Promotion Sunday: Thanks so much for your flexibility and commitment. I realize that there was some confusion about room changes. Hopefully we have everything settled. If you have questions please don't hesitate to contact me. I look forward to seeing how God works through you this Connect Group year.
Neighbor Night: Pray for our church as we continue to look out over our rooftops at the lost world God has placed us in. If you have a Neighbor Night experience to share please go to the following link and record your experience: Neighbor Night Experience
Bible Study Session
This week I am using the Explore the Bible QuickSource Discussions & Points Plan, page 16, as the framework for the plan. I will highlight the QuickSource steps in orange. It provides a pretty good outline. I will supplement with additional information and discussion questions.
THE TARGET
Focus on what adults should leave knowing, understanding, and doing.
Adults will understand how they can still place their hope in God, even when life seems unfair. They will learn how to use this understanding to remain strong in their faith and to help others who are suffering.
Resources to Consider Using
MyStudyBible.com
Great video overview. Use it for your own background study or consider using during class session: http://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/QR/GetzBible/0506/
Unfair suffering examples:
Links to examples about people facing seemingly unfair hardships (prayerfully look for your own examples also).
- Child needing a lung transplant
- Child needing lung transplant update
- Child Tornado Survivor killed by friends dog
PowerPoint: Click to view.
Explore the Bible Resources
- Commentary
- Discovery Study Guide Teaching Plan [LINK]
- ETB Leader Guide
- Discovery Study Guide
- Personal Study Guide
Look Up: "Soft Methods" to draw attention to the study as adults are visiting and gathering for Bible study.
QuickSource: Introduction
Discussion Options:
- Consider writing the phrase, "Life is not fair" on the markerboard in advance. Once adults have gathered ask them to consider times or events in which you have thought or said this phrase.
- Share examples of people facing difficult situations. (See stories provided above). Write the phrase, "God is good" on the markerboard in advance. When can we say this? Ask the following questions: If your child did not receive the same lung transplant another child received would you still say, "God is good"? If your house was destroyed by the Moore Oklahoma tornado would you say, "God is good"? Can we say "God is good," even if we aren't spared suffering or when our suffering seems unfair?
- PowerPoint: Scroll through the PowerPoint slides and discuss if they struggle with understanding why something like this might happen.
- Handout: Life's Not Fair. This would work with young adults. Discuss how they feel about the statements.
- If using Discovery Study Guide: Direct the group to read the first two paragraphs on page 24. Ask: Do you struggle to understand the whys of the Johns and Joes in your world?
Unfortunately, life isn't fair. The righteous suffer, the defenseless are victimized, and evil men go unpunished. All of us will face what seems to be unfair experiences and situations. Job wrestled with these same questions, along with his friends. Each drew his own conclusion and defended it, but not all of them were correct.
The key is this: How one interprets injustice reveals a lot about the quality or maturity of one's faith. That is what we will examine today as we continue our study of the book of Job.
Look In: Supplemental ideas for unpacking the text.
Context & Review:
The arguments of Job's friends during the first cycle of speeches was based on an axiom of life that people always reap exactly what they sow - the "if this, then this" philosophy. Since Job experienced the loss of his children, wealth, health, and social standing it was concluded by his friends that there must be some undisclosed wickedness that cause this. While Job did examine his heart and was willing to repent if God revealed any wrong, he concluded that this was the not the cause of his calamities. This only heightened the accusations from Job's friends. They were convinced that their conclusions were right and were determined to persuade Job to this end.
As we pick up the study in chapter 15 we will see his friends second round of speeches. We begin with Eliphaz's arugument.
Someone Read: Job 15:5-6, 9-10, 20
See QuickSource Questions 1 & 2.
Discussion Options:
- Imagine you are sitting in an interrogation room accused of a crime you didn't commit. You have been in the room for hours with people telling you that you are guilty. This is the picture here. Job kept saying he was innocent, his interrogators (friends) kept saying he was guilty.
- Verse 5-6: What did Eliphaz blame Job's stubbornness on? (His own iniquity was leading him to be arrogant. Job's protest of innocence was itself Job's condemnation.) What is wrong with an argument like this when someone has already told you that they have sought God for answers?
- Verses 9-10: Why was Eliphaz so sure that the friends had correctly identified Job's sinfulness? (He used age as a reason for discarding Job's defense, noting that Job's elders didn't agree with him, and their opinions should hold more weight. In Eliphaz's mind Job should have trusted the counsel of his elders above what he understood to be true.) Under what circumstances should age not be equated with wisdom? (Discover Study Guide, p25)
- Verse 20: How would you paraphrase what Eliphaz was saying to Job. (Your sin will limit your days. The wicked experience pain, suffering, and a premature death.) What is wrong with this argument? What is right about this argument?
