Denison Church of the Nazarene

July 18th, 2010

Today’s scripture focus: Job 1

The book of Job introduces us to the section of scripture known as “Wisdom” (or “the writings” in the Hebrew bible.) “Wisdom” is not intelligence, but a philosophy that produces success in life. Wisdom literature uses poetic forms to teach key truths about life, chiefly that happiness comes from worshiping God (The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom – Proverbs 9:10.) We treat wisdom writings a little differently than other parts of the Old Testament. Much like the parables of Jesus in the New Testament, the stories in this portion of scripture are not to be treated historically, but as conveying principles about how life works. The other Wisdom books are Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes.

The story of Job was an ancient epic that was probably popular during the same time as the events of Joshua and Judges. At that time, the story would have consisted of simply the first two chapters and the last chapter of the current book (bad things happened to Job, then good things happened to Job.) Centuries later – probably after the Babylonian Exile – the author of Job either collected or added the poetry section in the middle, thus giving us the book in its final form. The main concern of Job is the problem of suffering, or “Why do bad things happen to good people?”. Scholars refer to this issue as “theodicy” (theo – God, dice – justice).

In today’s scripture, we are introduced to Job of Uz, somewhere northeast of Palestine. Job is described as the most righteous and the wealthiest man in the area, and the two are portrayed as going hand in hand. Job acted as priest for his family, and regularly offered atonement sacrifices on their behalf, just in case they sinned! The action then moves to the heavenly court, where angels come and report to God. “Satan” here is not a name but an office (the Hebrew is literally “the satan” or “the accuser”). Satan is commissioned with testing Job, but after chapter two, he disappears from the book and God deals with Job directly. Though Job loses everything, he remains blameless (for now.)

In order to understand Job’s message, we must place it in the framework of covenant history. We learned about the covenant in Joshua and Judges. When Israel obeyed God, they were protected and blessed, but when they worshiped other gods, they were cursed. Over the centuries, though, it was observed that sometimes it seemed as though the righteous were cursed, while the ungodly prospered. How could this be? Job is an attempt to teach through poetic form that ultimately God is in control, and His ways are unknowable. Obviously we still wrestle with these same questions today. We, too, ask “where is God?”. Though often difficult to understand, Job offers light when journeying through the dark night of the soul.

CrossGroups

• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.

• Let everyone who would like share anything exciting from their week.

• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as would like.

1) Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?

2) What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?

3) Whose fault is it when bad things happen – ours?  Satan’s?  God’s?  none of the above?

Today’s Sermon

• Job entered a time of darkness.
• We all go through times of darkness.
• God was on the throne.
• God is STILL on the throne.

Assignment – Pray daily for the manifest presence of God in our worship.