This theological summary of the book of Job comes from Pastor Jared Melius of Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in Denver, CO. It is worth its weight in gold.
3. Job: This is bad. Life is not worth living.
4,5. Eliphaz: You’re being punished, Job. Actually, you should be thankful because this is God’s way of making you a better person.
6. Job (to Eliphaz): I believe the Lord’s words. I am righteous. If you wanted to comfort me, you would have reminded me of this.
7. Job (to God): God are these guys right? Is there some sin you aren’t forgiving? If so, please forgive it. If not, why are you killing me?
8. Bildad: You’re getting what you have deserved, Job. Not to worry; repent and it will all be better.
9. Job (to Bildad): I know I’m a sinner; all mortals (including you, Bildad) are sinners. But I am righteous despite my sins! My only hope is my Mediator, who removes the accusation of my guilt.
10. Job (to God): Seriously, do you judge like my buddies here? According to my sin? Because it sure seems that way.
11. Zophar: I know what you’re saying, Job. God forgives you. Granted. But He obviously doesn’t forgive 100%. You have to do your part also. Then life will be good again.
12. Job (to Zophar): You’re so smart! You ridicule my faith in God’s mercy. Actually this suffering is not my responsibility; it is God’s.
13. Job: You guys can say what you want, but I have no problem insisting on my righteousness before God.
14. Job: Life is short and hard; so I will put all my hope in the future resurrected life.
15. Eliphaz: You have strange ideas, Job. First, no one is pure except God. But you do need to be pretty good. And second, you will never be pretty good if you keep thinking things won’t improve until the resurrection.
16. Job (to Eliphaz): You’re trying to comfort me, but you’re bad at it.
Job (to God): You see, they have all concluded that I am guilty because of my wretched condition. Vindicate me on earth as you have already vindicated me in heaven through my heavenly Witness, Advocate, Intercessor, and Friend.
17 Job (to God): No one can redeem me except my Heavenly Redeemer. Now, God, will you hurry and redeem me?
18. Bildad: You’re mean and you hurt my feelings. Now I know for sure that you are evil and God hates you.
19. Job (to his friends): Why do you care anyway? What do you have to gain by convincing me that this is my fault. I haven’t done anything! God has done this. Everyone is alienated from me. Oh, how I wish that my words were written in the Bible, that I will know my Kinsman-redeemer alive and after that, He will return as a man to the earth and raise my dying and despised body to perfection. I can’t wait for that day!
20. Zophar: I’m not stupid, Job. Everyone has always known that the good prosper and the wicked are miserable. It’s just the way it is.
21. Job (to Zophar): First off, how do explain my suffering then? Second, open your eyes. If you ever got out of your own house, you would see that the wicked prosper all the time, even though they reject God. The wicked man is honored in life and at his funeral.
22. Eliphaz: Job, you have sinned in multiple ways by failing to love others and by abusing them. Now, you’re getting a taste of your own medicine. You have to make this right with God, and everything will be restored to you. In fact, then you’ll be able to help restore others (sort of like we’re doing for you now).
23. Job: If only I could get a hearing in God’s courtroom. He would not hold my sins against me, for He would confirm that I have not turned away from His word of law and gospel. And yet, He is treating me different here than He would in His court.
24. Job: God does the same with the wicked as well. I am declared innocent and God seems not to care. But, others are unbelieving scoundrels and God seems not to care. They seem to get away with it for a while. But, God will sort this out after death.
25. Bildad: Dear Job, God is really, really holy and He sees everything. How can an ordinary man, then, be declared righteous and clean in His sight? It’s arrogant.
26. Job to Bildad: Thanks for saying just what I needed to hear! Actually God can declare anything He wants and it happens.
27. Job, to Zophar: No matter how much suffering I endure, I will not let you convince me that I am not justified before God, nor will I let you trouble my conscience. I have taught you that there is no hope for the defiled unbeliever. So why did you make the argument before (in chapter 20) that it depends on your good works?
