Segment:
Outline:
A Few Notes to Start:
·
Many thoughts about edits that have been made to Job
over the years.
o
Davidson: think end part of Job’s final response to
Bildad was originally Bildad’s speech
o
Elihu’s speech is thought to be added later
(especially since he’s not mentioned earlier and God doesn’t respond to him at
the end).
·
We are called to contemplate Scripture deeply.
o
So deeply that we are changed by it
o
Contrast with Job’s friends, we are called to change
our world view when we have to.
o
Means we must deal with the Scripture in the edited
form we have it.
Outline of Speeches:
1. Job’s First
Statement
a. Job 3:1-26
b. Job is in
so much pain, he wishes he had never been born
c. 3:25-
“Truly the thing I fear comes upon me.”
2. Eliphaz’s
First Argument
a. Job 4:1-5:27
b. Only unjust
receive punishment, but this is Job’s chance to repent.
c. 4:3-Job
instructed many, what do we do when our support stumbles?
d. 4:17- “Can
mortals be righteous before God?”- Will be repeated throughout, this fits our
Christian view of sin…
e. 5:26-
ironically Job does die in his ripe old age
3. Job
responds to Eliphaz
a. Job
6:1-7:21
b. To actually
repent, Job needs to understand what he did wrong
c. 6:14-21-
First sense we get that Job’s friends aren’t really helping.
4. Bildad’s
First Argument
a.
Job 8:1-22
b.
There is hope if Job repents.
c.
8:7- “though your beginning was small, your latter
days will be very great”
·
Ironic because it is also true
5. Job
responds to Bildad
a. Job
9:1-10:22
b. Job can’t
really argue his case because he is not on equal w/God.
c. What is the
point?
6. Zophar’s
First Argument
a. Job 11:1-20
b. There’s
hope if you can be better and stop sinning.
7. Job
responds to Zophar
a. Job
12:1-14:22
b. Wants to
argue his case directly to God.
c. 12:3- tells
them he’s not an idiot
d. 12:5-
problem is that they don’t know what it’s like to suffer
e. 13:23-
wants to know what he did wrong
8. Eliphaz’s
Second Argument
a. Job 15:1-35
b. How can you
know what God is thinking? (cf. 15:9)
c. Still
stands with the belief that the unjust suffer
9. Job
responds to Eliphaz
a. Job
16:1-17:16
b. Job is
tired and he’s become “a byword of the peoples” (17:6)
c. 16:4- would
talk like they are if he hadn’t experienced this.
d. 17:15
“where is my hope?” (Ours is in Christ Jesus)
10. Bildad’s
Second Argument
a. Job 18:1-21
b. God puts
out the light of the wicked (cf. 18:5)
c. 18:13-
makes reference to Job’s disease consuming him.
11. Job
responds to Bildad
a.
Job 19:1-29
b.
It seems God won’t give him a trial, and he is alone.
c.
19:2- says his friends are tormenting him
d.
19:23-29- “I know my Redeemer lives”
·
Redeemer- gaal-
or deliverer
·
Can be the person who would’ve righted a wrong against
you
·
Has talked of an accuser before, implication through
his loneliness is that this is a divine advocate for Job.
·
Some parallels with Jesus
Sources:
Davidson,
Lisa ed. “The Book of Job”, The New
Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003.
Long, Thomas G. What
Shall We Say?: Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2011.