Job

Job

 Context:

1.     What do you see in this book that tells about the Original Reader?

You can see from the way Job’s friends address the idea of God that most likely the original readers would have identified with the “appeasing God mindset” which basically says that you have to do everything right and make God happy so that He will bless you. All of Job’s friends maintain this attitude throughout the book and so it is possible that the original reader would have approached the situation with the same mindset.

Because this book is largely about suffering, it is also likely that the original readers would have been a people who were suffering or at the least were familiar with suffering in their own lives.

Job 1 is the first time since the garden that Satan is mentioned and the characters in the book do not even mention him as a possible explanation so it is also possible that the original reader was not very aware of the reality of Satan and spiritual warfare.

2.     What do you see in this book that tells you about the author?

Because the book is written as a drama, the author was obviously somewhat skilled at writing in artistic forms. He was also very aware of how the people of his time viewed God because He goes into depth describing how the characters viewed God. Because he goes to great length to mention how they view God, it is likely that the author himself had a great respect for God.

3.     What are the main themes, and repeated ideas in this book, and what is a one-sentence summary of the “main idea”?

Suffering is a main theme of this book. Chapter 1 and 2 describe the great suffering that Job does through. In chapter 3, Job also describes how he wishes he were dead due to his great suffering.

There is also a lot of sarcasm and negativity throughout the book. You find Job and his friends being sarcastic and negative to each other frequently. Even God seems a bit sarcastic toward the end of the book. 12:1-3; 15:1-2; 16:1-4; 38:1-4; 40:1,2;

The righteous and the wicked are also discussed and mentioned by Job and his friends quite a bit in chapters18, 20 and 21.

4.     What is the primary reason this book was written?

This book was written to give the reader a correct view of God amidst the sufferings that man has throughout life. Suffering happens and while we may not understand why God allows it, we can still know that God is good despite bad situations. 

Theme Tracing:

1.     What does this book show about the character and nature of God?

Chapters 1 and 2 show that God is a God who loves righteousness. He brags on Job’s righteousness more than once. God in reality is not angry with Job but is rather so proud of him that He is bragging about him to Satan. Job also shows that God loves to bless his people. In chapter 1 it states all of the blessings that God had given Job. Satan mentions that God has blessed him and protected him in 1:9-10. At the end of Job, God blesses him again with even more than he originally had to begin with. Even though this book goes into depth about Job’s suffering, Job’s ending was even better than the beginning. We also see from Job that God is bigger than we can understand in Chapters 38-40.

2.     What does this book show about God’s redemptive plan for mankind?

Job mentions several times that he needs a mediator so that he can present his case before God. He also knows that because his Redeemer lives he has hope in a life after death. 9:33; 16:21; 19:25-27

Application:

I liked how Job talked about life coming after death. In 14:7-9, 14-16 he is saying that even the trees come back to life after they are cut down.  He is also hoping and wanting to know if it is possible for the dead to live again. Then in 19:25-27 he declares that because of his Redeemer there is life after death. Even though I may experience death in my personal life, God is able to bring life out of that death because He is a God of life.

 I also find it awesome that Job shows that God loves blessing His people. Even though we may feel because of our suffering that God is not good, the reality is that He is proud of us and will bless us. 1:8, 2:3, 42:12