This book is named after Job, whose history is here used to repeat the great truth, that sufferings here below are not always divine punishments for sins committed, but, that in ways oftentimes unknown to us, the patience of the afflicted serves to increase merit and to enhance God’s glory.
1. The prologue tells of Job’s great virtue and his wealth. Job
1:1-5.
2. The devil is given permission to try Job’s faith. Job 1:6-12.
3. Job is told of the loss of everything, family, herds, and servants. Job 1:13-19.
4. Job praises God with the words; "The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away,
may the name of the Lord be praised." Job 1:20-22.
5. Again the devil gets permission to afflict Job. Job 2:1-6.
6. Job is stricken with sores from the sole of his feet to the top of his head to which
Job says "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" Job 2:7-10.
7. Three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, come to join Job and to sympathise at his
distress. Job 2:11-13.
8. Job’s suffering makes him wish he had never been born. He longs to find peace and
release in death. Job 3:1-26.
9. Eliphaz’ first speech. Job has often helped others in trouble; now he should be
prepared to swallow his own medicine. God destroys the guilty not the innocent. No-one is
blameless before God. Trouble is an inevitable part of life. The best course is to turn to
God, accept his reproof and wait to be restored to favour. Job 4:1-21 & 5:1-27.
10. Job replies. Eliphaz’ advice is not helpful. Job is at the end of his tether. It
doesn’t help to be told to be patient. Job only wants to cease to be. His friends
have failed to show sympathy when he needed it most. He has done nothing to deserve
punishment. Job 6:1-30 & 7:1-10.
11. Job turns to God and pours out his heart. Job 7:11-21.
12. Bildad’s first speech. God is just. He rewards the good and punishes the wicked.
Job 8:1-22.
13. Job believes in God’s justice but in his own case God has condemned an innocent
man. Job 9:1-35 & 10:1-22.
14. Zophar’s first speech. These words are the harshest of all. Does Job think
himself innocent? God is letting him down lightly. Job must put away his sin then God will
restore him. Job 11:1-20.
15. Job is stung to sarcasm. His friends are not the only ones who can work things out.
God is all-wise, all powerful. If he turns justice upside-down, what can anyone do about
it? Job cries to God to hide him away in the land of the dead until his anger is past, and
then to restore him. But despair floods back - what hope is there? Job 12:1-25 &
13:1-28 & 14:1-22.
16. Elipahaz’ second speech. The debate heats up. Job has needled his friends, and
they make no allowances for the stress he is under. They go on defending their position.
Job 15:1-35.
17. Job replies. How easy it is for his friends to talk when they are not bearing the
pain. Despite everything Job cannot believe that God is unjust. Job 16:1-22 & 17:1-16.
18. Bildad’s second speech. He resents Job’s angry rejection of their advice. He
paints a terrible picture of the fate of the wicked, meaning to put Job in his place. Job
18:1-21.
19. Job’s friends have become his tormentors. He is shut in on himself despairing.
Yet even in his darkest moments, faith and hope still well up inside him. Job 19:1-29.
20. Zophar’s second speech. He takes up Bildad’s theme: the fate of the wicked.
Their prosperity is short-lived their punishment certain. Job 20:1-29.
21. Job replies that Zophar’s words fly in the face of experience. More often than
not, evil men flourish, live happily and die peacefully. The friends will argue that
God’s vengeance falls on their children. But what sort of justice is that? Job
21:1-34.
22. Eliphaz’ third speech. Still the same argument. Job is in the wrong. He thought
he could hide his sins from God. Job 22:1-30.
23. Job replies; If only he could find God and put his case to him. But God is not to be
found and his ways are inexplicable. Look what goes on in the world. Life is neither fair
nor just. God delays judgement, and those who trample the hepless underfoot seem to get
away with it. Job 23:1-17 & 24:1-25.
24. Bildad’s third speech. Job’s friends have exhausted their advice. They have
nothing more to say. Bildad reiterates the truth that no man is one- hundred per cent
perfect in God’s sight. Job 25:1-6.
25. Job’s final reply. His friends want him to deny his integrity, but Job will not
perjure himself. Job looks back on the golden days of God’s favours, but he returns
to the ‘now’, the bitter present, which has made him the butt of all. All this
has happened to a man who has avoided immorality, played fair with employees, been
generous, turned no-one from his door. Job is prepared to swear to all this before God.
Job 26 to 31.
26. Now, a fourth man, Eliu, enters into the argument. He is angry with Job. He sees good
and bad conduct as a matter between men. God remains high above untouched by either.
People cry out to God in their need but they are only concerned for their own skins, not
for God. This is why God does not answer. Job 32; 33; 34; 35; 36; & 37.
27. God breaks in just when Eliu has finished his list of reasons why Job cannot expect an
answer. Job had imagined himself putting his case to God, and asking questions. But
imagination is not reality. It is God, not Job, who asks the questions now. Through the
succession of searching questions Job finds his opinion of himself shrinking. His mental
image of God had been altogether too small. Job 38:1-41 & 39:1-30.
28. Does Job think he is God’s equal that he questions his justice? Job realizes that
he has been dabbling in things beyond his understanding, totally out of his depth. Before
he has gone by heresay; now he has seen God for himself. Job 4O:1-24; 41:1-34 &
42:1-6.
29. Job is restored to his greatness. God has taken Job to task for his reaction to
suffering but his integrity is beyond question. Friends, prosperity & family are all
restored to him with a long life in which to enjoy them. Job 42:7-16.