- Job was a righteous man who feared God and shunned evil. He had a large family and possessions. - Job suffered the loss of his possessions, children, and health. His friends argued this was due to hidden sin on Job's part, but Job maintained his innocence. - Elihu, a new character, disagreed with both Job and his friends. He argued suffering is not always due to sin but can have other purposes, preparing the way for God's message.

1. The strange case of Job:
poster child of a proverbially wise man
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The strange case of Job:
poster child of a proverbially wise man
The book of

2. Job
Journey of a moral man
to a Wise Man
Job
Journey of a moral man
to a Wise Man
In the land of Uz there lived a man
whose name was Job. This man was
blameless and upright; he feared God
and shunned evil. He had seven sons and
three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep,
three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred
donkeys, and had a large number of servants.
Job 1:1-3

3. He was the greatest man
among all the people of the
East.

4. Job is a poster child
for proverbial wisdom
Job fears God
shuns evil
and is blessed
His story will
challenge applying proverbial
wisdom as an absolute guarantee of immediate blessing and freedom from
serious problems. He never knew why his problems or why they left
Job is a poster child
for proverbial wisdom
Job fears God
shuns evil
and is blessed
His story will
challenge applying proverbial
wisdom as an absolute guarantee of immediate blessing and freedom from
serious problems. He never knew why his problems or why they left

5. Job is a poster child
for proverbial wisdom
Job fears God
shuns evil
and is blessed
His story will
challenge applying proverbial
wisdom as an absolute guarantee of immediate blessing and freedom from
serious problems. He never knew why his problems or why they left
Job is a poster child
for proverbial wisdom
Job fears God
shuns evil
and is blessed
His story will
challenge applying proverbial
wisdom as an absolute guarantee of immediate blessing and freedom from
serious problems. He never knew why his problems or why they left

6. The angels appear before God.
Ha Shatan, the adversary, the devil appears with
other angels before God
and God asks what he’s been doing
and Satan* answers
the he has been roaming the world
observing the world

7. Have you considered my
servant Job?
God initiated an issue
not the devil
God asks what he’s been doing to
and he answers
that he has been roaming the world
observing the world

8. Satan’s reply.
“Does Job serve God for nothing?
Take away everything he has and he will curse
You to Your face.”
The issue is why does Job
worship God?
Is it the things he has been given?
His family?
The protection of God?

9. Stretch out your hand
but do not touch Job
God has the first and last word

10. Job had 7 sons and 3 daughters
and each son on his day held a feast for all
in his home
Job even offered sacrifice
in case one of his children might say or think
something rash about God

11. 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The
oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,

12. 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and
struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I
alone have escaped to tell you.”

13. 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said,

14. 1 “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep
and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have
escaped to tell you.”

15. 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another
and said

16. “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid
on the camels and took them and struck down the
servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have
escaped to tell you

17. 18 While he was yet speaking, there came
another and said, “Your sons and
daughters were eating and drinking wine in
their oldest brother's house,

18. 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness

19. and struck the four corners of the
house, and it fell upon the young
people, and they are dead, and I alone
have escaped to tell you.”

21. No additional servant will rise in and
break the silence and the
calamity lands hard
on Job

22. Job 1: 20 Then Job arose and tore his robe
and shaved his head and fell on the ground
and worshiped.
Job Responds

23. And he said, “Naked I came from my
mother's womb, and naked shall I return.

24. The Lord gave, and the Lord has
taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord.”
The Lord gave, and the Lord has
taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord.”

25. In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

26. The Lord gives and the Lord takes awayThe Lord gives and the Lord takes away

27. Blessed be the name of the Lord!Blessed be the name of the Lord!

28. ‘And Satan loses big time’ John Piper
Job has not cursed rather
blessed God
His original claims of Job’s
true motives untrue

29. Spoiler Alert
The major characters
in the book will be silenced before God
each in turn
Beginning with Satan
then Job’s friend Zophar first
then the other two friends
and lastly Job himself

30. Job has suffered,
he was tested successfully
Time passes
The angels appear before God
and ‘The Accuser’ is among them
once again

31. Again
The angels appear before God.
Ha Shatan, the adversary, the devil appears with
other angels before God
and God asks what he’s been doing
and Satan* answers
the he has been roaming the world
observing the world

32. Have you considered my
servant Job?
The same question comes from God.
No one is like him. blameless and upright
Once again God brings up Job
knowing what will happen
Once again the test is why Job worships God
and now the test is whether Job will curse God if
Job physically suffers

33. Satan’s reply.
“Does Job serve God for nothing?
Take away everything he has and he will curse
You to Your face.”
Job is merely a ‘health and wealth’ mercenary
He likes Your benefits not You
The issue is remains as before, does Job
worship God?

