Study Questions
1. In what ways did Job’s three friends not speak what was
right about God (42:7)?
Job’s friends viewed God as one who
acts according to fixed laws of cause and effect, thus nullifying God’s
sovereignty. They drew wrong conclusions about Job’s suffering based on their
faulty view of God and His ways. They also did not humble themselves and
repent, as Job did, though they did offer sacrifices when commanded to.
2. In what ways did Job speak what was right about God
(42:7b)?
Job had a better understanding of
God’s sovereignty. He acknowledged the mystery, the incomprehensibility of God.
Under constant accusation, Job expressed dismay that God was treating him as a
malefactor, as his accusers alleged. Nevertheless, Job expressed his unshakable
faith in God and Job humbled himself and repented when confronted by God.
3. What was Job’s main problem and what was the lesson God
taught Job?
A key passage in understanding Job’s problem is in chapters
29 and 31. Job’s pride in his former status and his satisfaction with his life
in this world are at the root of what God wanted to deal with. Because of his
magnanimity, his upright life, Job felt that it was his “right” (27:2) to live
the kind of life he had been enjoying. God owed him that. Elihu reacts to Job’s
words in 34:5, 6: "For Job has said, “I am righteous, But God has taken
away my right (my justice (mishphati);
Should I lie concerning my right? My wound is incurable, though I am without
transgression.”
God took this righteous man and lifted him to an even
higher spiritual plane. Though God restored to Job his riches and family, those
things would never have the same status as they had before.
COPYRIGHT, 2018 by Thomas L. Jones
