This session we will continue our study of the book of Job with Francis Chan, utilizing the RightNowMedia resources. Every session has specific goals—things we want to walk away knowing, feeling, and committing to do.
Main Idea: Because God is ultimately right, powerful, and perfect, our response to suffering should reflect humility and trust.
Head Change: To know that it is right to admit we do not understand all of God’s reasons for allowing us to suffer.
Heart Change: To feel secure in God’s righteousness and love despite the pain we are enduring.
Life Change: To respond to difficult circumstances by acknowledging our limited understanding and speaking humbly—or not at all—about God’s role in our suffering.
Would you call yourself a researcher or risk-taker? How do you approach choices that involve some mystery?
Some of us jump at a chance for adventure even when the outcome is unknown or uncertain. Others would rather know as much as possible ahead of time to mitigate against potential disaster. The more you know, the better you can plan.
Both Job and his friends were convinced they knew how God operates. But God is much more of a mystery than they were willing to acknowledge. In this session, Francis will walk through the long and increasingly frustrating conversations between Job and his three friends, showing us our need for humility when we approach God.
This session covers Job 4–31. Due to the length of this session’s text, we have picked out specific points of conversation between Job and his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
Job 4:4–9 (Eliphaz)
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.
5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 Is not your fear of God[a] your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
5:6–8 (Eliphaz)
6 For affliction does not come from the dust,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
7 but man is born to trouble
as the sparks fly upward.
8 “As for me, I would seek God,
and to God would I commit my cause,
7:20 (Job to Eliphaz)
20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?
8:20–22 (Bildad)
20 “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
nor take the hand of evildoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouting.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
9:4–10 (Job to Bildad)
4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength
—who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—
5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not,
when he overturns them in his anger,
6 who shakes the earth out of its place,
and its pillars tremble;
7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
who seals up the stars;
8 who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the sea;
9 who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10 who does great things beyond searching out,
and marvelous things beyond number.
10:8–12 (Job to Bildad)
8 Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you have destroyed me altogether.
9 Remember that you have made me like clay;
and will you return me to the dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit.
11:13–18 (Zophar)
13 “If you prepare your heart,
you will stretch out your hands toward him.
14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away,
and let not injustice dwell in your tents.
15 Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish;
you will be secure and will not fear.
16 You will forget your misery;
you will remember it as waters that have passed away.
17 And your life will be brighter than the noonday;
its darkness will be like the morning.
18 And you will feel secure, because there is hope;
you will look around and take your rest in security.
29:1–8 (Job to his friends)
1 And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
2 “Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me,
3 when his lamp shone upon my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
4 as I was in my prime,[a]
when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my children were all around me,
6 when my steps were washed with butter,
and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
7 When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I prepared my seat in the square,
8 the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose and stood;
31:3–4, 35–37 (Job to his friends) for a general overview of this section.
3 Is not calamity for the unrighteous,
and disaster for the workers of iniquity?
4 Does not he see my ways
and number all my steps?
35 Oh, that I had one to hear me!
(Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)
Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;
I would bind it on me as a crown;
37 I would give him an account of all my steps;
like a prince I would approach him.
Before we view the session, here are a few important things to look for in Francis Chan’s teaching. As we watch, pay attention to how he answers the following questions.
- What do Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar think they know about Job? About God
- How much did Job and his friends understand about God’s role in Job’s suffering?
- To what degree does God care about the words we use when we talk about him?
Watch Session 4: Job 4–31 (11 minutes).
Now that Job’s lament is finished, his friends began to speak to him about his situation. First, Eliphaz responded.
In attempting to encourage his friend, Eliphaz reminded Job of what a good guy he’d been. “Should not your piety be your confidence…?” He encouraged Job to explain to God why he didn’t deserve all that he endured. Have you ever approached God in an effort to prove him wrong? Do you think that is the right approach to God’s choices? Why, or why not?
Job then replied to Eliphaz. (Job 7:20)
In his response to Eliphaz, Job spoke bitterly to God, accusing him of toying with him, making him a target. He assumed that bad things are supposed to happen to bad people, not a faithful man like himself. In what ways can you relate to Job? Do you think he was right? Why, or why not?