34. Have you considered my
servant Job?
Skin for skin!
perhaps a response to Job’s humble saying
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb”
If I touch his health Job will break
and curse you to your face

35. A new arrangement…
Stretch out your hand but don’t kill Job
a second test
The devil told not to kill Job
and will test him afflicting him with health problems
God has the first and last word
again

36. God’s sovereignty in this
• It was God who brought up Job the first time when
Job lost property and children. Job passed this
trial.
• Is was God who brought up Job the second time
when Job will suffer physically and bodily
• The issue is the glory of God and why Job worships
God

37. Job’s health is lost

38. His health is lost
His wife is offended by his breath
He is mocked by others
People assume the worse about Job now
A broken man takes a piece of a broken pot
and scrapes his boils

39. • Job’s wife has been through enormous
suffering and suggests Job curse God and die
• Job councils her to not speak as ‘one of the
foolish women’
Job’s wife tempt him to
curse God

40. Job’s friends come

41. They sit with Job not
speaking 7 days
• Well intentioned, they came to comfort Job
• This is Job’s friends at their best
• They granted Job the traditional time of mourning,
7 days

42. And after 7 days
the silence broken

43. 1 Corinthians 3:19 quoting Job 5:13
19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.
For it is written, “He catches the wise in their
craftiness,”
The apostle Paul acknowledging
Job as scripture

44. A very short time of tragedy
followed by
over thirty chapters
of struggling, arguing, searching
over
why

45. Like much of life
something happened tragically and quickly
then is followed by a long season of asking
why

46. Starting with Job
• Job starts by cursing the day of his birth

47. Starting with Job
• no suffering is like my suffering

48. Starting with Job
• weigh the sands of the sea against my suffering
and they are light

49. Eliphaz speaksEliphaz speaks

50. Eliphaz view
Starts gently at first, then a seriously bad turn for the
worse suggesting Job’s children died because of Job
Eliphaz bases his views on what he sees and
experiences
Eliphaz recounts almost melodramatically how a
ghostly form in the night spoke to Eliphaz with an
anticlimactic message that ‘no man can stand before
God’
Over simplistic superficial advice like ‘just seek God’

51. Eliphaz view
The righteous don't get punished suffer
People suffer because they did something wrong
THEREFORE, Job must have done something
seriously wrong
Bad assumptions and a bad way to treat a person
suffering

52. Why is he giving bad
advice?
The basis of his advice is limited to what he sees
and in this case there are things going on no one in
the story knows about
His subjective experience is just that… too prone to
human interpretation and the ‘ghostly figure’ made
a pretty anticlimactic claim ‘man cannot stand
before God’

53. Job speaks
he speaks of his end in the grave
Job says his suffering is heavier than all
the sand in the sea
Job will maintain his integrity
Job maintains he is a sinner as all men are,
but has done nothing to warrant this disproportionate judgement
In some respects Job too is suffering from the view
that the righteous should never suffer this type of discipline

54. Bildad speaks

55. Bildad’s view
Bildad starts by suggesting Job is a wind bag
Bildad bases his views on tradition and the views of
wise men
He ruled out Job apparently, since Job’s sufferings
somehow disqualify Job as a wise sage now
After all, where there’s smoke there’s fire, Job
must be guilty of serious sin
A lot of similarity to Eliphaz
Job’s first friend

56. Bildad's view
like Eliphaz….
The righteous don't get punished and suffer
People suffer because they did something wrong
THEREFORE Job must have done something
seriously wrong

