How to Study Job

• 1. Chapters 1 and 2 provide the setting of Job's pain. Read through these two chapters. Mark every reference to Satan and to God. On the Observations Chart:

     1. 1. List what you learn about Satan - his person and his relationship to God and to Jo.

        2. List what you learn about God.

        3. List what you learn about Job: what God says about him; what Stan says; how he responds to God, to his pain, and to counsel of his wife.

  2. In order to understand Job and the ensuing discourses of his friends, read Job 1:8 and 2:3, 11-13 and then Job 42:7-9. Do this before you proceed any further. Pay attention to what God says about Job and to what God says about what Job's friends said.

  3. In chapter 3 Job pours out his anguish, and then in chapter 5 through 42:6 there is a series of discourses given either by Job, his friends, or God Himself. Read through this section chapter by chapter and do the following: 

• • • 1.  In your Bible, next to each chapter number, note who is speaking and to whom. Then record this under chapter themes on the Structure of Job chat. You might want to color-code Job's and his friends' names so you can quickly distinguish who is speaking.

      2. Job 42:7 says that Job's friends did not speak what was right concerning God. Therefore, if one of these three men speaks, in the margin note how his reasoning is wrong in respect to God and to Job's suffering. Watch carefully to see where or how (is it tells) Job's friend came up with his conclusion. Then watch how Job answers each of his friends. Record pertinent notes in the margin.

• 4. As you read Job 4 through 42 observe what the test says about:

• • • 1. Man and God

      2. What God expects from man and what He does not expect

      3. Nature

      4. Sin and righteousness

      5. Physical life and death

      6. How to deal with those in pain

• • 1. Record your insights on the Observations Chart as you read each chapter.

• 5. Mark key words or phrases that play a significant role in a particular chapter or which-recur throughout the book. Key words or phrases: Wisdom, sin (iniquity, transgression), sons of God, righteous (right, righteousness). Note in the margin the insights you glean about God by marking wisdom and other key words. Also highlight or underline verses which speak to your heart.

  6. Don't fail to compare Job's end with his beginning and to notice what come from Satan's challenge.

  7. When you finish reading Job and you have filled in Structure of Job, note how the book divides itself into a pattern of discourses. Record this under "Segment Divisions."

Key Words in the NIV and KJV

Key doctrines in Job

1. Faithfulness in the midst of suffering (2:9; 13:15; Num 12:10-12; Luke 22:31-34; John 21:15-19; 2Cor 1:3-7; 12:7-10; Heb 12:5-12; 1Pet 5:10)

Worksheets

Studies on Job