The Book of Job

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I am told that many folks, who go through calamitous events or who suffer pain with no end in sight, often find solace is the Book of Job. Its main character, Job, is a good man, but he suffers unimaginable pain and doesn’t know why. He questions the Lord for not intervening and wonders why he is punishing him for no apparent reason. His friends, who come to comfort him, only turn on him and blame him for the presumed ignominious calamity that has swallowed him up. So, Job suffers without a friend to offer him any compassion whatsoever. Although he had often helped others, he finds no help when tragedy strikes him. What is he to think? Who should he blame? Is anyone to blame? Why are the heavens like iron, when we pray? Where’s the voice of God in all this? These are some of the questions that we all ask when trouble comes for no apparent reason. Why, God, why? is probably one of the biggest, often believed to be unanswerable, questions that arise when trouble strikes. However, the Book of Job seeks to answer it. Does it? We’ll have to look to find out, won’t we?

It may interest the reader to know I used Matthew Henry’s Commentary as a source to outline my study of Job. If he divided a chapter into two, three or four parts, that was usually as many studies, which I did in that particular chapter. Nevertheless, the content of my studies and the direction they take may not be so easily grounded in another work. I take full responsibility for that.

1. An Introduction to the Book of Job                                          Introduction & Prologue
2. Are There More Than One Book of Job?
3. Job’s Character and Wealth                                                     Chapter 1
4. The Greatest of All Men in the East
5. Who Are the Sons of God in the Heavenly Court?
6. Who Is Satan and What Does He Do?
7. Satan Destroys Job’s Family and Wealth
8. Arguing With God
9. Why Did God Accept Satan’s Wager?
10. A Hedge of Protection
11. Job’s Health Declines                                                               Chapter 2
12. The Lord’s Part in Job’s Trials
13. Curse God and Die!
14. Introducing Job’s Three Friends
15. The Satan and His Surrogates!
16. Truisms Aren’t Always True!
17. The Cursing: Let the Day Perish!                                            Chapter 3-Job Speaks
18. The Lamenting
19. The Questioning
20. My Theology Is Wrong!
21. Job’s Questions About the Value of Life
22. When Worldviews Are Wrong                                                 Chapter 4-Eliphaz’s 1^st Reply
23. The Spirit Speaks
24. Ask the Saints!                                                                        Chapter 5
25. Man Is Born to Trouble!
26. When Truth Misses the Mark
27. Can Man Figure Out God?
28. When Hope in God Fails                                                        Chapter 6-Job’s 1^st Reply to Eliphaz
29. When One’s Truth Is Proved to Be Error!
30. When Death Is a Friend?
31. The Fear that Dries Up Friendship
32. What Is the Proof of One’s Worldview?
33. My Life Has No Hope!                                                             Chapter 7
34. The Business that Occupied Job’s Life
35. I Don’t Want to Live Forever!
36. Why Won’t God Just Forgive Everyone?
37. Repent!                                                                                   Chapter 8-Bildad’s 1^st Reply
38. Tradition and Truth
39. God Is Just!
40. How Is Mankind Just with God?                                              Chapter 9-Job’s 1^st Reply to Bildad
41. The Greatness of God!
42. The Futility of Man to Oppose God
43. The Just and the Unjust Are As One!
44. Is God the Judge of a Kangaroo Court?
45. An Appeal for Revelation                                                         Chapter 10
46. Seeking Clarity for the Contradictions
47. Job’s Appeal for Relief
48. Rebuking Job’s Self-Justification                                             Chapter 11-Zophar’s 1^st Reply
49. The Wisdom of God Is Unsearchable
50. A Call For Repentance!
51. No Doubt Wisdom Will Die With You!                                      Chapter 12-Job’s 1^st Reply to Zophar
52. Consider the Wild Asses of the Field
53. Who Do Your Think You’re Dealing With?
54. God Is On Our Side!                                                                 Chapter 13
55. Job’s Boldness of Speech
56. Shall Not the Judge of the Earth Do Right?
57. Why Is God So Mindful of Mankind?                                        Chapter 14
58. Till Heaven and Earth Pass Away!
59. If a Man Dies, Will He Live Again?
60. Your Own Words Will Judge You                                             Chapter 15-Eliphaz’s 2^nd Reply
61. Who Do You Think You Are?
62. Claiming to Be Representatives of the Lord
63. The Fallacy of Trusting Ancient Wisdom
64. Expectations of a Wicked Oppressor
65. The Lifestyle and Fate of the Wicked
66. Miserable Comforters!                                                             Chapter 16-Job’s 2^nd Reply to Eliphaz
67. A Man of Sorrows!
68. Oh! That God Might Plead with God!
