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Lead: So Eliphaz didn’t accuse Job directly, but today Bildad gets a little closer to that. And as for this back-and-forth dialogue, are you catching what’s going on here? And what do all these speeches teach us about apologetics?
Intro: If we take a step back and look at the book of Job, and if you happened to watch the video from The Bible Project (see down below if you haven’t), you’ll remember that Job opens and closes with sections that bookend the narrative in between. That narrative in between is a dialogue between Job and his friends that’s all written in poetry, and then God wrapping up with a bit of gettin’ in their business. All those speeches between Job and his friends occurs in three chunks — your Bible probably calls them cycles…and today we’re going to ask how these relate to apologetics today.
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Bible segment:
Passage: Job 8-11
Translation: HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Words: ~1629
Apologetics segment:
As The Bible Project video explains, the speeches or dialogue of Job and his friends revolve around three big questions — and I’d argue these are still some of the most important questions you have to answer today as an ambassador or Christian casemaker:
Is God truly just in character?
Does God run the universe on the strict principle of justice?
And if so, then how is Job's suffering to be explained?
There are three cycles of speeches. Each cycle is composed of three speeches, one by each of Job’s three friends, followed by Job’s response—except that in the third cycle, the third friend, Zophar, does not speak, even though Job gives him an opportunity to do so. The speeches do not touch like rectangles set side by side; they are more like circles, some concentric, some partially overlapping, some disjointed. From time to time the disputants seize upon each other’s arguments and turn them on the anvil of their own theological platform to give them a different meaning. After Job has lamented his pitiable state of suffering, the three cycles arrange the speakers in an orderly fashion from the oldest to the youngest. Elihu comes after Job’s closing words because Elihu is the youngest.
The speeches are written in poetic form, while the prologue (chs. 1–2) and the epilogue (42:7–17) are composed in prose—prose being more amenable to the biographical details than poetry. The role of Satan in the prologue is that of a catalyst, but he does not initiate the conversation with the Lord, nor does he mention Job’s name until the Lord himself introduces it. Then it becomes quite obvious that Satan knew Job’s situation quite well.
The friends’ understanding of God and the world changes little amid a variety of topics they introduce and reintroduce, while Job remains steadfast on some issues and advances in understanding on others. On the one hand, Job remains steadfast throughout the dialogue that he is innocent (6:28–30; 9:15; 16:17; 23:12; 27:5–6), that God is acting like his enemy (6:4; 16:11–14; 19:6–12; 23:15–16; 27:2), and that God continues to elude him (9:16, 33; 23:3; 31:35). On the other hand, Job’s understanding of why tragedy has struck him broadside moves from complete lack of understanding to the recognition, at least momentarily, that he is suffering because God is trying to expose his true character (23:10). One of the most significant advances in Job’s understanding is his belief in the afterlife. At first he is skeptical (14:7–17), but with time he comes to embrace the doctrine (19:25–27). The notion of a mediator is coupled with that belief. Job at first is skeptical (as he is regarding the afterlife), even entirely negative, about a mediator who can arbitrate between him and God (9:33), but as his confidence in the afterlife advances, so do his beliefs that there is a witness in heaven who will vouch for him (16:19) and that his hope—that he will face his redeemer—will become a reality (19:25–27). Finally, Job’s beliefs in his innocence and God’s justice come together when Job asserts that if he could find God the judge, God would acquit him (23:7).
~ DA Carson, Ed.
Wisdom segment:
Passage: Psalm 137
Translation: HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Words: ~148
The bottom line:
Watch The Bible Project’s video on Job (below) if you haven’t already.
Love you!
-R
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources
(1) D. A. Carson, ed., NIV Zondervan Study Bible: Built on the Truth of Scripture and Centered on the Gospel Message (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015), 902–903.