Scripture Thought (What I Learned):
We can learn a very simple, yet important lesson from the story of Job… bad things happen. I personally believe that EVERYTHING has a reason, bad or good. We learn from Job that EVERYTHING was taken from him, including a close encounter with his own life through sickness! Yet, Job prevailed and pushed through the challenges that God presented him… and because of it he became a stronger and more powerful man.
Sometimes we have Mountains to Climb, and every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.
Sometimes we are burdened by challenges or trials in our lives. More often than not, we feel like we can not carry the weight of these trials. But every trial or challenge that is presented to us, is unique to the individual and its end purpose is designed for that specific individual. When presented with a trial, you must ask yourself; WHY? What do I NEED to gain from this experience? There is a purpose for everything and in the end; for “…we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” (Romans 8:28). If you are struggling, just know that you are NOT ALONE! Keep your head up and everything will work for the good!
Chapter by Chapter:
Job 1-2: Job, a Just and Perfect Man/Job is Smitten with Boils
Job 3-4: Job Curses his Birthday/Eliphaz Critizes Job
Job 5-6: Happy is the Man that God Corrects/The Right Words
Job 7-8: What is our time on earth?/Our time on earth is short
Job 9-10: Man cannot contend with God/Why are we born?
Job 13-14: I will trust the Lord/Shall man live again?
Job 15-16: The wicked do not believe/The witness is in heaven
Job 17-18: The body returns to dust/The wicked know not God
Job 19-20: In the flesh we will see God/The inheritance of Good and Evil
Job 21-22: The Wicked Sometimes Prosper in this Life/Eliphaz Accuses Job of Sinning
Job 23-24: After Trials, We are Refined/The Wicked Often Go Unpunished
Job 25-27: The Lowly State of Man/God and His Power are Great/Terrors of Death
Job 28-29: Wisdom Can Not be Bought/Job and His Former Prosperity
Job 30-31: Job Weeps for Those in Trouble/Job Invites Judgement from God
Job 32-33: Great Men are Not Always Wise/God Speak to Men in Dreams
Job 34-35: God Cannot Be Unjust/Men Should Trust in God
Job 36-37: The Wicked Die without Knowledge/God Controls Nature and Science
Job 38-39: Nature and God/Man Knows Nothing
Job 40-42: The Arm of God/All Things are God (The Body of God)
Summary of Job:
The book of Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible, although we don’t know exactly how old the book is, there is no doubt that it is ancient. Some scholars believe that Job, is mentioned early on in the Bible in the book of Genesis as “Jobab” (Genesis 10:29), one of the sons of Joktan, which would put Job in the year between Noah and Abraham. In the opening chapter of the Book of Job, we learn that he is from the land of Uz, well there was a man named Huz (Uz?), who was Abraham’s nephew (see Genesis 22:21), perhaps the land of Uz was named after him?
Eliphaz (Job 2:11) was the son of Esau (Genesis 34:10-11); this son of Esau had another son named Teman (Genesis 36:10-11), and the descendants of Teman were known for their wisdom (Jeremiah 49:7). Bildad is called a Shuhite (Job 2:11), and Shuah was a son of Abraham through Keturah (Genesis 35:2).
Here is how the story of Job goes…
Job was a wealthy man living in a land called Uz with his large family and extensive flocks. He is “…perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed (abstained from) evil” (Job1:1). One day Satan appears before God in heaven. God boasts to Satan about Job’s goodness, but Satan argues that Job is only good because God has blessed him abundantly. Satan challenges God that, if given permission to punish the man, Job will turn and curse God. God allows Satan to try Job and test this bold claim, but he forbids Satan to take Job’s life in the process.
In one day, Job receives four messages. Each message brought separate news that his livestock, servants, and ten children have all died due to invaders or natural catastrophes. Job rents (tears) his clothes and shaves his head, but he still blesses God in his prayers. Satan, presumably upset that his plan was thwarted appears in heaven again, and God grants him another chance to test Job. This time, Job is afflicted with horrible skin sores. His wife encourages him to curse God and to give up and die, but Job refuses, struggling to accept his circumstances.
Three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, come to visit him, sitting with Job in silence for seven days out of respect for his mourning. On the seventh day, Job speaks, beginning a conversation in which each of the four men shares their thoughts on Job’s afflictions, in long, poetic and berating way.
Job’s friends accuse him of being a sinner and not accepting the consequences of his sins. They don’t ever believe that Job had actual done nothing wrong to receive this kind of treatment. Because of this; Job curses the day he was born, comparing life and death to light and darkness. He wishes that his birth had been shrouded in darkness and longs to have never been born, feeling that light, or life, only intensifies his misery.
Job, slowly gets more and more upset with his so called friends that he calls them “…forgers of lies… physicians of no value.” (Job 13:4)
After trying to assert his blameless/innocent character, Job ponders man’s relationship to God. He wonders why God judges people by their actions if God can just as easily alter or forgive their behavior.
Job’s friends are offended that he attacks their wisdom. They still believe that Job actually deserves what has happened to him. Job continues to stay strong with his values and never loses his confidence of righteousness. Everyone however can only take so much berating, which proves true with Job, he grows sarcastic, impatient, and afraid. He cries about the injustice that God lets wicked people prosper while he and countless other innocent people suffer. Job wants to confront God and complain, but he cannot physically find God to do it.
Towards the end of Job Elihu, randomly shows up to add to the conversation. The young Elihu believes that Job has spent too much time and energy justifying himself rather than God. Elihu explains that God communicates with humans by two ways; visions and physical pain. Elihu elaborates by saying that physical suffering provides the sufferer with an opportunity to realize God’s love and forgiveness when he is well again.
Finally at the very end of the story, God shows up and interups Elihu. God calls for Job to be brave and answer His questions, which turn out to be rhetorical. God describes many detailed aspects of his creation, praising especially his creation of two large beasts, the Behemoth and Leviathan. This was to prove how little man was compared to the power and wisdom of God.
Job admits that he is not perfect and that his knowledge and wisdom is nothing compared to the knowledge, wisdom and power of God. This answer pleases God, yet God gets upset with Job;s friends. Job, even after having been berated by his friends comes to their rescue and makes a case for them, God forgives them.
God returns Job’s health, providing him with twice as much property as before, new children, and an extremely long life. Job comes out victorious, because he kept with God the entire time!
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