57. Job says life is hard and
Job’s own life is very hard
In the world Job lives in
the wicked often prosper while
the righteous suffer
Job’s friends’ advice was unwise
advice to give for a suffering person
Job speaks
he speaks of his end in the grave again

58. Zohar speaks

59. Zohar’s view
Zohar says Jobs arguments are like babbling
Mostly his opinion. His gut feel.
Not tradition, revelation or what he sees in nature
Over simplistic… just repent and seek God
Insults are traded. Zohar insults Job as if saying
Job will have a wise thought ‘when pigs fly’ (in
modern vernacular)
A lot of similarity to Eliphaz and Bildad
Job’s first two friends

60. Zophar's view
like Eliphaz and Bildad….
Job is suffering greatly
Job must have sinned greatly

61. Job trades insults
You people really know wisdom and when you die
wisdom will die with you!!
Job speaks
he starts to question if the grave is the end

62. A second round follows

63. Eliphaz speaks
Mostly the same, but shorter
Puts words in Job’s mouth
Accuses Job of doing things not true
Accuses Job of saying things Job didn’t say

64. Miserable comforters are you all!
Job will continue to maintain
that his suffering was unwarranted
Ironically, Job was not suffering for his wrongs
but for his virtues, something hidden to all the parties
Job speaks
he continues to question if the grave is the end

65. Bildad speaks
God punishes the wicked.
Mostly the same, but shorter
Puts words in Job’s mouth
Accuses Job of doing things not true

66. Job speaks
Job will want to meet with God plead his case and die
Job has cursed his birthday
wishing a Leviathan, a 7 headed dragon of chaos
that eats the sun from Canaanite mythology would eat the sun
of his birthday and it would never have happened

67. Job is picking up steam
Job
Job
Job
Job
Job
Job

68. 24"That with an iron stylus and lead They were
engraved in the rock forever! 25"As for me, I know
that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take
His stand on the earth. 26"Even after my skin is
destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;…
Job 19:24-26 NASB
A hope begins to stir in Job
he says the grave is not the end

69. Eliphaz
Eliphaz
Eliphaz
Bildad
Bildad
Bildad
Zophar
Zohar doesn’t
speak
while his friends are winding down
Zophar
( Don’t let your ego get in the way of giving good advice
and in that spirit Eliphaz is portrayed here as the character
Ego the living from Guardians of the Galaxy )

70. Zohar speaks
Mostly the same, but shorter
Puts words in Job’s mouth
Accuses Job of doing things not true

71. Job speaks
Job looks forward to when he will be resurrected

72. A third and final round

73. Eliphaz speaks
Mostly the same, but shorter
accusations and insults fly
Job is just wicked, he asserts
he cheats widows
he defrauds the poor man

74. Job speaks
Job picks up steam while the others
keep repeating themselves and get shorter and shorter in their
responses

75. Bildad speaks
Mostly the same, but shorter

76. Job speaks
Job will maintain his integrity

77. Zohar does not speak
Doesn’t bother to reply to Job
perhaps annoyed at Job’s instance of innocence

78. Job rests his case

79. Job rests his case
• Job’s friends talk about God while Job talks to God even
though through pain
• Job recounts past days when he pled the cause of the helpless
and was helper to the worse off. He was held in high esteem
and his family was around him.
• He claims if he only could speak to God and face the
accusations he could step the record straight and come forth
‘like a prince’

80. Job rests his case
Job has described remarkable ‘sermon on the mount like’
virtue and values in how he lived his life
On the other hand, Job went too far, bordering on
blasphemy as he insists on questioning God and proving
himself somehow in the right wrongfully being punished
Job longs for a redeemer mediator who can lay his hand
on both God and Job and reconcile the two somehow

81. Zohar does not speak… but
another does
Elihu the son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram”
In fact it is said twice here that he is the son of Barakel the Buzite,
(implying significance)
Perhaps of same line of Abraham
Job hoped to plead his case with someone and Elihu fits (for now)
and provides a buffer for when God does speak, not immediately
appearing as Job wanted
not all his comments are ‘spot on’ but he is often good and his
comments toward the end are his best

82. Bided squeezed out 6 verses in his last speech
Zohar didn't bother to talk
in contrast
Elihu will talk for 6 chapters

