RIGHT IDEAS AND WRONG CONCLUSIONS

How Can Man Be Right With God?

Job acknowledges that his friends are speaking some truth. He understands that God blesses the righteous and curses the wicked. He understands that God cannot pervert justice. But he wants to know how someone can be just or right with God. (Verses 1-2)

What are some things that Eliphaz and Bildad had said that are true?

Job 8:3 “Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?”

Why is Job’s question here such an important one? What are some obstacles to people being right with God?

Job 4:17 “‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?”

Psalm 130:3 “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?”

Psalm 143:2 “Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.”

Romans 3:10 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”

How were people then and now made right with God?

Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Romans 3:26 “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

The Greatness of God Drives Job to Despair

Job didn’t know how he could possibly argue his case with someone as glorious as God. (Verses 3-14)

What are some descriptions that Job uses to illustrate how glorious God really is? What are some things that you see in creation or Scripture that are proof of God’s greatness?

Daniel 4:35 “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?””

Psalm 139:4 “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”

See Romans 11:33-36...

See Psalm 139:7-12...

Thinking of God’s greatness drove Job to despair. Should it have? What should it have done?

If God is so much greater than us, do you think that we can prove Him wrong and us right?

Since Job wasn’t aware of any sins in his life, he was going to have to just beg God for mercy. He thought the Lord was ignoring him and treating him as an enemy. Even though Job wasn’t aware of any sin that deserved this treatment from the Lord, he was convinced the Lord would declare him guilty. He just didn’t understand why. (Verses 15-21)

1 Corinthians 4:4 “For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.”

Psalm 19:12 “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.”

Psalm 139:23–24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Does God ever treat His people as His enemy?

Isaiah 49:15–16 ““Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”

Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

See Hebrews 12:5-13...

Job Says God Destroys the Righteous and the Wicked

Job thought that the Lord didn’t treat the wicked and the righteous differently. He also thought that the Lord mocked the calamity of the innocent. And finally, he thought that the Lord caused injustice to happen. (Verses 22-24)

Do the same sorts of things happen to the righteous and the wicked on earth? Is there a difference in how He treats them?

See Ecclesiastes 9:2-3...

See Ezekiel 21:1-5...

Matthew 5:45 “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Does the Lord mock the calamity of the innocent?

Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

Psalm 103:17 “But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,”

See 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10...

Does the Lord blind the eyes of wicked judges? If He doesn’t, who does?

Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.”

2 Corinthians 4:4 “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

See James 1:13-15...

Job Complains of His Condition

Job’s days are short, and he can’t escape from his suffering. He is convinced that God has condemned him. He wonders why he keeps pursuing righteousness if this is the what he gets for his efforts. Job thinks that even if he cleans himself up and purifies himself, the Lord will still condemn him. He thinks the Lord is against him, but he doesn’t know why. What he really wants is someone to be the mediator between him and the Lord so he could speak to the Lord without fear. (Verses 25-35)

Job thought the Lord wouldn’t declare him innocent. Was he correct?

Jeremiah 17:14 “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.”

Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Was Job correct that his labor was in vain?

Psalm 73:13 “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.”

Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”

What do you think about Job’s desire for a mediator between him and God?

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”

John 16:26–27 “In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”