A Walk Through the Bible With Bro. Bill Parker Sr.

1. Praise Chapel Puget Sound A Walk Through the BibleWith Bro. Bill Parker Sr. Lesson 8 Job-Song of Songs The Poetical Books

2. A Walk Through the Bible Outline of Job ● Job is understood to be the oldest book in the Bible. 1. Job is a fascinating book of the Old Testament, it begins a new division in the scriptures.

3. A Walk Through the Bible • The books from Genesis to Esther are all narrative books, and are vitally meaningful to us as living parables, by which we can see what is going on in our own lives.

4. A Walk Through the Bible 3. Job begins another section, the poetical books of the Bible. 4. These include Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and the little book of Lamentations.

5. A Walk Through the Bible 5. It is admired as one of the most beautiful writings that man has ever known.

6. A Walk Through the Bible ● The prologue starts with Job and his prosperity. 1. He is recorded as the greatest of all men of the east. 2. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred oxen, five hundred she asses.

7. A Walk Through the Bible ● Job was an actual, living person and these events actually took place. 1. God recounts them for us so that we might have an answer to the age-old, haunting question, why does apparently senseless tragedy strike men?

8. A Walk Through the Bible 2. Any time you get into difficulties it is well to turn to the book of Job.

9. A Walk Through the Bible ● Job is a man who experienced an agony of human despair and desolation of spirit which accompanied the apparently meaningless, senseless tragedies that came into his life.

10. A Walk Through the Bible • The answer to that question is given right at the beginning of the book. 2. At the beginning we are given program notes that explain to us something about the drama, something that even the characters are not permitted to know.

11. A Walk Through the Bible 3. The answer given is that senseless suffering arises out of Satan’s continual challenge to the government of God.

12. A Walk Through the Bible ● The book opens with God meeting with the angelic creation, among them is Satan. 1. Satan is convinced that self- interest is the only real motive for human behavior.

13. A Walk Through the Bible 2. Satan’s philosophy is that the question “what’s in it for me” is the only accurate explanation for why people do anything. 3. Satan challenged God saying in effect, no wonder Job worships You, he’s got it made.

14. A Walk Through the Bible 4. God allowed Satan to take the wealth away from Job. ● Unaware that he has become the battle ground for a conflict between God and Satan in which God is planning to pull the rug out from under Satan.

15. A Walk Through the Bible 1. Job is faced with a series of catastrophes, one right after the other. • Job’s oxen are taken by enemy raids, his mules are decimated, next his sheep are killed by a terrible storm. Then his herd of camels is wiped out.

16. A Walk Through the Bible • Then comes the news that his seven sons and three daughters were killed when a great tornado hit and demolished the house they were in.

17. A Walk Through the Bible 4. Job’s response was “naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return; the Lord gives and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

18. A Walk Through the Bible Could you or I have that same attitude?

19. A Walk Through the Bible ● Job is stricken with boils from head to foot. Job has to stand alone. 1. Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die! 2. The final test comes with a visit from three of his friends.

20. A Walk Through the Bible ● At this point the whole book slightly shifts it’s focus. 1. We are no longer looking only at Job but also at his controversy with these three friends, and their discourse occupies the major part of the book.

21. A Walk Through the Bible 2. From their very human point of view they attempt to answer the same question of why do senseless tragedies afflict men?

22. A Walk Through the Bible • The major part of the book, written in poetic language, records the attempts by these men to come to an answer. 4. The three friends’ answers are all the same.

23. A Walk Through the Bible • They answer the question of Job’s problems with assurances that there is only one explanation possible. Job has committed some awful sin.

24. A Walk Through the Bible 6. They try to break down Job’s defenses with arguments. 7. They are not necessarily wrong in their explanation. There are tragic events, pain and suffering which do occur because of sin.

25. A Walk Through the Bible • Any time we violate the laws of God’s universe, including the laws of health, there is an immediate and sometimes violent and physical reaction and much suffering comes from that.

26. A Walk Through the Bible 9. The problem with his friends’ arguments, and their evil, lay in the assertion that this is the only explanation possible for all kinds of suffering.

27. A Walk Through the Bible ● They each take three rounds with Job. 1. Each of the friends present three arguments, nine arguments in all. And each plays the same tune.

28. A Walk Through the Bible 2. They try various approaches. a. First they try sarcasm and irony. b. Then they appeal to Job’s honesty. c. Then they accuse him of specific crimes and misdeeds.

29. A Walk Through the Bible 3. Finally they act hurt and go away, miffed and sulking appealing to Job’s conscience not to insult them anymore.

30. A Walk Through the Bible • To the friends the answer is simple. The righteous are always blessed and the wicked always suffer. Therefore if you are suffering it must because something is wrong in his life!

31. A Walk Through the Bible 5. Their answer is neat and tidy and explains everything, unless you are the sufferer.

32. A Walk Through the Bible 6. At first Job is irritated with these friends. Then he becomes angry and finally sarcastic.

33. A Walk Through the Bible 7. Job tells his friends that they think they have all the answers, so there is no use in talking to them anymore.

34. A Walk Through the Bible • Job points out that many people who are wicked are prospering and flourishing and living in ease, and nothing horrible is happening to them.

35. A Walk Through the Bible ● The glorious thing about this man is throughout the whole book he is utterly and completely honest. 1. In his desolation he expresses in various ways the ultimate cry of the human spirit.

36. A Walk Through the Bible 2. Job feels like God has been hiding from him. ● God answers Job and asks him if he wants to debate his case.

37. A Walk Through the Bible 1. God tells Job that he has been saying that God has been hiding and not willing to debate with Job. God asks “do you want to debate your case?”

38. A Walk Through the Bible 2. God puts Job’s feet to the fire and gives him a science quiz. God asks “where were you when I created the earth?” The quiz involved questions about the earth, the heavens and living beings.

39. A Walk Through the Bible 3. God’s argument is that life is too complicated for simple answers. • If you are demanding that God come up with simple answers to these deep an complicated problems, you are asking him to do more than you are able to understand.

40. A Walk Through the Bible 5. The point is that man must take the position of trusting God, not arguing with Him.

41. A Walk Through the Bible ● Job overwhelmed by the might and wisdom and majesty of God, falls on his face, repents, and learns the lesson that God wants him to learn.

42. A Walk Through the Bible • God does not exist for man but man exists for God. 2. There are many questions that simply cannot be answered because our minds are inadequate.

43. A Walk Through the Bible ● At the end of the book Job was restored. His inventory was doubled. 1. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand oxen, and one thousand she-asses.

44. A Walk Through the Bible • He was given seven more sons and three daughters. Why weren’t they doubled? 3. The fact that his family died didn’t mean he had lost them.

45. A Walk Through the Bible 4. He still had his family, and they would be reunited in eternity. ● Job died, an old man, and full of days. (Job 42:17).

46. A Walk Through the Bible ● The great lesson of the book is that there are times when we cannot be told the whole picture. There are times when God does not adequately explain life to us.

47. A Walk Through the Bible ● Life is too complicated for us to handle alone. ● In Romans Paul rejoices, “We know that in everything God works for good with those that love Him, who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

48. A Walk Through the Bible A Walk Thru The Bible Outline of Psalms ● The Book of Psalms is poetry, but is laced with extremely strong theology.

49. A Walk Through the Bible ● The Hebrew term for the Psalms is praises. 1. There are 150 psalms in the book, making it the longest book in the Bible.

50. A Walk Through the Bible 2. Fifty-five of these are addressed to the “Chief Musician”. 3. Psalms is really five books in one. Each division is closed by a doxology.