Old Testament Core Seminar

Class 11“Job”

Old Testament Overview

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The Old Testament in Redemptive-Historical Order

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The Creation of God’s PeopleGenesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy

The Establishment of God’s PeopleJoshua Judges

The Crowning of God’s King Ruth I & II Samuel

The Wisdom and Praise of God’s KingJob Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Songs

The Disobedience of God’s KingI & II Kings Isaiah Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah

Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah

The Disestablishment of God’s PeopleJeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel

The Re-Creation of God’s PeopleI & II Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther Haggai Zechariah Malachi

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• Thematic grouping of the books of the Old Testament, • Creation to the establishment of God’s people in the land.• Crowning of God’s king Saul then David.• 1 Kings, begins the process of reversing all that with the disobedience of

God’s kings— told in Kings and several of the prophets. • Then the exile, or the disestablishment of God’s people, and • Finally the re-creation of God’s people.

• In the middle we have “The Wisdom and Praise of God’s King”.• This “wisdom literature” in the middle of your Bible is quite

related to God’s kings. • Many of the Psalms were written by David. • Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs are either credited to or

closely related to David’s son Solomon. • In many ways these books were wisdom for ruling well as God’s king—

and God’s people too.

The Old Testament in Redemptive-Historical Order

Introduction to Job

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• Now, forget everything I just said. • Job wasn’t written by or about a king. • So why now?• It is wisdom literature so we’ll study it here.• The book seems to be set in the time of Abraham (or even

before) based on how Job lives, how he measures wealth, and so forth.

• The use of the name Yahweh for God suggests the story was compiled after the Exodus when God introduced that term.

• Note: When the characters themselves speak, they almost always use the generic term “God” … when the narrator speaks, he uses Yahweh (“The LORD”). So the compiler knew a lot more about God than Job did.

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• So what is Job about? • Fundamentally, the book of Job is about asking some of life’s

most difficult questions.Why do the righteous suffer in the same way as the unrighteous? Many wicked people seem to go unpunished, and many upright people suffer all the time? How do we explain that? And, perhaps more importantly, how should the righteous handle it, and conduct themselves, when they do suffer?

• Two things are assumed here. 1. God is sovereign, ordaining everything that comes to pass.2. God is good, loving what is right and hating what is evil.

• Job, Ruth, and Habakkuk stand in the gap where our circumstances seem to conflict with the reality of God’s goodness and sovereignty.

• Either God isn’t in control or He doesn’t care about good. • Job is about understanding how we can trust God in the midst

of unexplained suffering.

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• Book of Job doesn’t explain why these things happen. • It’s useful in that it explains why these bad things happen to Job

… who never finds that out. • Instead, the book shows us how we can trust a good and

sovereign God despite the nature of our circumstances. • Job is a book about trust. • It provides evidence so that we can take an intellectually honest

leap of faith to trust God in difficult circumstances, even when we will never find out this side of heaven why those circumstances came to pass.

• We can summarize the book of Job with a simple theme statement:God is completely sovereign over all the affairs of his universe, for his own glory. But often his motives, reasons, and goals behind what he does are not revealed to us. Yet we find in his character, and in our Redeemer, reason to trust in his care.

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• This isn’t a NT systematic theology read into ancient literature. • This is the message of Job. • It takes on mammoth issues and doesn’t provide cliché answer!• There is no one-to-one correspondence between evil and

suffering, or righteousness and reward, this side of heaven. • The issues are complicated and sticky. • Job deals with them in a way that is genuine and realistic. • There is real suffering here. And wrongheaded attempts to

resolve the issue. • At the end, the voice of God makes all things clear.

• Breaking Job into three pieces:• We often suffer. • We sometimes understand. • We can always trust.

1 – We Often Suffer

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• Job was identified as a righteous man in 1:1• In verses 2-3 he was wealthy and wise in verse 5. “The greatest

man among all the people of the East.”• Most know not what he had but what he lost.• It only takes eight verses to chronicle his descent into utter ruin.

