God comes with power

• After many verses of God detailing his great
  power, he turns to Job
• Job, you challenged Almighty God will you give
  up now, or will you answer? (Job 401, 2 GN).
• I spoke foolishly, Lord. What can I answer? I
  will not try to say anything else. I have already
  said more than I should (Job 403-5 GN).

33
Admission of wrongdoing?

• Isaiah There is no hope for me! I am doomed
  because every word that passes my lips is sinful,
  and I live among a people whose every word is
  sinful. And yet, with my own eyes I have seen the
  King, the LORD Almighty. (Isaiah 65 GN)
• Daniel Therefore I was left alone, and saw
  this great vision, and there remained no strength
  in me. For my beauty was turned within me to
  corruption, and I kept no strength.(Daniel
  108-9 MKJV)
• Paul I am less than the least of all Gods
  people (Ephesians 38 GN)
• John When I saw him, I fell down at his feet
  like a dead man. (Revelation 117 GN)

34
God comes with power

• Then out of the storm the Lord spoke to Job once
  again. Now stand up straight and answer my
  questions. Are you trying to prove that I am
  unjust to put me in the wrong and yourself in
  the right? Are you as strong as I am? Can your
  voice thunder as loud as mine? If so, stand up in
  your honor and pride clothe yourself with
  majesty and glory. (Job 406-10 GN)

35

• Can you catch Leviathan with a fishhook or tie
  his tongue down with a rope? Can you put a rope
  through his snout or put a hook through his
  jaws?...Touch him once and youll never try it
  again youll never forget the fight! Anyone who
  sees Leviathan loses courage and falls to the
  ground. When he is aroused, he is fierce no one
  would dare to stand before him. Who can attack
  him and still be safe? No one in all the world
  can do it.

36

• Let me tell you about Leviathans legs and
  describe how great and strong he is.
• His pride is invincible nothing can make a dent
  in that pride. Nothing can get through that proud
  skin-- impervious to weapons and weather (Job
  4115-16)
• Even angels run for cover when he surfaces,
  cowering before his tail-thrashing turbulence.
  (Job 4125)
• gods, or the strongest

37

• His stony heart is without fear, as unyielding
  and hard as a millstone. When he rises up, even
  the strongest are frightened they are helpless
  with fear. There is no sword that can wound him
  no spear or arrow or lance that can harm him. For
  him iron is as flimsy as straw, and bronze as
  soft as rotten wood. There is no arrow that can
  make him run rocks thrown at him are like bits
  of straw. To him a club is a piece of straw, and
  he laughs when men throw spears.

38

• Nothing on earth is his equal a creature
  without fear. He looks down on all that are
  haughty he is king over all that are proud."
  (Job 4133-34 NIV)

39

• On that day the LORD will use his fierce and
  powerful sword to punish Leviathan, that slippery
  snake, Leviathan, that twisting snake. He will
  kill that monster which lives in the sea.
  (Isaiah 271)
• You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the
  waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in
  pieces (Psalm 7413-14 NKJV)

40
God comes to Job with power

• Then Job answered the Lord and said. I know
  that You can do all things, And that no purpose
  of Yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides
  counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have
  declared that which I did not understand, Things
  too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
• Hear, now and I will speak I will ask You, and
  You instruct me. I have heard of You my the
  hearing of the ear But now my eye sees You.
  (Job 421-5, NASB)
• ?You said,? Listen now, and I will speak. I
  will ask you, and you will teach me. (Job 424,
  GODS WORD)
• Hear, and I will speak I will question you, and
  you declare to me. I had heard of you by the
  hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you
  therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust
  and ashes (Job 424-6, NRSV)

41
A sudden twist!

• After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he
  said to Eliphaz, I am angry with you and your
  two friends, because you did not speak the truth
  about me, the way my servant Job did. Now take
  seven bulls and seven rams to Job and offer them
  as a sacrifice for yourselves. Job will pray for
  you, and I will answer his prayer and not
  disgrace you the way you deserve. You did not
  speak the truth about me as he did. Eliphaz,
  Bildad, and Zophar did what the Lord had told
  them to do, and the Lord answered Job's prayer
  (Job 427-9 GN).

42
An important principle involved

• God uses his friends to bring the universe to a
  better understanding of his true character
• Abraham
• Moses
• Job

43
Jesus

• But Jesus did not say a word to her. His
  disciples came to him and begged him, Send her
  away! She is following us and making all this
  noise! Then Jesus replied, I have been sent
  only to the lost sheep of the people of Israel
  (Matthew 1523, 24 GN).
• At this the woman came and fell at his feet.
  Help me, sir! she said. Jesus answered, It
  isnt right to take the childrens food and throw
  it to the dogs (Matthew 1525, 26 GN).
• Thats true, sir, she answered, but even the
  dogs eat the leftovers that fall from their
  masters' table. So Jesus answered her, You are
  a woman of great faith! What you want will be
  done for you. And at that very moment her
  daughter was healed (Matthew 1527, 28 GN).