Job 8-10 ~ Speaking to Suffering
(Our Reforming Groups Bible studies are designed to be inductive, using the COMA form of study: Context, Observation, Meaning, Application). For more on this method, check out this article.)
By way of introduction: What questions have we had when we suffer, or see suffering?
Read Job 8
As you read those opening words from Bildad, compare and contrast how he starts to speak to job with how Eliphaz started to speak with Job (Job 4:1-4).
As you read what Bildad says, what do you think his convictions are about God? (Job 8:3)
Eliphaz had already alluded to Job’s children (Job 5:4), but now Bildad gets personal (Job 8:4). What is Bildad’s point to Job? (read Job 8:4-7)
Bildad seems to have a neat theological in his own mind, where "good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. What does he miss about sin, that Job had been aware of already in his life? (Job 1:5).
On Sunday we saw that Eliphaz relied on a spooky vision for they weight of authority in his speech to Job. Where does Bildad go for authority? (Job 8:8-10)
Bildad tells the tale of two plants (Job 8:11-15 and 8:16-19), what is the point of Bildad’s parable?
In 8:20-22 Bildad wraps up his first words of wisdom for Job. What does Bildad assert will happen for Job if he takes his advice?
What does Bildad miss in all this that God has already seen about the sinner and sufferer who is Job? (8:20, 1:1, 8, 2:3)
Read Job 9-10
(Note: 9:13, ‘Rahab’ here the name of a mythical beast connected to Egypt, see Isaiah 30:6-7)
When Job answers Bildad, where does he find agreement or disagreement? (9:1-12)
There is a repeated phrase by Job in these early chapters, seen in 7:16, 9:21, , 10:1 - where does Job find himself before God, because of his suffering?
As you read and reflect on Job 9:32-35, what does Job seek that we have seen in the New Testament? (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 4:14-16).
How can we apply these chapters of God’s word to us, even via Bildad and Job, but now through Jesus to us? How will Jesus change us today, in the days ahead, from his word to us here?
Pray for one another, that the Lord Jesus would change everything