83. Elihu speaks
actually he has 4 speeches
Does not explain Job’s suffering as a punishment for Job

84. Elihu speaks
actually he has 4 speeches
Does say Job sinned in Job’s response to the discipline
…behold, there was
none among you who
refuted Job or who
answered his words…
Job 32:15

85. Elihu speaks
actually he has 4 speeches
He disagrees with Job’s other friends
He disagrees with Job’s response.
Behold, in this you [meaning
Job] are not right. I will answer
you, for God is greater than
man. Why do you contend
against him, saying, ‘He will
answer none of man's[a]
words’? For God speaks in one
way, and in two, though man
does not perceive it.
Job 33:12-15

86. Elihu speaks
actually he has 4 speeches
Comes up with reasons for suffering
that are not based on retribution
Job opens his mouth
in empty talk; he
multiplies words
without knowledge.”

87. Elihu speaks
actually he has 4 speeches
His arguments in part pave the way for what God will say
He delivers the afflicted
by their affliction and
opens their ear by
adversity.
Job 36:15

88. Elihu speaks
actually he has 4 speeches
He prepares the way for God to speak
and although Job has demanded audience with God
provides a buffer between Job’s demand
and God coming on the scene
He does not withdraw his eyes
from the righteous, but with kings
on the throne he sets them forever,
and they are exalted.
(Job wanted God to stop looking at
him, but Elihu insists that would
not be a good thing)

89. Can anyone understand the spreading of
the clouds, the thunderings of his
pavilion? Behold, he scatters his
lightning about him and covers the roots
of the sea. For by these he judges
peoples; he gives food in abundance.
He covers his hands with the lighting
and commands it to strike the mark.
Its crashing declares his presence; the
cattle also declare that he rises.
Jon 29-33
Elihu’s closing prepares the way
for what God will say

90. Job 35:7 from Elihu
is quoted in Rom 11:35
( And similar will be said by God in Job 43:11 )
Romans 11:35
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

91. Elihu had two different categories of suffering
the wicked who God judges
the righteous who God restrains, chastises
and instructs

92. While not without problems,
Elihu gives some good principles misapplied to Job
but toward the end especially
Elihu brings up a number of the same points
God will speak to: the wonder of God working in
creation as one example

93. The Almighty—we cannot find him;
he is great in power;
justice and abundant righteousness he will
not violate.
Therefore men fear him;
he does not regard any who are wise in their
own conceit.”

94. Then Job does not reply
rather God speaks

95. Then the Lord answered Job out of the
whirlwind and said:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by
words without knowledge?
Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it
known to me.

96. Where were you
when I laid the foundation
of the world?

97. That it may take hold of the skirts of the earth
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
Have you commanded the morning
since your days began
and caused the dawn to know its place?

98. “Have you entered into the springs of the
sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?

99. “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
or loose the cords of Orion?

100. Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God for help,
and wander about for lack of food?

101. “Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

102. God gives wisdom and withholds wisdom in
the world and in nature as he sees fit

103. Job repents and is silent

104. God speaks again

105. Who has first paid God
Job 41:11 here echoing Job 35:7 from Elihu
is quoted in Rom 11:35
Romans 11:35
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

106. God starts up again
telling Job to gird up his loins and get ready again
A question asked again
Who is this who darkens knowledge?

107. Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity
clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

108. Job was right in that he was not suffering
for his sins
Job was wrong in telling God to look away
and to challenge God’s judgements

109. Jobs friends were
very wrong in how they
characterized Job
asserting he suffered greatly
because he sinned greatly

110. Job shifts from trying to find
answers in why he suffers
to having found answers in who God is

111. Job’s friends talked about God
Job talked to God

112. God ends his arguments asking about
the Behemoth and Leviathan
perhaps large creatures
only God could control
and
perhaps additionally
God is the one who can put a hook
in Leviathans nose
and lead him where He wants
Leviathan representing Satan as well
a reference to what would be unknown
to Job
from the beginning of the book

113. “I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
’Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
Job 42:2-4

114. Job’s worse pain included loss of his children
in a wind event and now God has chosen to speak to Job
through a wind event

