Book of Job–Structure and Message

Themes in Job

• God is in Control – He operates the universe in sovereign grace not by Divine retribution
• Point: We cannot fully understand the questions of life but we can trust our sovereign, gracious God to do what is right and best for us.
• God and Wisdom are incomprehensible
• Wisdom is very difficult to get, it comes from revelation of God
• God never answers Job's questions; He just reveals Himself to Job.

Message of Job

God's relationship to man is based totally on grace, not retribution and reward!!!

False religion:

Relationship with God is earned; legalistic, ritualistic

Biblical religion

God is above and beyond our comprehension

Relationship with God and every blessing from God is a gift of grace.

• The book of Job explores God's basis for His dealings with man. GRACE!!!
• Everyone in the book assumes that God deals with man based only on retribution.
• Satan assumes that Job is faithful only because God blesses him (he never understood grace)
• The three friends assumed that Job was a sinner because Job was suffering.
• Job assumes God is unjust because he is righteous, yet is suffering.
• Elihu concludes that Job must be ignorant of his sin, since he suffers
• Job reveals that God deals with man according to His own free sovereign gracious choice.
• 2 reasons for blessings are sovereign choice (Eph. 1:3-14) and our obedience (Gal 6:7). We tend to emphasize what we can control and thus over-emphasize the second reason.
• This leads to theologies which conclude that we can control God. (Word-Faith, legalism, modernism)
• God’s speeches reveal that man cannot even comprehend God, or what He does, much less control Him.
• The ultimate basis for God's dealings with man is His absolutely free, sovereign grace.
• Job is doubly blessed despite his mistrust, doubt and challenge to God.
• Job's friends are forgiven (through Job’s intercession)
• All the characters in the book experience unmerited favor and undeserved forgiveness. (Except the satan and Job’s wife who disappear in the epilogue.)
• God does not always bring justice in this life
• All people, good or evil, experience God's common grace.
• God has his own reasons. He brings rain in the desert where there are no people. It is not always about us!!
• God is superior to the satan (adversaries) – The satan can do nothing but what God allows him to do.
• We must live by grace through faith.
• It is basic for our faith to understand that God deals with us on the basis of grace. We do not need to be perfect to approach or serve God. We just must be receptive to allowing His grace to lead, empower and sustain us.
• Living by grace through faith must always include a spirit of gratitude. God owes us nothing. When we begin to emphasize our rights before God we are sure to fall into sin.
• Living by grace through faith must always includes a spirit of humility. God controls us, we do not control God. We can count on God's promises, but we cannot make Him do what we want.
• Submission to God frees us to be what God wants us to be and to receive and enjoy God's blessings. Job’s friends had to swallow a lot of pride to experience restoration.