Here are some key moments where Job questions God:

• Job's Lament (Chapter 3): Job begins by cursing the day of his birth, expressing deep anguish and questioning why he was born only to experience such suffering (Job 3:1-26).
• Desire for an Audience with God (Chapters 9-10): Job expresses a desire to present his case before God, questioning why he is being afflicted despite his innocence. He longs for a mediator who could bridge the gap between him and God (Job 9:32-35, 10:1-7).
• Job's Challenge to God's Justice (Chapter 13): Job boldly declares his willingness to argue his case before God, questioning the justice of his suffering and asserting his integrity (Job 13:3, 13-23).
• Job's Frustration with God's Silence (Chapter 23): Job expresses frustration over God's silence and his inability to find God to present his case. He maintains his confidence in his own righteousness and longs for an explanation (Job 23:1-10).
• Job's Final Defense (Chapters 29-31): In his final monologue, Job reflects on his past life of prosperity and justice, contrasting it with his current suffering.
• He questions why he is being punished and maintains his innocence, listing his righteous deeds and challenging God to answer him (Job 31:35-37 “Oh, if only someone would give me a hearing! I’ve signed my name to my defense—let the Almighty One answer! I want to see my indictment in writing. Anyone’s welcome to read my defense; I’ll write it on a poster and carry it around town. I’m prepared to account for every move I’ve ever made— to anyone and everyone, prince or pauper.[1]).

 
God responds to Job not with answers, but with questions that reveal His vast knowledge and power.

• This divine encounter shifts the focus from human reasoning to God's majesty and wisdom.
• God asks Job about the creation of the earth, the boundaries of the sea, the dawn, and the intricacies of nature

GOD CONFRONTS JOB
Have You Gotten to the Bottom of Things?
JOB 38
1 And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm.

• What is the emphasis used here by God?
• Powerful? No emotion?

He said:
2–11    “Why do you confuse the issue?
        Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?
        Pull yourself together, Job!
        Up on your feet! Stand tall!
        I have some questions for you,
        and I want some straight answers.
        Where were you when I created the earth?
        Tell me, since you know so much!
        Who decided on its size? Certainly you’ll know that!
        Who came up with the blueprints and measurements?
        How was its foundation poured,
        and who set the cornerstone,
        While the morning stars sang in chorus
        and all the angels shouted praise?
        And who took charge of the ocean
        when it gushed forth like a baby from the womb?
        That was me! I wrapped it in soft clouds,
        and tucked it in safely at night.
        Then I made a playpen for it,
        a strong playpen so it couldn’t run loose,
        And said, ‘Stay here, this is your place.
        Your wild tantrums are confined to this place.’
12–15   “And have you ever ordered Morning, ‘Get up!’
        told Dawn, ‘Get to work!’
        So you could seize Earth like a blanket
        and shake out the wicked like cockroaches?
        As the sun brings everything to light,
        brings out all the colors and shapes,
        The cover of darkness is snatched from the wicked--
        they’re caught in the very act!
16–18   “Have you ever gotten to the true bottom of things,
        explored the labyrinthine caves of deep ocean?
        Do you know the first thing about death?
        Do you have one clue regarding death’s dark mysteries?
        And do you have any idea how large this earth is?
        Speak up if you have even the beginning of an answer[2]
 
These questions are not meant to belittle Job but to remind him of the Creator's infinite wisdom and the limitations of human understanding.

• God's questions cover the natural world, from the stars to the animals, showcasing His sovereignty over all creation.

