This study comes from Reading Plan week 8, Job 8-20. Group Handout: Other studies from this week's reading: Study Bookmark for Job: Bookmark - Comparison of Characters:
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Introduction Without being facetious at all, a lot of the dialog in Job parallels the approach of modern day television talk shows. Surface facts are presented to the audience, close observers of the subject are brought in to provide their analysis, everyone chimes in with what is “obvious” to them as to both the root cause and the needed solution. Everyone assumes quite a number of things that may or may not, in reality, be true. But for those who really just want to make themselves feel good by affirming one way or the other that their opinion is “right”—rather than an overriding concern for the person who’s the object of the actual problem—it’s really an exercise to make everybody but the subject feel good about themselves. The true agenda is to validate one’s personal logic regardless of its absolute truth or effect. |
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Begin the study by reading this example of deductive logic:
Discuss this story and determine what is wrong with the logic. See if anyone in the group can come up with similar examples. |
1Then Job responded,
2“How long will you torment me And crush me with words? 3These ten times you have insulted You are not ashamed to wrong me. 4Even if I have truly erred, My error lodges with me. 5If indeed you vaunt yourselves And prove my disgrace to me, 6Know then that God has wronged And has closed His net around me. |
[Read v.1-6] Q: What is the context in which Job makes these statements? To whom is he responding? What does Job mean by, “How long will you torment me and crush me with words”? A: The immediate context is Job’s response to Bildad’s second speech. Bildad, along with the others, attribute Job’s suffering to God’s punishment for some sin that he has committed. Their words are crushing to Job because though he admits he’s not sinless, he states that the nature of his sins (youthful, and probably negligible) are not consistent with the severity of his suffering and the appearance of punishment. Q: How have Job’s friends fallen into the trap of deductive logic? A: Job’s friends observe his catastrophic suffering, the nature and timing of which defies explanation. Therefore, Job’s friends can only resort to two premises. (A premise is a proposition, or assumption, that is used to support a conclusion.) The first premise is that the righteous prosper and only the wicked suffer. The second premise is that God, by nature good, would not allow a righteous person to suffer. Job suffers, therefore according to their premise he must be wicked; that is, he must have committed some sin worthy of the suffering. They conclude that he is hiding some sin (lying), or that he has committed a great sin that he is unaware of. And, because God is by nature good, Job is wrong to attribute his suffering to God. Q: What’s wrong with Job’s friends’ observations? What’s wrong with their assumptions? A: A number of things. Their premises taint their observations and therefore their responses. They correctly observe that Job is suffering. They incorrectly assume his suffering is the result of sin (deductive logic). All three of Job’s friends exercise deductive logic in coming to the conclusion that Job’s suffering is a result of sin.
Their second premise, that God is too good to allow a good person to suffer, causes them to get angry and impatient with Job when he holds God accountable for his suffering. Both premises are based on partial truths and deductive logic. Application: What incorrect assumptions do Christians sometimes hold about suffering? After discussing the question, read 2 Timothy 3:12 as well as Romans 8:16-17. Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 2 Timothy 3:12 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:16-17 Q: What is the reaction of Job’s friends when he says something like, “Know then that God has wronged me” (v. 6)? What is the other premise Job’s friends are maintaining when it comes to God’s nature? [Note: The premise that God is good by nature is correct. The premise that a good God could or would not allow suffering is incorrect.] A: Job’s friends find themselves in the position of defending God. They cannot accept the fact that, from Job’s perspective, God has “wronged” him. They are arguing that it would be illogical for God to allow Job to suffer without apparent cause. That would make God unjust in their estimation. It’s apparent that Job’s affliction is so severe that in their experience they cannot imagine even the possibility that God could NOT be the author of it. Application: When someone begins blaming God in the midst of their troubles, is there a tendency to begin defending God? |
7“Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no I shout for help, but there is no justice. 8He has walled up my way so that I And He has put darkness on my 9He has stripped my honor from me And removed the crown from my 10He breaks me down on every side, And He has uprooted my hope like a 11He has also kindled His anger And considered me as His enemy. 12His troops come together, And build up their way against me And camp around my tent. |
[Read v.7-12] Q: To whom does Job directly attribute his troubles? A: God. Q: How well do you think this sits with his friends? A: Not well, making them angry and impatient with Job [See Job 19:3 above.] |
13“He has removed my brothers And my acquaintances are completely 14My relatives have failed, And my intimate friends have 15Those who live in my house and my I am a foreigner in their sight. 16I call to my servant, but he does not I have to implore him with my mouth. 17My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own 18Even young children despise me; I rise up and they speak against me. 19All my associates abhor me, And those I love have turned against 20My bone clings to my skin and my And I have escaped only by the skin 21Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has struck me. 22Why do you persecute me as God And are not satisfied with my flesh? |
[Read v.13-22] Q: What are some of the social dynamics of bodily suffering and affliction? (For better context, liken it to someone in the late stages of AIDS.)
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23“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! 24That with an iron stylus and lead They were engraved in the rock 25As for me, I know that my Redeemer And at the last He will take His stand 26Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; 27Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not My heart faints within me! 28If you say, ‘How shall we persecute And ‘What pretext for a case against 29Then be afraid of the sword for For wrath brings the punishment of So that you may know there is |
[Read v.23-29] Q: What is Job asking for in verses 23-24? A: To be remembered for the good of his life. Q: What is the hope to which Job clings? What is a redeemer? Where else have we seen the concept of “redeemer”? (Also, cf. Job 16:19ff.) A: Job hopes that someone will come to his rescue. Not only does Job call for a rescue from his physical affliction, but even more so for someone to prove his side of the argument; that is, prove that he is in fact an innocent man. Job desires someone who will come on his behalf, identify with him, and plead his case. (Hint: The opposite of Satan in his role as accuser.) In Job’s day, that someone would be a goel; that is, a “kinsman-redeemer.” Boaz was a kinsman redeemer for Ruth; that is, the near relative who would “buy back” one destined to be sold into bondage, redeeming them to a restored life. Q: How does the concept of “kinsman-redeemer” apply to the salvation of mankind offered by Jesus? A: Jesus is man’s kinsman-redeemer, for He is our kinsman (fully human) and our redeemer (fully divine). Therefore, Jesus was able to plead our case and purchase us from the bondage of sin with His blood. Job’s hope is that one day he will see his kinsman-redeemer, and that even if he dies, he will still see him. Q: In what way does the Book of Job foreshadow the life and death of Christ? A: Jesus, like Job, suffered without just cause. |
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Overall Application
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