As you've undoubtedly noticed from last week's reading, the book of Job unfolds as a conversation between Job and his friends.  Perhaps you can picture them sitting at the round table at the coffee shop or around a campfire at night.  Job's friends - Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar - are trying to help him understand why he is suffering.  Their conclusion is that Job must have done something to make God angry.  After all, it's the wicked who are punished and the righteous who flourish...or so they thought.  In 16:2 Job makes an interesting observation: "You are miserable comforters," Job says to his friends.  Put yourself in Job's place.  How would you respond to what they were saying?  In most circumstances we would say that his friends are correct.  But as readers we know that what has happened to Job has nothing to do with his sin (see Chapter 1).  Ultimately, what we see in Job is a contrast between human wisdom and God's wisdom. Human wisdom, as much as it is, is limited in its scope.  We can only see what we see; we can't see what God sees and we can't understand all of who God is.  The last chapter of our reading this week leads us to see that this is where these conversations are leading.  The ultimate question isn't what sin Job is guilty of committing; it's what is wisdom and who is the source of it.  It was a hard lesson for Job; it was an even harder lesson for his friends.  Be sure to check out the blog for the guiding questions as you read and for the opportunity to interact with each other.  We enter our rhythm of LEARN-READ-INTERACT.

From How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens, Michael Williams makes these points about Job:

Phrase: God and suffering

Theme: God is active in areas and realms beyond our understanding.

Christ-Focus: Christ gives us the ultimate picture of the righteous sufferer as he accomplishes God's saving purposes (1 Peter 3:18).

Implications: We can believe that God is with us even during the hard times, just as he was with his own Son (1 Peter 4:12-19).

Questions: Where is God when it hurts?  When things go the way you want, does that mean that God is blessing you?

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