Next was Bildad’s turn. (Job 8:20–22)
Bildad countered Job’s assumption that his suffering came from God’s hand. He focused on God’s character, declaring that God would not reject a blameless person. Given that the readers know God indeed allowed Job’s trials, what are we to think of Bildad’s conclusion?
Too often we, like Bildad, assume God’s morality mimics ours. Good behavior warrants a reward, and bad behavior earns punishment. What do you base your ideas of God’s morality on? How do you know your beliefs are accurate?
Job’s response in chapter nine declared that God is too great to be truly known. His works are beyond our understanding. (9:4–10)
How vast is God’s power, according to Job’s vivid metaphors? If Job’s description was the only information you had of God, to what degree would you be drawn to him or frightened by him?
Job went on, feeling torn between faith and despair. (Job 10:8–12)
Here, Job acknowledged God as his caring creator, but one who seemed to be destroying him. In what ways can you identify with Job’s back-and-forth outburst? Where have you experienced God’s apparent anger yet also remember his love?
Later, Job’s third friend, Zophar, joined the conversation. (Job 11:13–18)
Zophar’s advice may seem true, but it is terrible advice. He sees the world as karmic—you earn both pain and joy. Job suffered greatly so, surely, he thought, he must have sinned greatly. This line of thinking may appear to be reasonable, but it places the blame of suffering on the sufferer, compounding their sorrow, negating God’s sovereignty, and stealing their hope. In what ways can this line of thinking isolate a person, pushing them away from God and their church community?
On the other hand, Zophar’s advice might seem harsh, but our society is full of similar “wisdom”: try harder and life will get better; move on—life will be good again if you just let it. What alternative answer to suffering can the church offer those who only hear our society’s harsh response to their pain?
Job replied to Zophar, trying to rebuke his view of the world and maintain his innocence (Job 21), but Eliphaz wouldn’t have it. (Job 22:4–11)
Eliphaz adds to Zophar’s claim that Job earned his suffering. Instead of comforting his friend, he begins to invent sins that Job might have committed: wickedness that would justify his level of suffering. In what ways can we, like Eliphaz, blame people for their pain? What might be a better way to help them?
After several rounds of discourse with his friends, Job responded one last time. (Job 29:1–8; 31:4–8, 35–40)
Job looks back to the days “when the Almighty was still with me” (29:5). He is convinced God has abandoned him despite his innocence and begs to know why he has suffered. God has gone from someone Job trusts to one Job cannot make sense of. What does he get wrong in his belief about God? To what extent can pain skew our perspective of God?
Francis confessed that the chapters covered in this session are among his least favorite in the Bible. “It sounds so much like what we do today, everyone just talking about what they think.” What is the risk of talking about God’s thoughts and motives for acting? How do you know you are correct? What influence could speculation have on our relationship with God?
Francis identified a common problem that all three of Job’s friends illustrated—how not to respond to a friend in pain. Their many words of explanation did not bring comfort to Job. They all ended their conversations more frustrated than they began. We can mean well when we seek to comfort a hurting friend, but we must be wise, only sharing what is true and helpful. What sort of well-meaning advice can hurt someone? What seemingly self-evident speculation is not helpful to talk about with someone in pain?
Part of the problem with Job’s friends is their utter certainty that they knew God’s reasons for allowing Job to suffer. They left no wiggle room, no allowance that perhaps they could be wrong. They were wrong, nonetheless. In your speculations about God, how well do you balance your convictions with humility? To what extent are you teachable and willing to be wrong?
Francis pointed out how Job’s friends alienated themselves with their arrogant approach to knowing God. How can your faith-centered conversations take a more gracious tone or be handled more humbly?
LAST WORD
Though we skimmed through the cycles of speeches, we saw Job’s frustration grow deeper and his hope waiver as his friends shared their insights. He knew he was a righteous man, so his sufferings did not make sense to him, and his friends’ advice to admit his wrong became offensive.
Francis urged us to be careful about our desire to talk about things we don’t truly understand. A humble approach to discussing faith, particularly as it relates to suffering, will do more to show love and care than an insensitive, dogmatic mindset. Let’s love our hurting friends with more listening and less lecturing.