Here’s a window to my world of study – – this is how I organized my attempt to understand Job’s friends.
One of the real challenges of preaching Job is that it’s such a long book. There are three cycles of Job’s “friends” responding to him. Below is a page from my study notes that I have been working on for quite some time.
One little help to grasping the book of Job for me was the comment by one of Job’s friends to the effect that, “The hypocrites hope shall perish.” I derived three points from that statement: I. The fellow who made the statement was a hypocrite. II. His hope perished. III. Best thing that ever happened to him, because he got a new hope to replace the old. In this case, the new hope was in the sacrifice offered by another (Job), a real good picture of the Savior’s work of a substitutionary sacrifice, in this case, of himself for our sins. Job’s miseries served to correct the errors of others. But then there is the fact of meaning and purpose lying beyond one’s life time and even beyond this world.
That’s great. I love charts. 🙂
Makes me wonder how often I wrongly apply the right principles of Scripture.
Very helpful point to consider that Job’s suffering with the result that others benefited foreshadowed Christ suffering for others. You’ve helped my sermon.