- Have you ever been guilty of trying to impose your interpretation of a situation on someone who sought your help, rather than seeking to truly help them? What was the outcome of that experience? What did you learn from it?
- Discovery Study Guide Questions, p25: When someone's opinion or position conflicts with what you understand about God's leadership in your life, how do you reconcile the difference? If your motives are condemned, how do you resolve the tension created? Using Job's example, what response could you make?
Eliphaz interpreted Job's faith in God as arrogance. His remarks reflected the doctrine of exact retribution - all people receive immediate rewards or judgments for their behavior. He reminded Job of the fate of the wicked. Eliphaz reached a conclusion that was diametrically opposed to the truth. Job's situation came because he was righteous, not because he was wicked.
Job then responds to Eliphaz in chapters 16 & 17. Then Bildad joins in the accusations in chapter 18 and rehashes his warnings and the fate of the wicked, also arguing that Job's suffering was the result of sins. Let's look at Job's response to them.
Read Job 16:19-21; 19:5-6, 25-27
See QuickSource Questions 3, 4, and 5
Discussion Options:
- 16:19-21: Why did Job conclude that he needed a heavenly witness, advocate, and arbitrator? (no one else was supporting him). What is important about his statement? ("even now" - he expressed a new step of faith in God. He asserted that he had a witness who would exonerate him in heaven.)
- 19:5: Describe a time when you felt someone was using someone else's sin to make themselves look superior. Why do we do this?
- 19:25-27: What words or phrases did Job use that expressed that he had not lost hope in God? What did his heart long for?
- Explain: Redeemer was a tribal social term. The Redeemer acted in the best interest of a family member who no longer could act for him or herself. This truth points to Christ as our Redeemer. Direct the group to read the following verses: Psalm 19:14; Isaiah 47:4; Galatians 4:4-5; Titus 2:14. Ask: How did Job's faith in a living Redeemer help him? What can we learn from Job's faith when we face difficult times? (We can't hold on without knowing and believing in Christ as our Redeemer)
Verse 27 marked a turning point in Job's attitude. He was convinced that he would see God personally. His own eyes would look and view his God. And God would no longer be the stranger that Job felt was persecuting him presently. Job yearned for that day when his relationship with God returned to the intimacy he enjoyed in the past (ETB Leader Guide, p38). Job was confident that he had a living Redeemer standing on his behalf. This was a new theological truth that Job was learning and that his friends needed to learn as well.
Zophar joins in next, in chapter 20, insisting that the wicked always suffer.
Read Job 21:1-3. With his new understanding of God, Job countered with an argument that defies the logic of that day related to suffering.
Someone Read: Job 21:7-9
QuickSource Questions 6 & 7
Discussion Options:
- What does Job's questions and statement say about the logic of always blaming sin for suffering? (If the wicked prosper sometimes, then the righteous must sometimes suffer unjustly too.)
- Does it mean that the "wicked" will never go unpunished?
- Was there pain in Job's statements? How dangerous is it for us to compare our suffering to others and wonder why?
- What if, instead of looking at those who are not suffering we look at those who are suffering; what would that do to our perspective regarding our own suffering? (We might realize that our suffering isn't that bad. It could be worse.)
- Discovery Study Guide, p27: Some people believe that everything happens for a reason. How does this idea stand up in context of your own faith? As you've observed others deal with the injustices of life, how does acceptance appear to affect their ability to cope? When life seems unfair, what do you do to remind yourself that balance may be restored later?
See QuickSource "Conclusion"
Explain:
- Life is full of unfairness and misfortune.
- What we best take from these times is an understanding of how mistreatment feels.
- We must also keep in mind that God is Sovereign and in control.
- If we view what happens on earth as the end of the story, or that suffering only comes to those who are "wicked" then our faith will falter when we face suffering. We will view life as unfair.
- God's Word promises a final judgment after this life, where injustices will be dealt with by the perfectly righteous, all-knowing Judge.
- We can also trust Him for what is best in this life, even when we are experiencing the worst.
- Listening is an important part of church and family life and may even be the solution to church conflict. If you have failed to give someone a fair hearing, what can you do to change that? (Discovery Study Guide, p28)
- If an experience with injustice still nags at you, what prevents you from telling God how you feel about your situation? What do you need to do to overcome the feelings?
- Maybe you are experiencing something that just doesn't seem fair. What can you learn from Job that can help you trust God more?