115. And after Job sacrificed
for his friends God raised Job up
God does not criticize Elihu
but
does say Job’s other friends spoke wrongly
and Job should offer sacrifice for them

116. And after Job sacrificed
for his friends God raised Job up
And God healed Job after he prayed for his friends
Something therapeutic about looking outside your
own problems
And reminiscent of Abraham who after
waiting many decades for his promised child
had to pray for a wife stealing Philistine king
(for God to allow his wives to be able to bear children again
Like Job, Abraham had his child not long after
in the account)

117. And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when
he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave
Job twice as much as he had before.
Job 42:10

118. 12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of
Job more than his beginning. And he had
14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of
oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He
had also seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42

119. Some big ideas
Don’t overextend proverbial wisdom. Job would get
straight A’s in living out the proverbs but he suffered
greatly
God has a wonderful purpose and may be hidden from
those seeing it unfold
Satan may be like Leviathan who only God can ‘put a
hook in his nose and lead him wherever God desires’
Job is a picture of both Christ and the Christian (who
are ‘perplexed but not driven to despair’ )

120. Some big ideas
No one in the book but God saw and
understood the big picture
All had serious misunderstandings
All had very limited knowledge
? ?
?
? ?
?
?

121. Some big ideas
Job never really understood why he suffered or
even why he was healed
His healing would be more a gift not something
earned
The book is about suffering, prayer and worship
While Jobs friends talk about God, Job talks to
God

122. And God restored his wealth double, and
gave him 10 more children
7 sons, 3 daughters as before
Job was called God’s servant at the start of the book
Job is called God’s servant here
and
in the deepest darkest time if his suffering
the suffering servant offers
sacrifice for sinners
and is raised up

123. and about Job’s daughters
Job gets 10 more children. God promises double what he
has except he has the same number of children.
He has twice the wealth as before but the same children
( hinting that Job’s children are somehow preserved in the
resurrection and post forward to a resurrection )
His daughters are named
His daughters get an inheritance with their brothers
which is remarkable for the time
(There is a competition in Missouri
where there is selected periodically
a group representing the qualities of Job’s daughters)

124. And more on Job’s
daughters
A person who suffers greatly may holds life very
dearly after. Notice the names of his new 3
daughters in paraphrase:
Turtledove ( Jemima - the oldest)
Cassia; sweet-scented spice ( Kezziah - some also translate it paint
box)
Little makeup box ( Keren-happuc - the youngest)
(There is a competition in Missouri
where there is selected periodically
a group representing the qualities of Job’s daughters)

125. Job a picture of Christ
Jesus is the ultimate mediator The one who will plead the case
for Job who Job longed for.
Jesus is the suffering servant who in the deepest darkest time of
his suffering, offers sacrifice for sinners and then is raised up
There is a future hope in the resurrection Job, like Christ, like
the Christian suffered and then entered into his glory so to speak
Job suffered not for his sins, but for the honor of another (God).
Jesus also suffered in place of believers (and to the glory of God)
Job’s daughters getting inheritance with sons may point toward
the church, the bride of Christ as co heirs with Christ

126. And after this Job lived 140 years,
and saw his sons, and his sons'
sons, four generations. And Job
died, an old man, and full of days.
Job 42:16-17

127. Outline in (very) brief
• Job is blessed
• Two trials in the court of heaven is followed by Job’s trials on earth,
Job losing possessions then Job health (a death)
• Job’s wife tempts and is prelude to ‘Job’s friends’ (up to here is
prose)
• Eliphaz Bildad and Zophar come to comfort Job but present
a punitive and overly simplistic explanation, Job responding
( they and Job hold a long struggle over why this happened in
a style of dense poetry)
• Elihu responds after Eliphaz Bildad Zophar refuse to speak
further. Elihu is both a buffer and transition to God Himself
speaking.
• Two trials where Job on earth is confronted by the God of heaven
(back to prose)
• Job is blessed (a resurrection)
prose
prose
poetry

128. Behold, we consider those blessed
who remained steadfast. You have
heard of the steadfastness of Job, and
you have seen the purpose of the
Lord, how the Lord is compassionate
and merciful.
James 5:11