For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
Hebrew words: ‘Iyyov (Job) – perhaps “persecuted." 60x in the O.T.
Further study:
- In this podcast:
- Job 1:1-22, 2:7-13, 3:1,24-26, 19:25-27, 31:1-40, 32:1, 40:1-8, 42:1-17
- Job’s physical condition: 2:7,8,12; 7:4,5,14; 16:16; 17:1; 19:17,20; 30:17,28,30
- Ezekiel 14:14,20
- James 5:11
- Even more:
- Job is part of the Old Testament Wisdom Literature.
- To read The Problem of Human Suffering, by John Clayton, which explores the central issue of Job. Click here.
- For more on the interpretation of Job, click here.
- See also the comment on Job 19:26.
- Why does a good God allow evil? Click here (and then scroll down) for the online audio lesson.
- For a much fuller treatment of this book, please hear my entire audio series on Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.
- For an insightful commentary, try Francis I Andersen's Job: An Introduction and Commentary, in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series.
Some things we learn about God:
- God does allow bad things to happen to good people – and vice versa. See also Matthew 5:45.
- His presence and nature are overpowering, utterly humbling.
- If we are awed and humbled by his work in the natural world, then we should also trust that he rules the moral world. God is just.
- The Lord is not pleased when he or his ways are misrepresented.
- God doesn’t always answer our questions in ways we expect.
- God uses suffering to mature us spiritually. He does not view suffering in the same way that we do!
- In the story of Job God foreshadows the death of another righteous and innocent man, whose suffering redeems the world: Jesus Christ.
For kids:
- Truth be told, the message of Job generally speaks much more to adults than to most kids. That is, few children have had to wrestle with the issues of theodicy (how God can be just, in light of the suffering and evil which he permit to take place in this life). Still, some kids have experienced tremendous suffering and loss, and insight into "Why bad things happen to good people" may in fact be highly meaningful to them. This is especially important considered younger children's tendency to internalize -- to blame themselvesfor bad things that happen. Just as for adults, the truth will set children free, too.
Key verses:
- Job 1:10 – Satan charges that God has put a "hedge" around Job. He severely doubts the purity of his motives.
- Job 1:21 – The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
- Job 31:1ff – Job has led a righteous life.
- Job 40:8 – God is righteous, nor should we charge him with wrong.
- Job 42:10 – Job prays for his friends.
- James 5:11 – He is the paragon of perseverance.
Next lesson: The Proverbs 31 Woman and Man
