1. Discuss the experiential aspect of poetry and of Job. Poetry is (1) experiential, (2) economical in line length (only says what is necessary), and (3) contains imagery. The experiences can relate to non-common experiences, such as climbing Mt. Everett, and also to common experiences, such as worship and suffering. Job is a book that evokes empathy even though few people have ever suffered all that he did. Everyone goes through some undeserved suffering at some level, or they know someone else who has. However, Job may not have beared up as well as many believe.

2. Discuss Job's attitude and questions as seen in Job 9. Job speaks, and then, his friends respond. In Job 9, the setting is like a court room (words appear like "dispute", "guilty", and "acquit"), and the progression in this chapter is both logical and psychological (when people are suffering, they often are not deeply theological and spiritual). In Job 9:3, Job was bothered because God would not answer him. The first "him" in the verse is capitalized, but the second one is not. The first "him" is God, and the second is Job or the individual. Job says that God will not answer him even once in a thousand times. In Job 9:16, God will not listen (even if He would answer, He probably still would not listen). In Job 9:20, even if God would answer and would listen, He still would not litigate fairly. Job believed that God would convict him no matter what. Either God would turn Job's own words against him, or He would condemn him for some minor sin. In Job 9:27, God will not let him forget. In Job 9:28, Job says that God will not release him from his pit of suffering, and He will not let Job try to release himself. He felt like God was trying to push him back in whenever he tried to get out. In Job 9:33, God would not allow an arbitrator. Job says that there is not an arbitrator between God and him, so he felt helpless before God. Chapter 9 ends in despair, and Job concludes that there is no hope. He could not even get an explanation from God.

3. Discuss the attitudes of Job and his friends. Job 9 is in the middle of the three cycles of speeches between Job and his friends. Job seemed to be a complainer, but in the beginning, we know that he did not curse God. One lesson from this might be that time in suffering can eat away at patience. Throughout the whole book, Job wants to know why he is suffering. In a polarization of Job's attitude versus that of his friends, he thinks that the real world is unjust (Job 21:7-26). His friends disagree, but he tells them that they are blinded from reality (they have spent to much time in the monastery and not in the real world). In Job 21:19, the speaker changes as Job talks. First, Job speaks, then the friends respond, and after that, Job responds to them. Job is not convinced that the wicked know that they are punished. In other words, they seem to get away with their wickedness. Job's friends believe in the Prophetic Viewpoint where good is rewarded and evil is punished. This might be their first error, and their second error is that they go a step further and say that all suffering people (poverty, sickness, or some other malady) need to repent. They make errors by being too extreme. Not all suffering is linked to evil.

4. Discuss how the Book of Job answers the questions of normal people. Readers of this book question how the book can help them, and Job questioned why he suffered unjustly. The author could only answer one of these questions, and he basically answers the reader's. God speaks, but He never reveals anything new to Job or gives Job a complete answer. Because of these things, we can relate to Job, and this is how we are helped. How does God answer the reader's question. In Job 38:1 and several following chapters, God basically tells Job that he is a no one in the grand scheme of things. There are 3 viewpoints that seek to answer Job's question about why him. They are: (1) God is the answer (we must seek the Lord when hard times come and find peace in His presence even if we do not get His answers), (2) the no-answer answer (God is not bound to tell us anything), and (3) the larger plan view, which says that we are finite humans who do not know the beginning from the end.

5. Discuss some of the applications of the Book of Job. From the Book of Job, we can first learn that it is important to be present with those who are suffering but probably equally important to not judge or offer advice. Second, there are different levels to the book and also different views about suffering. Third, God's ways are much higher than ours, and what we know about Him is sufficient. God does not reveal anything new to Job. There are not any guarantees of prosperity, and we often do not get an answer for why we are suffering.

6. State the case study for Lesson 20. Take a modern-day proverb (like "early to bed and early to rise makes one healthy, wealthy, and wise") and find 3 reasons why this proverb is easy to remember.

				Tom of Bethany

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Lesson 20. Proverbs

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