1. Unit 3: Job & Ecclesiastes
Lesson 1: Prologue Job 1-2

2. p. 73 in workbook

3. Can anyone give me a brief synopsis of the book of Job?

4. Objectives:
Trust in God’s sovereign power
Worship him during adversity
See him even when life doesn’t make sense
Learn to deal with undeserved suffering.
Questions:
Why do the righteous suffer?
Why does evil happen to righteous people?
Theodicy: an attempt to offer a satisfactory solution to the problem of evil

5. Set at time of patriarchs: 2,000 BC
Job QUIZ
Random deets:
Uz: Northern Arabia
Set at time of patriarchs: 2,000 BC
Lived to be: about 140 years old (42:16)
Served as priest to his own family
Most renowned man of his time
The OT teaches that God blesses those who bless him and curses those who don’t obey him; true, but…
Without cursing God, Job asks the proverbial question, “WHY?
Dramatic Reading!
Adventures in Odyssey

6. If you were to unexpectedly lose important people or things in your life, do you think you would react like Job or more like his wife? Explain your answer using at least two supporting ideas.
If your friend were suddenly to suffer terrible losses, would you react like Job’s friends? Explain your answer including two supporting ideas.
Why do you think we are studying the story of Job? What difference could this study make in your own life?
Intro to Job, Journal

8. JOB means “hated” Division of Job: Prologue: Job’s Dilemma, Job 1-2
Job’s Suffering, Job 3
3 Rounds of Debates with Three Friends, Job 4-31
Elihu’s Lecture, Job 32-37
God’s Answer, Job 38:1-42:6
Epilogue: Holding On to Faith, Job 42:7-17
JOB means “hated”

9. You have heard of God, but have you seen Him?
How to Read Job
Job is truthful about human suffering.
Orthodoxy of the day said: good behavior equals prosperity. Job refutes this viewpoint.
God gives his perspective on suffering.
Understand the genre of Job: narrative & poetry
Read it over and over and learn to like the poetry
You have heard of God, but have you seen Him?

10. You have heard of God, but have you seen Him?
How to Read Job continued:
Know that Job accuses God and utters many things that are untrue
Job protests his innocence and God’s unfairness as his friends say that Job needs to confess of his wrongdoing.
In the prologue Job’s behavior is right, but he begins to be defiant toward God.
Don’t idealize Job from the prologue.
You have heard of God, but have you seen Him?

11. Ask God to help you to see him.
Is there a question you have about your life? Write it down.
Ask God to help you to see him.

13. Job 1-2

14. “And the Lord said to Stan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity althouh you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”
Job 2:3 (Memory verse)

15. The reader is given information that Job does not have
The reader is given information that Job does not have. What is that information?
Satan tells God that humans only love God or fear Him in proportion to the amount of blessing/stuff they are given from God. Think about how that thought applies to you.
Use your journal: What is your response to Job’s reactions? His wife? His friends?
If you had one sentence to say to God, and you were experiencing this kind of adversity, what would you say?
What do you think Job’s friends were thinking during their time of silence?
Why do you think we are studying Job? What difference could this unit make in your life?