2. Why do the righteous suffer?
The Book of Job
Why do the righteous suffer?

3. Job’s Character
Blameless
Upright
Feared God
Turned away from evil

4. God’s Evaluation of Job
My servant
None like him on the earth
Blameless & upright
Fears God
Turns away from evil

5. Job’s Blessings 10 children 7000 sheep 3000 camels 500 yoke of oxen
500 female donkeys
Very many servants

6. Does Job fear God for no reason?
Satan’s Question
Does Job fear God for no reason?

7. Job’s Blessings
10 children
7000 sheep
“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
500 yoke of oxen
500 female donkeys
Very many servants
3000 camels

8. Job’s Blessings
10 children
7000 sheep
“But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”
500 yoke of oxen
500 female donkeys
Very many servants
3000 camels

9. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?
Job’s Answer
Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?

10. Dialogues
Friends’ speeches
Job’s responses
Monologues
Job
Elihu
God

11. The wrong question:
Why is job suffering?

12. Eliphaz
Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. 3:7-9

13. Bildad
If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. 8:5-6

14. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. 11:6
Zophar
Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. 11:6

15. Zophar
For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; He has seized a house that he did not build. 20:19

16. Eliphaz
Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities. For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed. 22:5-9

17. The right question:
Where is wisdom found?

18. Conventional Wisdom
For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding? 8:8-10

19. Conventional Wisdom
Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, Older than your father. 15:8-10

20. Wisdom from Observation
As I have seen… 4:8
I have seen… 5:3
Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good. 5:27
What I have seen I will declare… 15:17
Do you not know this from of old…? 20:4

21. Direct Revelation
Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.

22. Direct Revelation
It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form went before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: “Can a mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” 4:12-17

23. Wisdom of Youth
Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger. 32:4-5

24. WHO IS THIS WHO DARKENS COUNSEL BY WORDS WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE?

25. NOW PREPARE YOURSELF LIKE A MAN;
I WILL QUESTION YOU AND YOU WILL ANSWER ME.

26. Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
42:3

27. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.
42:5-6

28. There are no easy answers.
It’s wise to reserve judgment.
Presence, not counsel, is the best form of comfort.
If you’re suffering unjustly, you’re not alone.
Fear God.