• 1:13 his wealth• 1:18 his sons and daughters• 2:7 his health

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13-15 Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”16 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”17 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”18-19 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”20 Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.God gives, God takes. God’s name be ever blessed.22 Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God. (The Message)

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• Job suffered more suddenly than any of us - but he did not suffer more comprehensively than we will suffer.

• Sir Walter Scott said of our lives, “Come he slow or come he fast, it is but death that comes at last.”

• Suffering is universal. • Often we Christians downplay the doubt, fear, failing, anger, or

conflict that suffering can bring. • … but to get a realistic understanding about what it means to be

a follower of the Crucified One, to live lives in the real world, we need to honestly look at suffering.

• Job shows us that trouble and strife belong to us as well as Job.• We do no one any good by denying it. • Job is a good example of someone who suffers, and deals

honestly with his sufferings

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I. Job 1-2 – God sets His plan in actionII. Job 3-14 – First Round of Discussion:

Job’s friends insist that this calamity has come upon him because he’s sinned, and therefore must repent. Job maintains that he is innocent in this situation.

III. Job 15-21 – Second Round of Discussion: Job’s friends insist that his speech is wrong (he either doesn’t know what he’s talking about, or he’s lying). But Job insists that he’s right.

IV. Job 22-26 – Third Round of Discussion: Job’s friends say he’s hiding something. But Job says he’s righteous.

V. Job 27-31 – Two Monologues by Job: Man cannot discover God’s wisdom.

VI. Job 32-37 – Four Monologues by Elihu: Human observers cannot expect to adequately understand God’s dealings in justice and mercy, for indeed, God might have a loving purpose after all in Job’s sufferings. Even still, in this suffering, it is still of great value to lead a godly life.

VII. Job 38-42 – God questions Job: “Who are you, oh man, to doubt and questions the wisdom and workings of the Almighty?”

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• Job’s friends come to comfort and sit in silence for a week.• Chapters 4-41, all but last, are a series of dialogs dialogues

between Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.• Each of the friends keep making the same points - suffering has

happened because Job has sinned. • In the end Job makes his final protest and almost demands that

God show up so that he can talk to God himself about his suffering.

• Instead of God, Elihu speaks (chapter 32-37).• He’s been listening but as the younger did not want to disrespect

his elders.• He believes there has been too much pointing at Job instead of

God. • He gives four monologues on God’s justice and mercy – beyond

human understanding.

2 – We Sometimes Understand

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• He suggests Job’s sufferings might be the deliberate acts of a loving God - 37:23-34:“The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress. Therefore, people revere him, for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?”

• In chapter 38 God enters and criticizes those who spoke “words without knowledge”.

• God paints a picture of His creation work for them showing His unique and sovereign power.

• “Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?” (38:36).

• God considers the many things he has made, from seas to starts, from ostriches to oxen.

• Read Job 40:2 and Job’s answer 4-5.p.s. Dinosaurs? Job 40:15-41:10a

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• God speaks, “Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me”. (41:10b-11)

• The story ends here in chapter 42 with God telling Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar that they have been wrong and Job was right.

• Then he blesses Job.• In summary, his friends state “Job, what has happened to you is

really bad. You must have sinned most extraordinarily, because God is just and punishes sin. There’s no other explanation.”

• Jobs responds, “Oh no, I didn’t.” Not that he’s never sinned, but that no great, hidden sin that would have called for this calamity.

• Job’s friends say “You get what you deserve.” • They’re like Jesus’ disciples, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his

parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2).

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• They desperately wanted to know why this could have happened.• Like Christian Scientist or a Buddhist … “suffering isn’t real.” • They also understood God’s justice and sovereignty. • So how can Job could suffer in the world of a sovereign, just God

and yet be innocent? • Logically, Job’s innocence (or lack thereof) is the problem.• Even today, some deny the reality of suffering. • Some think God is well-intentioned, but unable to perfectly

protect us. • Others deny his goodness and justice. • Only the Bible has the audacity to maintain that all can be true. • Suffering. God’s goodness and justice. And yet also Job’s

innocence.

