Ortlund Job

A 12-Week Study
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4335-5107-9
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 96 Seiten

Reihe: Knowing the Bible

The Knowing the Bible series is a resource designed to help Bible readers better understand and apply God's Word. These 12-week studies lead participants through books of the Bible and are made up of four basic components: (1) reflection questions that help readers engage the text at a deeper level; (2) 'Gospel Glimpses' that highlight the gospel of grace throughout the book; (3) 'Whole-Bible Connections' that show how any given passage connects to the Bible's overarching story of redemption, culminating in Christ; and (4) 'Theological Soundings' that identify how historic orthodox doctrines are taught or reinforced throughout Scripture. With contributions from an array of influential pastors and church leaders, these gospel-centered studies will help Christians see and cherish the message of God's grace on every page of the Bible. This 12-week study invites us to take an honest look at the agony and pain experienced by Job, which are immediately relevant to the suffering we all experience while on earth. However, it takes us beyond the suffering and into the sovereignty and trustworthiness of God in the midst of our trials. Eric Ortlund helps us see God's purposes in suffering as we look ahead to the restoration of all things in the new creation.

Eric Ortlund (PhD, University of Edinburgh) teaches at Oak Hill College in London, England. He previously taught Old Testament at Briercrest College and Seminary in Saskatchewan, Canada, for ten years. He and his wife, Erin, have two children.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ortlund, Eric

Leseproben

WEEK 2: JOB’S TRAGEDY

Job 1:1–2:13

The Place of the Passage

The first section of Job introduces the issue that drives the entire book: why did God allow such horrifying suffering to befall someone who was so loyal to him, who seemed to “deserve” so much better? In these brief chapters, we learn of God’s sovereignty over everything in creation, and we gain insight into a great contest that is being fought in heaven over the saints. We see how much God cares for his own glory and for the purity of our relationship with him. And we see a great saint suffer greatly, yet worship throughout in the most costly, beautiful way possible.

The Big Picture

Job 1–2 reveals a dramatic struggle in heaven over the saints and, by extension, over the glory of God. The great question driving these chapters is whether Job will persevere in faith in God when it costs him every earthly blessing.

Reflection and Discussion

Read through the complete passage for this study, Job 1:1–2:13. Then review the questions below concerning this introductory section to Job’s story and write your notes on them. (For further background, see the ESV Study Bible, pages 874–876; available online at esv.org.)

1. Job’s First Test (1:1–22)

The first five verses of Job 1 show us Job’s wonderfully blessed life. In verses 1–3, what aspect of Job’s life is described first, and why is it important that we are told of this before anything else? What do we learn about Job’s family life and his deepest concerns for his family in verses 4–5?

Job was richly blessed in his relationship with the Lord. What blessings do you enjoy in your relationship with God, even if they are not identical to Job’s?

In verses 6–12, the scene shifts to the throne room of heaven. Although ancient Israelites might not have known everything that the New Testament reveals about Satan,1 what do we learn here about him, his intentions and plans, and his relationship to God? What do we learn about God’s sovereignty?

Satan’s question in 1:9, “Does Job fear God2 for no reason?,” is most significant. What is Satan implying about Job’s motives and the basis of his relationship with God? If Satan is right, how should God treat Job? Why might it be important for God to allow a terrible test of Job’s devotion to him?

Like clockwork, in 1:13–19 Job loses every secondary blessing that was listed in 1:2–3. Some elements of Job’s tragedy have naturalistic causes (e.g., the Sabeans in v. 15), while some are supernatural (the fire from heaven in v. 16). We know that Satan is the one at work behind the scenes, but what would Job have concluded about the cause of these losses? (In the worldview of Job’s day, such events were interpreted not as random tragedies but as signs of divine wrath.)

Job’s response to his losses is as poignant as it is noble (1:20–21). How does he express his grief as well as his devotion to God? How does his worship prove that Satan’s claim in 1:9 was false? How should Job’s worship guide our own in instances when God allows some great or tragic loss?

2. Job’s Second Test (2:1–13)

The Lord’s statement in 2:3 that Satan “incited” him against Job “without reason” is clear at one level—the Lord is acknowledging that the test was needless and that Job did not deserve this treatment. But this statement can also be troubling, since it might appear that God is admitting that he was tricked or manipulated. But how do we see God continuing to defend his servant against Satan? And does the echoing phrase “for no reason” (1:9) and “without reason” (2:3) imply a deeper reason behind God’s actions?

