Job: A Book of Wisdom

*Scroll down to the bottom for the Family-Friendly version*

Sermon Follow Up

Summary

Our first message in Job introduced the book as God’s Wisdom 201 course. Job is an example of the faithful and wise son that the book of Proverbs aims to produce. But Job’s mastery of proverbial wisdom didn’t mean that there was nothing else to learn. It meant that God enrolled him in the 200 level course, where he would discover both the limits of his own wisdom and the depths of God’s.

Structure

Job is often read as a book about suffering or theodicy (a branch of Christian apologetics that focuses on vindicating God in the face of evil and suffering), but I think it is more accurately read as a book about wisdom. I’m convinced that even the structure of the book points us in this direction as it appears to be arranged as a chiasm that draws the reader’s attention toward the central point.

A chiasm is a literary structure that draws the reader’s attention to the author’s central point by placing that point at the center of the work. It moves from a starting point inward to the main point, then back outward to where it began. Below is a diagram of the book of Job that displays its chiastic structure.

A — Prologue (Job 1–2)

 B — Job’s opening speech: lamentation (Job 3)

  C — Three cycles of dialogue between Job and his friends (Job 4–27)

   D — CENTER: Poem on the search for wisdom (Job 28)

  C′ — Three monologues: Job, Elihu, and God (Job 29–41)

 B′ — Job’s closing speech (Job 42:1–6)

A′ — Epilogue (Job 42:7–17)

Discussion/Reflection Material

-How had you approached the book of Job prior to this week’s sermon?

-How does the Wisdom 101/201 framing strike you? Were you able to hear the Wisdom 101 of the Proverbs echoed in the examples that the sermon gave?

-If Proverbs is Wisdom 101 and Job is Wisdom 201—which book would you suspect is Wisdom 301? Why?

-How are you doing with Wisdom 101? Does your life reflect proverbial wisdom or do you have patterns of living that, if you’re honest, you know are unwise, but you’ve been unwilling to change?

-Can you think of a time when you were faithfully applying biblical wisdom but your circumstances still didn’t make sense? What did faithfulness require of you when wisdom didn’t provide an explanation?

Family-Friendly Version

Big Idea: God wants us to grow in wisdom by learning to live His way.

Talk about it (script): On Sunday we learned that the book of Job is about wisdom. What is the difference between being smart and being wise?

Allow your family to respond.

Those are good answers. How about this: “Smart” refers to what you know. “Wise” refers to how you live. There are plenty of people who know the right thing to do (smart), but aren’t wise enough to do it. Have you ever been smart, but not wise?

Allow for responses, then share one of your own examples. If there is a recent example from family life, shepherd the family into confession and repentance. If not, ask: What should we do when we realize that despite being smart, we’ve been unwise by refusing to do what we knew we should do?

Close in prayer, asking the Lord’s help to grow in wisdom by simple obedience this week.