JOB 39
1–7       “Do you know the month when mountain goats give birth?
        Have you ever watched a doe bear her fawn?
        Do you know how many months she is pregnant?
        Do you know the season of her delivery,
        when she crouches down and drops her offspring?
        Her young ones flourish and are soon on their own;
        they leave and don’t come back.
5–8     “Who do you think set the wild donkey free,
        opened the corral gates and let him go?
        I gave him the whole wilderness to roam in,
        the rolling plains and wide-open places.
        He laughs at his city cousins, who are harnessed and harried.
        He’s oblivious to the cries of teamsters.
        He grazes freely through the hills,
        nibbling anything that’s green.
9–12    “Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you,
        volunteer to spend the night in your barn?
        Can you imagine hitching your plow to a buffalo
        and getting him to till your fields?
        He’s hugely strong, yes, but could you trust him,
        would you dare turn the job over to him?
        You wouldn’t for a minute depend on him, would you,
        to do what you said when you said it?
13–18   “The ostrich flaps her wings futilely--
        all those beautiful feathers, but useless!
        She lays her eggs on the hard ground,
        leaves them there in the dirt, exposed to the weather,
        Not caring that they might get stepped on and cracked
        or trampled by some wild animal.
        She’s negligent with her young, as if they weren’t even hers.
        She cares nothing about anything.
        She wasn’t created very smart, that’s for sure,
        wasn’t given her share of good sense.
        But when she runs, oh, how she runs,
        laughing, leaving horse and rider in the dust.
19–25   “Are you the one who gave the horse his prowess
        and adorned him with a shimmering mane?
        Did you create him to prance proudly
        and strike terror with his royal snorts?
        He paws the ground fiercely, eager and spirited,
        then charges into the fray.
        He laughs at danger, fearless,
        doesn’t shy away from the sword.
        The banging and clanging
        of quiver and lance don’t faze him.
        He quivers with excitement, and at the trumpet blast
        races off at a gallop.
        At the sound of the trumpet he neighs mightily,
        smelling the excitement of battle from a long way off,
        catching the rolling thunder of the war cries.
26–30   “Was it through your know-how that the hawk learned to fly,
        soaring effortlessly on thermal updrafts?
        Did you command the eagle’s flight,
        and teach her to build her nest in the heights,
        Perfectly at home on the high cliff face,
        invulnerable on pinnacle and crag?
        From her perch she searches for prey,
        spies it at a great distance.
        Her young gorge themselves on carrion;
        wherever there’s a roadkill, you’ll see her circling.”[3]
 
JOB 40
God then confronted Job directly:
        “Now what do you have to say for yourself?
        Are you going to haul me, the Mighty One, into court and press charges?”
JOB ANSWERS GOD
I’m Ready to Shut Up and Listen
3–5     Job answered:
        “I’m speechless, in awe—words fail me.
        I should never have opened my mouth!
        I’ve talked too much, way too much.
        I’m ready to shut up and listen.”[4]
Job acknowledges his insignificance and chooses to remain silent, recognizing that he has spoken of things he does not understand.

• Lesson in Humility: Job's encounter with God's majesty leads him to a deeper understanding of his own limitations and the greatness of God.

 
III. God's Continued Challenge and Job's Repentance (Job 40:6-42:6):

• Behemoth and Leviathan:
• God continues to challenge Job by describing the behemoth and leviathan, creatures that symbolize God's power and the uncontrollable aspects of creation (Job 40:15-41:34).

JOB 40
15–24   “Look at the land beast, Behemoth. I created him as well as you.
        Grazing on grass, docile as a cow--
        Just look at the strength of his back,
        the powerful muscles of his belly.
        His tail sways like a cedar in the wind;
        his huge legs are like beech trees.
        His skeleton is made of steel,
        every bone in his body hard as steel.
        Most magnificent of all my creatures,
        but I still lead him around like a lamb!
        The grass-covered hills serve him meals,
        while field mice frolic in his shadow.
        He takes afternoon naps under shade trees,
        cools himself in the reedy swamps,
        Lazily cool in the leafy shadows
        as the breeze moves through the willows.
        And when the river rages he doesn’t budge,
        stolid and unperturbed even when the Jordan goes wild.
        But you’d never want him for a pet--
        you’d never be able to housebreak him!”
 
I Run This Universe
JOB 41
1–11    “Or can you pull in the sea beast, Leviathan, with a fly rod
        and stuff him in your creel?
        Can you lasso him with a rope,
        or snag him with an anchor?
        Will he beg you over and over for mercy,
        or flatter you with flowery speech?
        Will he apply for a job with you
        to run errands and serve you the rest of your life?
        Will you play with him as if he were a pet goldfish?
        Will you make him the mascot of the neighborhood children?
        Will you put him on display in the market
        and have shoppers haggle over the price?
        Could you shoot him full of arrows like a pin cushion,
        or drive harpoons into his huge head?
        If you so much as lay a hand on him,
        you won’t live to tell the story.
        What hope would you have with such a creature?
        Why, one look at him would do you in!
        If you can’t hold your own against his glowering visage,
        how, then, do you expect to stand up to me?
        Who could confront me and get by with it?
        I’m in charge of all this—I run this universe![5]
Wiersbe found 77 unanswerable questions that God asked Job in chapters 38 through 41, which proved Job both ignorant and impotent.