Satan responds to the Lord by implying that Job’s first test was not deep enough. What is Satan’s second proposal, and why does he think this will break Job’s devotion to God?

Reflect on the short speech of Job’s wife in 2:9. Would she have passed Satan’s test in 1:9? What do we learn about the quality of Job’s loyalty to God from his response to his wife (v. 10)?

Job’s three friends arrive in 2:11. What is their motive in traveling to see Job? What does their shock and grief imply about their expectations for what they would find? What might we expect the friends to say to Job in the following chapters, given their intentions?

Read through the following three sections on Gospel Glimpses, Whole-Bible Connections, and Theological Soundings. Then take time to consider the Personal Implications these sections may have for you.

Gospel Glimpses

GOD’S GRACE. Job lives out his faith in beautiful and costly ways (see 29:11–17), but when God takes from him his family and wealth, Job speaks only of what God had given him (1:21). Job considers his deeply blessed life a gift, not something he was owed in return for his good behavior. When he loses everything, he is not angry with God for betraying him but worships God just as sincerely as when he enjoyed all of his blessings. Job’s relationship with God is clearly based on grace, not reward or merit. What Job loves most deeply in life is his deep friendship with God (see 29:4); for him, everything else is a gift. We also see God’s grace in his enthusiastic recommendation of Job. Although Job was a sinner (see 31:33–34), God had only positive things to say about “his servant,” a term that puts Job in the exalted company of Abraham (Gen. 26:24), Moses (Ex. 14:31), and David (2 Sam. 7:5). As we will see, everyone will turn on Job except God. No one defends him as enthusiastically as God does, all on terms of grace, not merit.

CHRIST PREFIGURED. Job is not an “everyman.” Of how many of us would God say, “There is none like him on the earth” (Job 1:8)? And even though God does allow Job-like suffering in our lives, none of us will suffer in so extreme and total a way as Job did. In both Job’s deep piety and his suffering, he prefigures that greater man, Jesus Christ, who innocently suffers the wrath of God in order to refute the accusations of the Devil and to glorify God as out sin-bearer.

Whole-Bible Connections

RETRIBUTION AND REWARD. Both Testaments clearly teach that faithful obedience to God, even when imperfect, is rewarded with blessing even in this life (Eliphaz neatly defines it in 4:7–8; see also Mark 10:29–30; Gal. 6:7). The book of Job does not contradict this teaching, because Job finishes the book twice as blessed as he was before (Job 42:10). But Job will nuance our understanding of the doctrine of retribution: sometimes God interrupts his normal policy of blessing our obedience in order to allow the kind of suffering we would expect to fall on someone openly defiant of God and hurtful toward others. Although the book of Job teaches us that these experiences are rare and temporary, it also insists that God sometimes allows them in order to seal us in our relationship with him, as Job was sealed.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SUFFERING. Suffering is diagnosed in different ways in the Bible: sometimes, it is the direct result of sin (see Ps. 38:3–5); at other times, God allows pain in order for us to mature as Christians (see Rom. 5:3–5). But neither of these explanations is applicable to Job. The first two chapters of Job go out of their way to show that it is for no sin in Job’s life that he is suffering—not even Satan can find fault with him! Furthermore, God is not trying to grow Job spiritually. Job is already a mature saint—and if Job did receive some spiritual virtue from his ordeal, Satan could have repeated his accusation that Job loved God only for the secondary benefits, this time pointing to spiritual benefits instead of material ones. The book of Job teaches that saints who imperfectly but sincerely serve God will sometimes suffer for no reason they can explain in relation to past sin, and will perhaps not seem to grow spiritually from the ordeal. Job’s suffering is of a kind that will lead only to a deeper vision of God himself (Job 42:5).

Theological Soundings

THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE TESTING OF THE SAINTS. “Does Job fear God for no reason?” (Job 1:9) is a question that should make every Christian nervous. It is easy to drift unconsciously from honoring the Lord as our only real treasure and great joy, to viewing him as a business partner or Santa Claus. This is clearly not true for Job: Job loves and fears God for God’s sake alone, irrespective of what secondary blessings Job gains or loses in the relationship. But do we? It is beneficial to use Job’s worship in 1:5 as a guide for our own when we are in good health, surrounded by our family. But would we be just as enthusiastic in worship if we were at death’s...