While getting ready for today’s Issues, etc. interview on the book of Job I found this old “Expanded Outline” I put together. I share it hear with yuo with the hopes that it helps open up this book of comfort and peace.
I. Introduction (1-2)
1. Job introduced (1:1-5)
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
2. The Heavenly Council (1:6-2:10)
Job 1:8 And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
3. Earthly Council Introduced (2:11-13)
Job 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.
II. Argument of the Earthly Council
1. Job’s Opening Argument (3)
Job 3:3 “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’
2. Three Cycles of Arguments with Job’s Friends (4-31)
1. First Cycle (4-14)
1. Eliphaz (4-5)
Job 4:7-8 “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.
Job 5:6-7 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
Job 5:17-18 “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.
Job’s Response (6-7)
Job 6:8-10 “Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
Job 7:20-21 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”
2. Bildad (8)
Job 8:3-7 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. 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. And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.
Job 8:20 “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
Job’s Response (9-10)
Job 9:2-3 “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
Job 9:20-22 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life. It is all one; therefore I say, He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
3. Zophar (11)
Job 11:5-6 But oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you, 6 and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.
Job’s Response (12-14)
Job 12:4-5 I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called to God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock. In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip.
Job 12:10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
Job 12:13-14 “With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding. If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open.
Job 13:3 But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.
Job 13:15-16 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face. This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him.
Job 14:1-3 “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?
2. Second Cycle (15-21)
1. Eliphaz (15)
Job 15:4 But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God.
Job 15:14 What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
Job’s Response (16-17)
Job 16:9-11 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
Job 16:19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.
2. Bildad (18)
Job 18:5 “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.
Job’s Response (19)
Job 19:5-7 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me, know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me. Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.
Job 19:21-28 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
3. Zophar (20)
Job 20:4-5 Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,
5 that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
Job 20:29 This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.”
Job’s Response (21)
Job 21:4-7 As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient? Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth. When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh. Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
3. Third Cycle (22-31)
1. Eliphaz (22)
Job 22:2 “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
Job 22:21-23 “Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,
Job’s Response (23-24)
Job 23:13-17 But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; yet I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face.
2. Bildad (25)
Job 25:2 “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.
Job’s Response (26)
Job 26:4 With whose help have you uttered words, and whose breath has come out from you?
3. Job’s Closing Argument (27-31)
Job 27:5-6 Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
Job 28:28 And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'”
Job 30:19-21 God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me.
“IF” Chapter 31 has eighteen “if”s in which Job claims human righteousness.
4. Elihu’s Argument (32-37)
Job 32:1-3 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. He burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.
1. First Argument (32-33)
Job 33:12-13 “Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s words’?
2. Second Argument (34)
Job 34:10-12 “Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him. Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.
3. Third Argument (35)
Job 34:35-37 ‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words are without insight.’ Would that Job were tried to the end, because he answers like wicked men. For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God.”
4. Fourth Argument (36-37)
Job 37:22-24 Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty. The Almighty–we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”
III. The Voice of the Heavenly Council heard on Earth (38-41)
1. The LORD’s First Argument (38:1-40:2)
Job 38:2-7 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements–surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 40:2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”
Job’s Response (40:3-5)
Job 40:4-5 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
2. The LORD’s Second Argument (40:6-41:34)
Job 40:7-8 “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
Job’s Response (42:1-6)
Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Job 42:6 …therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
IV. Conclusion: Job restored to his office (42:7-17)
Job 42:7-8 After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
Job 42:10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