• Since Job could not understand or determine God's ways with nature, he obviously could not comprehend or control God's dealings with people.
• Who is the truly wise person?
• It is not Job, or his three older friends, or his younger friend, Elihu, but God.
• He alone is truly wise.

 
Job's Repentance: 

• Job's final response, where he repents in dust and ashes.
• Job admits that he spoke of things beyond his understanding and acknowledges God's sovereignty (Job 42:1-6).

JOB 42
1–6     Job answered God:
        “I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything.
        Nothing and no one can upset your plans.
        You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water,
        ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?’
        I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me,
        made small talk about wonders way over my head.
        You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking.
        Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’
        I admit I once lived by rumors of you;
        now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!
        I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise!
        I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.”[6]
 
IV. Restoration and Blessing (Job 42:7-17):

• God's Rebuke of Job's Friends:
• God rebukes Job's friends for not speaking rightly about Him.
• Job's role as an intercessor for his friends highlights his restored relationship with God (Job 42:7-9).

7–8     After God had finished addressing Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, “I’ve had it with you and your two friends. I’m fed up! You haven’t been honest either with me or about me—not the way my friend Job has. So here’s what you must do. Take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my friend Job. Sacrifice a burnt offering on your own behalf. My friend Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer. He will ask me not to treat you as you deserve for talking nonsense about me, and for not being honest with me, as he has.”
9       They did it. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did what God commanded. And God accepted Job’s prayer.[7]
 
Restoration of Job's Fortunes:

• God blesses Job with twice as much as he had before, including new children and a long, prosperous life (Job 42:10-17).

10–11   After Job had interceded for his friends, God restored his fortune—and then doubled it! All his brothers and sisters and friends came to his house and celebrated. They told him how sorry they were, and consoled him for all the trouble God had brought him. Each of them brought generous housewarming gifts.
12–15   God blessed Job’s later life even more than his earlier life. He ended up with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand teams of oxen, and one thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first daughter Dove, the second, Cinnamon, and the third, Darkeyes. There was not a woman in that country as beautiful as Job’s daughters. Their father treated them as equals with their brothers, providing the same inheritance.
16–17   Job lived on another 140 years, living to see his children and grandchildren—four generations of them! Then he died—an old man, a full life.[8]
 
What God did not say to Job is as surprising as what He did say.

•  He did not mention Job's suffering
•  He gave no explanation of the problem of evil
•  He did not defend Himself against Job's charge of injustice
•  He made no comment on the retributive principle.
•  God simply revealed Himself to Job and his companions to a greater degree than they had known, and that greater revelation silenced them.

 
The reader is told why Job was suffering in the Prologue, but that is to show that Job was innocent.

• So the book is teaching us through the divine theophany [visible manifestation of God] that there is something more fundamental than an intellectual solution to the mystery of innocent suffering.
• Though the message reaches Job through his intellect, it is for his spirit."

 
V. Key Themes and Applications:

• God's Sovereignty and Wisdom: 
• God's ways are higher than ours, and His understanding is beyond our comprehension (Isaiah 55:8-9 - 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. 9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.[9]).

Humility and Trust: 

• Embrace humility and trust in God's character, even when circumstances are difficult or confusing.
• Like Job, we can find peace in acknowledging God's greatness and our dependence on Him.

Restoration and Hope: 

• There is always the hope of restoration and the assurance of God's presence.
• While Job's story includes material restoration, the deeper message is one of spiritual renewal and the reaffirmation of God's faithfulness.

Conclusion: 
Reflect on your encounters with God's majesty.

• Seek a deeper understanding of God's character and trust in His wisdom and love, even in the midst of life's challenges.

Like Job, you can find hope and restoration in your relationship with God.

[1] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Job 31:35–37.
[2] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Job 38:1–18.
[3] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Job 39:1–30.
[4] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Job 40:1–5.
[5] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Job 40:15–41:34.
[6] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Job 42:1–6.
[7] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Job 42:7–9.
[8] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Job 42:10–17.
[9] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Is 55:8–9.

