Reading the Bible Together for January – Job
Job is a tough book to read, the beginning and the end are the simplest to understand. It’s difficulty is compounded by the fact that the friends of Job talk such nonsense at times, their advice is not reliable and is often insulting and counter-productive hence we get the phrase ‘Job’s comforters’ widely used in English.
Overview – the purpose is to look at the nature and purpose of suffering in the individual’s experience.
Key truths
• God has a purpose behind all suffering, but the purposes of God are usually hidden from us and so we are baffled and often hurt by our providence.
• Conventional proverbial wisdom applies to many situations but falls down when we look at the suffering of Christians – God is supposed to be ‘for us’.
• Righteous sufferers must humbly link affirmation of God’s goodness and justice to their complaints and laments.
• As human beings our grasp of wisdom is limited and always begins with fear and respect of God and obedience to his commands.
Purpose and distinctives
• Conventional wisdom does not work where God is concerned.
• People say that God can be evil e.g. Dawkins – book of Job rejects this totally and defends the absolute goodness of God at all times, whatever appearances may suggest.
• We are human and we must face the fact that humans cannot ever fully understand God.
• It’s tough for Job, he gets the dubious honour of proving that the believer remains true to God, even when they suffer.
• All suffering is not a direct result of human sin, e.g. we don’t always suffer because of a specific sin in our lives. Job’s counsellors do not get this and so they constantly accuse him of specific sin.
• At times Job was sucked into this and conceded that his friends might be right. (42: 5-6)
• Job was always complaining to God in the fashion of a legal suit – not always a bad thing.
• Job always held to the fact that God was just and that one day he would provide a redeemer.
The RBT community group question sheet and also a full copy of the outline for Job can be found on the downloads page.