69. Where Does Job Find His Hope?                                            Chapter 17
70. False Hope Brings Only Sorrow!
71. The Scheme of World Rule!                                                    Chapter 18-Bildad’s 2^nd Reply
72. The Myth of This Present World Order
73. How Long…?                                                                           Chapter 19-Job’s 2^nd Reply to Bildad
74. The Contradictions of an Indefinable God
75. I Know My Redeemer Lives!
76. Job’s Words will Fade Away Like a Dream                              Chapter 20-Zophar’s 2^nd Reply
77. Judgment and the Wealth of the Wicked
78. Permit Me to State My Defense                                               Chapter 21-Job’s 2^nd Reply to Zophar
79. What Is Evil, and Why Does it Exist?
80. Why Do the Wicked Prosper?
81. Shall a Man Teach God?
82. Why Is the Obvious so Unbelievable?
83. Can a Man Be Profitable to God?                                            Chapter 22-Eliphaz’s 3^rd Reply
84. Bad Theology!
85. The Strawman Gambit!
86. Have You Noted the Way of the Wicked?
87. Be Reconciled to God!
88. Where Is God?                                                                        Chapter 23-Job’s 3^rd Reply to Eliphaz
89. Why Are the Righteous Destroyed?
90. What Did Job Know About God’s Will?
91. It Is He, Himself, Alone!
92. The Wicked Oppress Society                                                 Chapter 24
93. The Wicked Who Work in the Dark
94. The Wicked Who Work in the Light
95. When Are the Wicked Punished?
96. How Can a Man Be Just Before God?                                   Chapter 25-Bildad’s 3^rd Reply
97. Whose Spirit Came from You?                                               Chapter 26-Job’s 3^rd Reply to Bildad
98. These Are the Outskirts of His Ways!
99. I Will Maintain My Integrity!                                                    Chapter 27
100. Let My Enemy Be as the Wicked
101. What Is the Ultimate Fate of the Wicked?
102. What Science Can and Cannot Do                                        Chapter 28
103. What Can’t Be Mined or Bought?
104. Where Can Wisdom Be Found?
105. Job’s Depression Over the Lord’s Table                                 Chapter 29
106. Job’s Longing for the Former Days
107. By Righteousness and Mercy?
108. What Does It Profit a Man…?
109. Consider the Men Who Attacked Job                                    Chapter 30
110. Is God to Be Blamed for Evildoing?
111. My Joy Is Turned to Mourning
112. Job’s Final Appeal                                                                   Chapter 31-Job’s Final Words
113. Job’s Behavior Toward Others
114. Job’s Attitude Toward the Weak & the Poor
115. Job’s Grace Was Extended to All
116. The Words of Job Are Ended!
117. Impartiality and Truth                                                             Chapter 32-Elihu Speaks
118. Wisdom Listens, then Speaks!
119. Who Is Elihu?
120. Pretense Put for Wisdom!
121. Is Elihu Wise or the Fool!
122. When One’s Worldview Isn’t Enough                                    Chapter 33
123. Elihu Rebukes Job!
124. Is It Wrong to Debate With God?
125. Does God Speak to Man?
126. Job’s Wickedness and His Mediator
127. Sleep, Rest, Be Quiet!
128. What Is Good, and Who Gets to Say?                                   Chapter 34
129. Defending the Truth
130. Defining the Truth
131. Elihu’s Arguments Against Job
132. Who Is Able to Contend with the Lord?
133. Repent! Or Suffer the Consequences!
134. Does Justice Really Matter?                                                  Chapter 35
135. Why Is God Silent?
136. Elihu Condemns Job Without Cause
137. God Is on My Side!                                                                Chapter 36
138. Surely the Lord Has Sent Me to You!
139. Surely the Great God Will Do Right
140. Job Brought Affliction Upon Himself
141. Truth and the Greatness of God
142. Ponder the Lord’s Majesty and Repent!                                Chapter 37
143. The Lord Is Sovereign in All His Deeds
144. Job’s Blasphemy and Questioning God
145. How Did the Ancients Perceive God?
146. What Did Job Know About God?                                          Chapter 38 – The Lord Speaks
147. God Shows Up!
148. Do You Want Answers, Look at Me!
149. Are You Qualified to Be God?
150. Are We on Our Own?
151. The Wild Goat and the Deer                                                 Chapter 39
152. The Wild Ass
153. The Unicorn
154. The Ostrich
155. The War Horse
156. The Hawk and the Eagle
157. Job’s First Response—Silence!                                            Chapter 40 – God Continues…
158. The Lord’s Challenge
159. Behold the Behemoth
160. Draw Out Leviathan                                                              Chapter 41
161. The Untameable God!
162. What Was Wrong With Job?
163. My Worldview Has Been Broken!
164. Why Did God Allow Job to Suffer?
165. What Happens to Folks Who Are Lost?
166. Job’s Confession and Repentance                                       Chapter 42 – The Epilogue
167. The Lord Rebukes Job’s Friends!
168. The Lord Restores Job’s Prosperity!