God Allows

• I cannot understand the sovereignty of God.
• “The Chosen” clip

 
JOB 2
9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

• This is a lady who lost all her children.
• Now, she is watching her husband suffer.

10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her.

• He did not call her “foolish”.
• Foolish means to be spiritually ignorant or without discernment.
• You can be knowledgeable but not have wisdom.
• Her advice was out of character.
• She knew better than to speak as she did.

Job's response to his wife shows his admirable respect for her and his self-control.
“Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.

• “God is good”.
• In times of severe testing, our first question must not be, “How can I get out of this?” but “What can I get out of this?”
• Though many people today conclude, as Job's wife did, that the reason for suffering is that God is unjust, this is never the reason good people suffer.
• The basis for the relationship between God and man is not retribution, with good deeds resulting in prosperity and evil deeds yielding punishment in this life.
• These two tests of Job reveal much about Satan:
• 1 ) He is accountable to God.
• 2) God knows Satan's thoughts.
• 3) Satan is an accuser of the righteous.
• 4) He knows what is going on in the world and in the lives of individuals, though there is no evidence in Scripture that he can read people's minds.
• 5) He has great power over individuals and nature, but his power is subject to the sovereign authority of God.
• 6) He is not omnipresent, nor omniscient, nor omnipotent.
• 7) He can do nothing without God's permission, and God's permission involves limitations on him.
• 8) God remains aware of what His people are experiencing in connection with Satan's activity.

 
JOB’S THREE FRIENDS
11 Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

• Actually, four men came to visit Job, though the writer did not mention Elihu's presence until chapter 32.
• Sufferers attract fixers the way roadkills attract vultures.
• Empathy and sympathy, while related, have distinct meanings.
• Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person, while sympathy is feeling sorry for someone's misfortune.
• In essence, empathy involves "feeling with" someone, while sympathy involves "feeling for" them

12 When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him.

• They knew he was diseased, so they kept their distance.

They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head.

• Throwing dust over one's head signified identifying with the dead.

13 Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.[1]

• A week was the usual time of mourning for the dead.
• Their commitment to him, as seen in their patient waiting to address him, shows their genuine friendship.
• How many friends do you have that would travel a long distance to visit you in an illness and sit with you silently for seven days out of respect for your pain?
• Wes: Can I get your input this evening or tomorrow on sitting with someone in their grief? A client of mine's wife just died suddenly — him, his family, and the business will need someone to be present with them in their grief.
• Wes: I listen well, and know I offer a caring presence… what to say or what else should I know?
• Rusty: You pretty much know. Number one, be present; number two, shut up; and number three, listen to the Holy Spirit
• Rusty: There is not much you can say to bring comfort at that moment other than just to be there.

 

• Don't try to explain everything; explanations never heal a broken heart.
• If his friends had listened to him, accepted his feelings, and not argued with him, they would have helped him greatly, but they chose to be prosecuting attorneys instead of witnesses.

 

• The prologue of the book (chs. 1—2) sets the stage for what follows by informing us, the readers, that Job's suffering was not due to his sins.
• None of the characters in the story knew this fact except God and Satan.
• The next major part of the book begins with a personal lament in which Job expressed his agony (ch. 3).
• Three cycles of speeches follow in which Job's friends dialogued with him about his condition (chs. 4—27).
• Job then voiced his despair in two soliloquies (chs. 28—31).
• Next, Job's fourth friend, Elihu, offered his solution to Job's suffering (chs. 32—37)

 
JOB 3
The wish that he had not been born (1-10).
The wish that he had died at birth (11-19).
The wish that he could die then (20-26).
24 I sigh when food is put before me,
and my groans pour out like water.
25 For the thing I feared has overtaken me,
and what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I cannot relax or be calm;
I have no rest, for turmoil has come.[2]

• Have a headache or pain so bad that you can’t concentrate on what needs to be done.
• Pain humbles the proud.
• It softens the stubborn.
• It melts the hard.
• Silently and relentlessly, it wins battles deep within the lonely soul.