28. Job (to all): Men search deep in the ground for treasures, but the greatest treasure of all is wisdom, and it can’t be found in the ground or purchased. Only God can give wisdom and it is this: faith and repentance (and I happen to have it.)
29. Job: Things used to be so good.
30. Job: Now, they are so bad.
31. You know what, now that I think of it, I have more than just the passive righteousness of my Redeemer to boast of. I can also boast of my active righteousness before God. Let God examine every minute of my life and He will see that I have been a really good fellow! I don’t lust, lie, cheat, scheme to get my neighbor’s wife of underpay my workers. I give to the poor and orphaned. I haven’t trusted my wealth. I haven’t worshipped idols. I don’t gossip or crave men’s opinions. Let God examine my every move and then apologize for wronging me this way.
32: Elihu (to Job’s three friends): I may be young, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know the word of God. I’ve been listening to your arguments and you have not answered Job’s arguments well.
33: Elihu (to Job): Ready, Job. I’m a Christian just like you. But I just heard you, in chapter 31, make a serious theological mistake. You said that you are not merely righteous by faith, but that you are righteous in yourself! That’s bad. God has more than one way to make a man a good Christian. Certainly He uses His Word, but so also, sometimes, He uses suffering. And, this suffering will open his ears to the voice of the Messenger, his unique Redeemer, who will intercede for him and restore his conscience to the joy of the absolution. God will do this to a man as many times as it takes to keep him in the light of Christ. Listen carefully to me Job, because I’m not trying to prove you wrong here. I just want you to be justified before God.
34. Elihu (to the entire assembly): Consider carefully what Job just said there, that God has been unjust to him. That has to be wrong because God is eminently just. That was a very bad and dangerous thing for him to say.
35. Elihu (to Job): Now, Job, think about it. You had been saying, “my righteousness is from God,” Then you said (in chapter 31) “what’s the point of trying to be good?” But think about it. Your sin doesn’t hurt God, but it can hurt your neighbor. And, your good works don’t help God, but they do help your neighbor. So, just because God has sent suffering doesn’t mean He is trying to get you to stop sinning.
36. Elihu (to the entire assembly): In fact, listen to this. God delights in His Christians regardless of their condition. But, when they are stuck in suffering, God opens their ears to His rebuke to keep them in repentance. If they repent, they will complete their days in goodness and pleasantness by going to heaven. But, if they will not repent, they will die and go to Hell. In fact, a good mark of an unbeliever is someone who gets mad at God when they suffer while a mark of a Christian is someone who repents when they suffer. So, don’t question God’s wisdom in these things. He knows what He is doing.
37. Elihu (to entire assembly): Think of how little we understand about the way God works even in weather. And yet, He keeps working, regardless of our proud understanding.
38 and 39: God (to Job): Job, you had some pretty rough questions for me. Here is a question for you. Could you have designed creation? No, you wouldn’t know what you’re doing. But, I did. Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean I don’t. I am God, after all. Not you.
40. Job (to God): I repent. I should have kept my mouth shut and trusted you.
God (to Job): I have another question for you. Are you as powerful as I am? I made the dinosaurs.
41. God (to Job) continued: I made the great leviathan/dragon. These are immensely powerful animals, and I am the One who made them. So, in summary, I know what I’m doing, and I can do whatever I want. So don’t you think I can be all-loving and all-powerful and permit suffering at the same time in a way that your puny mind doesn’t understand?
42. Job (to God): Yes, you can. Your purpose for me in sending this suffering will not be thwarted. It will result in my benefit, even if it is beyond my comprehension. So, I take back what I said in chapter 31. I repent.
God (to Eliphaz): You and your buddies messed up the doctrine of Justification. Job will teach you about it. In fact, better yet, go to Job and he will deliver justification by grace through faith alone by absolving you of all your sins.
