Neighbor Nights In July: The "Look Out" Application at the end of this session provides an opportunity to discuss ideas related to how your group can build relationships with their neighbors during the month of July. Remember, we are trying to look out over the rooftops of our city to be reminded of the spiritual needs of our neighbors. This can be done individually or as a group. Here is a suggested list of ideas that individuals or groups could do. Use the creativity of your group and think of other ideas that individuals or groups could do:
- Connect Group sponsored cookout. Have each member invite and bring at least one neighbor or friend.
- Cul-de-sac party. If someone lives in a cul-de-sac, they could do a cookout for the neighbors.
- Invite neighbors over for homemade ice-cream.
- Provide a game night for kids in the neighborhood. Ask the Connect Group to help. Invite the parents.
Explore the Bible QuickSource Discussion & Points Plan, page 20, and the Discovery Study Guide provide some very good teaching plan and discussion ideas this week. My teaching plan this week will combine those two along with additional learning ideas.
THE TARGET
Focus on what adults should leave knowing, understanding, and doing.
Adults will be able to define true wisdom and determine where it comes from. They will be able to identify ways to search for wisdom and to share God's wisdom with others.
Resources to Consider Using
- Video for "Look Up" Option Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bufTna0WAr
- PowerPoint Slides: Use for Job 28:1-4, 12. Click to download.
- QuickSource Object Lesson: Two Water Bottles (page 21). Consider using at the conclusion of your study.
- Background on Wisdom: Explore the Bible Leader Guide, p49. Use for your personal study and to supplement your group discussions.
Look Up: "Soft Methods" to draw attention to the study as adults are visiting and gathering for Bible study.
Option One:
In advance, write the following on the markerboard, "When I need answers I . . ." As adults begin to arrive ask them to begin thinking about all the places and people they go to when they need answers to questions. Once most adults have arrived ask them to share their ideas.
Ask the group to discuss how trustworthy they believe their sources are.
Option Two:
Display PowerPoint slide #1, "When I need answers I . . ." Once most adults have arrived discuss ways they use the internet for finding answers. Ask if they believe that the internet is a trusted resource for answers? Show the following video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bufTna0WArc. Ask: Why do people seem to use the internet so much for finding answers? How can we know that what we discover is valid?
Transition:
We live in a culture that has taught us that we can search quickly for answers. Unfortunately, not all answers come quickly or easily. Sadly, the answers we discover might not be accurate, ethical, biblical, or beneficial. Even though the technology and culture has changed since Job's time, the questions haven't. We still need answers, we need wisdom when we are faced with situations that just don't make sense.
Look In: Supplemental ideas for unpacking the text.
Context:
Last week, after Jobs friends' second round of unsympathetic speeches, we left Job standing firm on his faith that he had a living Redeemer Who was his witness in heaven, his advocate, and his arbitrator.
As we continue to study the book of Job we are going to look at Job's poem or hymn about wisdom in chapter 28. This was Job's response to his friends' third round of speeches. So far, during the first and second round of speeches, Job has not received any hope or answers from his friends. They continued to blame Job's circumstances on his wickedness, even though Job has searched his heart and found nothing that could have caused his dire circumstances. The speeches are shorter and only given by two of his friends, Eliphaz and Bildad. Zophar doesn't speak at all. This suggests that their arguments have been exhausted, succeeding only in moving Job away from conventional human wisdom to a deeper desire for God.
Read the following verses to set the context for chapter 28:
- Job 22:1-5 - Eliphaz speaks.
- Job 23:1-4 - Job's pain
- Job 24:13 - Job's realization about the wicked. He was not wicked because he walked with God.
- Job 25:4 - Bildad's short speech and his lack of understanding of God's redeeming grace.
- Job 27:3-12 - Job's unwavering faith in God.
Someone read Job 28:1-4, 12
Ask the group, as they listen, to consider how they would paraphrase what Job is saying about wisdom. After the verses are read ask several to respond. Point out how searching for wisdom is described as "Worth the Effort" in the study guide.
PowerPoint Option: Display the second PowerPoint slide #2 (mining examples).
Discuss:
- Why is the search for wisdom so much more valuable than the metals mentioned in these passages?
- How is getting wisdom like mining for precious metals? (Wisdom is both precious and elusive. Finding wisdom requires persistence. It is hard work! Information is available everywhere in our culture, but it takes much more effort to find wisdom.)