 

• Throughout the three cycles of speeches, Job's friends did not change their position.
• They believed that God rewards the righteous and punishes sinners in this life, which is the theory of retribution.
• They reasoned that all suffering is punishment for sin, and since Job was suffering greatly, he was a great sinner.
• They believed that what people experience depends on what they have done (cf. John 9:2).
• While this is true often, it is not the fundamental reason that we experience what we do in life, as the Book of Job proceeds to reveal.
• At the heart of the debate between Job and his three friends is a question, Who is wise?
• Who has the correct insight into Job's suffering?
• Both Job and the friends set themselves up as sources of wisdom and ridicule the wisdom of the other (11:12; 12:1-3, 12; 13:12; 15:1-13).
• As we will see, this question, 'Who is wise?' dominates the whole book."

JOB 4 (Eliphaz the Temanite)
7 Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent?
Where have the honest been destroyed?
8 In my experience, those who plow injustice
and those who sow trouble reap the same.[3]
 
JOB 8 (Bildad the Shuhite)
4 Since your children sinned against him,
he gave them over to their rebellion.
5 But if you earnestly seek God
and ask the Almighty for mercy,
6 if you are pure and upright,
then he will move even now on your behalf
and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.[4]
 
JOB 11 (Zophar the Naamathite)
13 As for you, if you redirect your heart
and spread out your hands to him in prayer--
14 if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it,
and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents--
15 then you will hold your head high, free from fault.
You will be firmly established and unafraid.[5]

• As the speeches unfolded, Job's friends became increasingly critical, vicious, and specific in their comments about Job.
• However, they started most pleasantly.
• Let me summarize chapters 4-37 for you:
• Job's friends each emphasized a different aspect of God's character, though they all saw Him as a judge.
• Eliphaz pointed out the distance between God and man, His transcendence (4:17-19; 15:14-16), and stressed God's punishment of the wicked (5:12-14).
• Bildad said that God is just (8:3), great (25:2-3), and that He punishes only the wicked (18:5-21).
• God's inscrutability (His being impossible to understand) impressed Zophar (11:7), who also stated that God punishes the wicked quickly (20:23).
• Eliphaz spoke to Job with the most respect and restraint, Bildad was more direct and less courteous, and Zophar was the most blunt and brutal.
• Eliphaz based his arguments on experience (4:8; 5:3; 15:17), Bildad on tradition (8:8-10), and Zophar on mere assumption or intuition (20:1-5).
• Eliphaz viewed life as a mystic, Bildad as an attorney, and Zophar as a dogmatist.
• Bildad and Zophar picked up themes from Eliphaz's speeches and echoed them with slightly variant emphases (cf. 5:9 and 22:12 with 8:3, 5; 22:2a with 11:7, 11; 15:32-34 with 18:16 and 20:21-22; and 5:14 with 18:5, 6, 18 and 20:26).

 
God gets the last word on Job’s story in chapters 38-42.
 
JOHN 9
1 As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. 4 We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”[6]

• The disciples did not look at the man as an object of mercy but rather as a subject for a theological discussion.
• It is much easier to discuss an abstract subject like 'sin' than it is to minister to a concrete need in the life of a person.

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Job 2:9–13.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Job 3:24–26.
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Job 4:7–8.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Job 8:4–6.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Job 11:13–15.
[6] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Jn 9:1–5.

God Allows

• Why did God let “allow” to enter the picture when He had the ability to control everything… and still does?
• Free will
• When did God “allow”?
• Somewhere before Genesis 2
• I cannot understand the sovereignty of God.
• But I do know that God is love.

1 John 4
8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice, for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.[1]
 
The Book of Job

• This book, like many others in the Old Testament, got its name from the central character in it rather than from its writer.
• Concerning the time the events recorded took place, there have been many views, ranging from the patriarchal age of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (beginning about 2100 B.C.) to the second century B.C.
• While Job may have written it, there is no concrete evidence that he did.
• The name "Job" means "hated" or "much persecuted."
• Perhaps Job was a nickname that his friends gave him during his suffering.
• Job is the title of the book in the Hebrew, Greek (Septuagint), Latin (Vulgate), and English Bibles.
• The book does not identify its writer. Furthermore, the ancient Hebrews could not agree on who wrote it.

 
It is quite clear from this book that God inspired it to reveal answers to questions that arise from God's nature and His dealings with human beings.