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• We all are like Job’s friends. Assuming God intends for us to understand what He’s doing through suffering.

• But how do we know His intentions?• What right do we have to condemn Him if we don’t understand? • Job teaches us that we do not possess all the facts. • Neither Job or his friends understood why Job suffered. • We understand only because God told us. • Job isn’t about understanding why evil happens. • Rather, it is simply telling us that sometimes we understand. • Often we suffer. Sometimes we understand. But always we can

trust.

3 – We Can Always Trust

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• In Philippians 4:7 Paul talks about a peace that “transcends all understanding”.

• It’s a state of being where we are more satisfied in Him than in our understanding of our passing circumstances.

• We need to trust because of our lack of understanding!• If we live according to our own understanding and completely

apart from trust, then we cannot be Christians. • The basis for that trust: God’s power! • The book of Job displays God’s power, the one we’re to trust.• Through Job we gain more understanding of who God is. • We see His creation, His power and his competency. His

Providence in caring for everything he has create … especially us!• The result – we can trust Him.

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• Job is very dismissive about the state of man’s life. Man’s days are a fleeting shadow, flying by faster than the weaver’s shuttle, certain to return to the dust, …

• Yet as Job speaks this God is focused on these children of dust.• Job did not know of the heavenly court scene as we are.• His only evidence for trusting God is Job’s trust in God.• Satan accuses Job of serving God for his own selfish ends (1:9-11)

… because he is wealthy. • God knows he’s wrong and allows Satan to take it all away.• With all his wealth gone, Job continues to worship God. • His first effort failed, Satan accuses Job of serving God only

because his health.• God knows he’s wrong and allows Satan to take it away.• As his body wastes away, Job still worships God.

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• The true worship of God does not depend on our circumstances. • We thank Him for good circumstances but maybe true worship

only comes through suffering?• Consider this … Job’s trials did not come on him because of his

vice but because of his virtue!• God knew Job and could say, “Consider my servant Job, Satan.”• Could He say that of us?• How much more do we know of God’s character than Job did? • Naomi’s charged the Almighty was injustice – she was wrong.• We know Ruth’s marriage to Boaz would lead to the Messiah.• But got no explanation of why the suffering happened.• Same with Job – he gets no explanation for his suffering.• Habakkuk, another book about suffering without an explanation.

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• In the New Testament we encounter the greatest injustice ever perpetrated in the history of the universe: the murder of Jesus!

• For the greatest of good ever conceived: the glorification of God through the salvation of mankind from his sins.

• If God can use this for the greatest good, how much more our confidence in his good purposes in our own suffering?

• “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, gracious give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

• Same problem: How does suffering of God’s people jive with his sovereignty and mercy?

• Same answer: No explanation, but a call to trust. • Through the centuries, compounding evidence on which to base

such trust, culminating in the suffering of Christ and his glory.

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• Sometimes God graciously allows us to see how he has used a difficult situation for our good.

• There’s danger in assuming he must give us such understanding. • That would build a counterfeit trust, a trust in our own abilities to

figure out all of God’s purposes.• Finally, we can trust God because, as Job said, “I know that my

Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth” (19:25).

• How would Job’s Redeemer redeem? • By living more righteously and perfectly than Job ever could.• By taking upon himself more suffering than Job ever knew. • By Jesus’ undeserved suffering on the cross.

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• God intends to display his glory in our lives and those around us.• Within the context of Job, we can he intends to display his glory

in His children lives as they to serve him amid life’s trials. • If you are a child of his realize that your very suffering can display

God’s glory as you serve and worship him in a way that defies the world’s comprehension and abilities.

• If you are presently enduring a season of suffering, it may be that God is sitting in heaven right now and saying to the heavenly host about him, “Have you considered my servant?”

• We often suffer. We sometimes understand. And by God’s grace, we can always trust.

Conclusion