Discuss:
- Verse 4 refers to a mine shaft. Miners are lowered vertically down a dark, deep hole into a vertical shaft where no light can enter. It was dangerous and hard work but the financial rewards were worth the risk if the precious metals were to be discovered.
- In verse 12, Job poses a question. How would you answer his question if Job were asking you?
- At what decision-making point(s) in your life have you most longed for wisdom?
- Why don't people value God's wisdom and seek understanding from His perspective? (Others' "wisdom" is easier to find and quicker to process, although it might not be accurate.)
- What if Job had listened to the wisdom of his friends and confessed his "unknown sins" to the Lord. Would that have changed his circumstances? (What would Job's view of God be if his circumstances didn't change because of his confession?)
At the height of his struggle, Job voices a question many of us have probably asked at some point in our lives, "Where can wisdom and understanding about my current circumstances be found?" Yet Job recognized something about wisdom that his friends couldn't.
Read Job 28:13, 15-16
Discuss:
- If wisdom and understanding cannot be found in the land of the living why search for it? (because it is valuable!)
- What can wisdom do that earthly treasures cannot do?
- If we believe wisdom is more valuable than earthly treasures, how should that belief impact our life goals? our daily routines? (we show the real value we place on something by the amount of time and effort we are willing to invest in obtaining and holding onto it. Quicksource, p20)
- Is it wrong to look for wisdom from others? What criteria should we use when searching out wisdom from others?
- If you weigh out all the pursuits of your daily life--work, hobbies, recreation, eating, sleeping, exercise, etc.--what do those pursuits tell you about the value you place on wisdom? (Discover Study Guide, p32)
After comparing wisdom with the choicest metals including silver, onyx, sapphires, coral, quartz, pearls, and topaz, Job's conclusion was, there is no comparison. Wisdom is more valuable. So how can we find such a valuable treasure? First we have to know where it is located, what it looks like, and how we can attain it.
Job 28:20-28 gives us the answer. Someone read.
Job repeated his original question about where to find wisdom; then he elaborated. Wisdom is not accessible to the living, and the dead cannot resurrect it either. When all is said and done, only God is the Source of wisdom, and only God can lead someone to it -- He knows where it is. We see His wisdom even in how He created the heaven's and the earth.
Discuss
- What key words or phrases describe God's wisdom? (understands, knows, sees everything, fixed, limited the water, established a limit for the rain and path for lightening). He made everything in the created order through His infinite wisdom. He offers that source to us!
- How would you then describe God's wisdom?
- If God alone knows the way to wisdom (v.23), how do we discover it? (see verse 28)
- Based on verse 28, how would you describe to someone how to find wisdom? (it must begin with a growing relationship with Christ. We can't have our cake and eat it, too. We have to be willing to follow Christ and turn from evil things if we want to gain wisdom. It is a life of submission and trust. It is a relationship!)
- What methods do you believe God uses to lead people to discover His wisdom? (Discovery Study Guide, p33). When human logic falls short, we can trust God and the Holy Spirit to provide the guidance we need, but this can only come through an intimate relationship that is continually being fed through His Word, worship, prayer, and fellowship with other believers.
- Think back on our 365 study of the Bible last year. How did that help you gain wisdom for circumstances you were facing? How does your current Bible study, prayer, worship, Connect Group study, etc. help you find wisdom?
God's wisdom has always been with Him and cannot be rivaled or duplicated by any human or earthly force. Nevertheless, although we can never know all God knows, God does not want to leave us in the dark. (Discover Study Guide, p33). He offers us never-ending access to His wisdom, but it is something we will always dig for because it is more precious than any metal. It wouldn't be as valuable if it came to us easily!
Look Out: Hitting the target and applying it to daily living.
- If someone were to ask you to define wisdom, how would you respond based on this study?
- How would you tell them they could find wisdom?
- Emphasize Neighbor Nights in July. Remind the group that sharing God's Word is to share His wisdom. Doing acts of kindness in the name of Christ reveals His love and salvation to a lost world. Lead the group to brainstorm ways in which they can build relationships with neighbors during the month of July. Use the list provided at the beginning of this study along with other ideas.
- Read James 1:5. God's wisdom is available to us simply by asking for it. For what circumstances do you need His wisdom today? (Discovery Study Guide, p34). Lead learners to share their circumstance, if appropriate, with someone else in the group, and to spend time praying together.