• Specifically, it answers the question: What is the basis on which God deals with people?
• Elsewhere in the Old Testament, we find God typically repaying good with good and evil with evil, but that is not how He dealt with Job.
• The book of Job places the stress on God's ways, not Job's suffering.

 
God blesses people for two reasons.

• These are: first, His sovereign choice to bless; second, people's response of trust and obedience to Him.
• Because we cannot control God's sovereign choice to bless some people more than others, we tend to forget that.
• We tend to focus on what we can control to some extent, namely, securing His blessing by trusting and obeying Him.
• This is understandable and legitimate, but it leads to a potential problem.
• The problem is that we may conclude that we can control God.
• Since God blesses those who trust and obey Him, and He curses those who do not, we may conclude that if we trust and obey God, He owes us blessing in this life.

 
JOB AND HIS FAMILY
JOB 1
1 There was a man in the country of Uz named Job.

•  Uz was probably located southeast of the Dead Sea.
• Show Map

He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.

• The fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, was the hallmark of Job.
• Wisdom is to know that there is a God and He created us to love Him and others.

2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3 His estate included seven thousand sheep and goats, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.

• Evidently there were several other great (wealthy) men in that part of the world in his day, but Job surpassed them all.

4 His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

• Seven sons, a banquet for each night of the week.

5 Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them.

• Evidently, he offered sacrifices each week for his children in case they had committed sins in their merriment.
• There were ten whole sacrifices offered by Job on each opening day of the weekly round, at the dawn of the Sunday; and one has therefore to imagine this round of entertainment as beginning with the first-born on the first day of the week."
• The author uses the numbers three, seven, and ten, all symbolic of completeness, to demonstrate that Job's wealth was staggering.

For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
 
SATAN’S FIRST TEST OF JOB
6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.

• The term "sons of God" elsewhere refers to angels (38:7), though it usually refers to human beings.
• These verses reveal that angels, including Satan, periodically report to God on their activities.

7 The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”

• Did God need to ask Satan where he was?
• Similar to asking Adam & Eve, “Where are you?”

8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

• Rather than offering up Job as a suggestion.
• Possibly another rhetorical question.

9 Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

• Satan is implying that God has paid Job to love Him.

11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

• The Satan believes nothing to be genuinely good—neither Job in his disinterested piety nor God in His disinterested generosity.

12 “Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

• This is just a reminder to Satan of what already was.
• Satan is also called the “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2.
• He is the “ruler of this world” in John 12:31.
• These titles and many more signify Satan’s capabilities.
• He wields a certain amount of authority and power in this world.
• He is not a king, but a prince, a ruler of some sort.
• In some way he rules over the world and the people in it: “The whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).


• This is not to say that Satan rules the world completely; God is still sovereign.
• God, in His infinite, inscrutable wisdom, has allowed Satan to operate in this world within the boundaries God has set for him.
• Satan’s limits are clearly seen in Job.
• Satan must give an account of himself to God, and it seems he must have God’s “allowance” to carry out his plans.
• At no time can Satan do all he wants, for God restricts his actions.

13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and reported, “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby, 15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
16 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, “God’s fire fell from heaven. It burned the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
17 That messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
18 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. 19 Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head.

• Tearing one's robe typically expressed great grief in the ancient Near East.
• It symbolized the rending of one's heart.
• Shaving the head evidently symbolized the loss of personal glory.
• When a person mourned, he or she put off all personal adornments, including what nature provided.
• Hair in the ancient world was a symbol of one's glory.

He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will leave this life.

• Mother’s womb is another term for earth.

The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
22 Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.[2]

• A man may stand before God stripped of everything that life has given him, and still lack nothing.

 
SATAN’S SECOND TEST OF JOB
JOB 2
1 One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before the Lord. 2 The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.”
4 “Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
6 “Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.” 7 So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.[3]

• Job's illness resulted in an unclean condition that made him a social outcast (cf. Exod. 9:9-11).
• He had to take up residence near the city dump where beggars and other social rejects stayed.
• He had formerly sat at the city gate and enjoyed social prestige as a town judge (29:7).

The change in his location, from the best to the worst of places, reflects the change in his circumstances, from the best to the worst of conditions.

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 1 Jn 4:8–16.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Job 1:1–22.
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Job 2:1–8.