The Book of Job Bible Study - April 29, 2008

Here are the notes from our first Bible Study on the book of Job. We split up into groups to discuss the questions below and then we had a teaching session on Evil. Don't worry if you have missed a session. Join us any time!

Job 1:1-22 The First Test
Job 1:1-5, Scene 1: Introduction to Job
Job 1:6-12 Scene 2: A dialogue about Job

Job 1
There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt-offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’ This is what Job always did.

1. What kind of man is Job? (See also – Psalm 25:21; Psalm 37:37; Prov. 3:7, Prov. 14:16, Prov. 16:6, and Prov. 16:17.)







2. What does it mean to be blameless?



3. What does it mean to be upright?


4. What does it mean to fear God?



5. What does it mean to turn away from Evil?





6. What is Evil?



Group Discussion:
1. Job is blameless (Hebrew = tam).
Tam means whole, complete, sound, lacking in nothing, fully integrated, blameless, perfect. The focus is on human nature. It describes the perfect fulfillment of the purpose for which a human being exists. It describes the perfect fulfillment of the natural needs that define human nature. Humanity at its very best.
Tam means innocence with the connotation of personal integrity, of something finished, complete, perfect and therefore exemplary. It also conveys the meaning “just”.

2. Job is upright (Hebrew = yashar).
Yashar here means just, righteous, honest. Acceptance of ethical norms. Practices justice in his life.

3. Job fears God (Hebrew = yare Elohim)
Have the proper awe, reverence and honor a human being should have towards Almighty God.

4. Job turns from evil. (Hebrew – Sara ra)
Means avoiding evil, keeping oneself far from it in the first place.

The Problem of Evil
A Dialogue About Job
6 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7The Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ 8The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.’ 9Then Satan answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? 10Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’ 12The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!’ So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Ethical Definition of Evil (The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics):
The Nature of Evil – there is moral and nonmoral evil. Moral evil consists in transgressions of moral law or, when faith is present, disobedience to the will of God. Nonmoral evils comprise those ills which do not proceed directly from human sin.
A human act can have evil effects without itself being evil in the moral sense. An act is morally evil only if it is a voluntary infringement of a moral law that is known to the agent. When the agent is invincibly ignorant of a law, or when he or she acts involuntarily, the act is not morally wrong, or sinful; so that any eveil effects it may produce fall within the nonmoral category.
Nonmoral evils are various. Human suffering produced by physical disorders by earthquakes, famine or disease.
What is the nature of evil in itself?
Aquinas held that it is wholly negative – a “privation of good.” It is a defect in a person or a thing. The human organism fails to actualize its nature and achieve its good.
So how can evil exist is a world made by a Holy God?
God is limited in wisdom or knowledge or power? (Diagram)
Christian theism asserts God made the world ex nihilo. God is not omnipotent that God can do anything for some things are contrary to reason or morality. Be God is omnipotent in the sense that he controls all things by his creative word.
1. Sin – According to the doctrine of the fall, sin entered the human race through Adam’s disobedience. So if Adam was made in the image of a Good Creator, how could he make a sinful choice? Some theist say sin is an inevitable consequence of free will.
2. Human suffering – can be a powerful obstacle to believing in a Christian God. Unmerited suffering is often justified on three grounds. 1. Purifies the sufferer by affording an opportunity to strengthen character. 2. Suffering can produce virtues that would not otherwise be shown. 3. Examples of suffering endured with courage and faith can afford moral and spiritual inspiration to others.
However, some suffering does not ennoble, but degrades.
Theist make the following additional claims:
1. Insofar as suffering is caused by sinful acts, it is justified by the freedom that God has given us.
2. Insofar as suffering is caused by nature, we must accept it on the ground that God constantly intervened miraculously to prevent it, nature would be come wholly unreliable.
3. We must see this life in the light of the next, when unmerited suffering will be both rectified and transformed by eternal joy.
Theist admit that evil is not now fully explicable when it is set against belief in an omnipotent God of love.
The cure of evil – God in Christ has saved them from the ravages of sin and suffering through his perfect sacrifice whereby he made of both a pathway to the heavenly world.
For the Christian, evil is characterized by a double paradox. On the one hand, its presence in a world created by a holy God cannot be fully explained. On the other hand, God as expressed in his incarnate Son, has conquered evil and enabled us to share by grace not merit in his victory. Again, evil is fully real. Through the Spirit of the risen Christ, the greatest evil can become the occasion of the greatest good-if not of a good that is manifest here and now, then of a good that will be manifest hereafter.
Christian reaction to evil is distinctive. Christians do not seek to escape from it. They do not preach a stoic indifference to it. They have two duties a) to combat it by every means and b) to believe that God will vanquish it according to the perfect but hidden wisdom of his providence.

New Dictionary of Theology
The origin of evil – God created the fact of freedom, people perform the acts of freedom. God made evil possible; creatures make it actual.
Evil is not yet defeated.