ESSENTIALS Promoting Christ-centred Biblical Ministry	Index of Articles
	Preaching & Teaching from Job reprinted from the September 2003 edition of Essentials

	Whenever I hear a good sermon on Job, I am struck by how contemporary are the issues it raises. The problem is, however, that I don't hear many good sermons on Job! I think that this is an opportunity lost, so I would like to reflect on some principles that might help us in preaching on Job, and some practical suggestions on how to develop a series on Job.	Lindsay Wilson is Vice-principal of Ridley College, Melbourne and lectures in Old Testament with a particular interest in Wisdom Literature
	Some guiding principles
	Three presuppositions should guide our preparation. Firstly, Job must be read as part of the wisdom strand in the OT. This means that it must be read against the backdrop of the mainstream wisdom book of Proverbs, based on a doctrine of creation, concerned with issues of everyday life and faith, and presuming an orderly world in which the righteous prosper and the wicked are punished. Job is seemingly written in response to those who have misunderstood the partial perspectives of Proverbs, and turned them into rigid, calcified rules and promises. Job sits alongside Ecclesiastes as protest wisdom, asking hard questions about whether life can be mapped out so simply.
	Secondly, Job must be read as part of the OT as a whole. While the wisdom stream is generally not concerned with OT staples like covenant, law, Israel, temple, sacrifices, exile and land, the God of Job is the same as God of the rest of the OT, and the book is primarily addressed to Israelites. It must not be interpreted in a way that contradicts the rest of the OT, but nor must its distinctives be trimmed down simply to make the preacher's life easier.
	Thirdly, Job must be interpreted and preached in the light of the coming of Christ. This does not mean that Job must be seen as a type of Christ, or that the final message of the book is found in Job's search for a redeemer, or his glimpses of resurrection. Only a study of the text of Job will determine whether these are central or not. Rather, it is that the issues the book raises, and the answers it gives must be reframed by the clearer understanding of God's purposes in the coming, example and teaching of Christ. In addition, what Christ has accomplished in his life, death, resurreciton, and promised return transforms some of the issues that plague Job in his struggle of faith.
	Some practical issues
	One problem in preaching on Job is that so much of it sounds the same. The dialogue (chapters 3-31) seems to go nowhere, with many of the same ideas surfacing again and again. It is hard to say, "This is my 17th sermon on the speeches of the friends" and expect a high level of congregational interest. There is a need for variety in preaching and for the essential point (the 'sermonic sentence') to change from sermon to sermon. We want to avoid people being able to skip the next 5 Sundays and not miss anything.
	A useful way forward in Job is to identify distinct and discrete themes around which to fashion a sermon series. I will give some examples below, but I think it is possible to develop a series from 3-10 weeks on Job, without repeating the same things. It is obviously vital to know your group, and choose your themes and arrange your application accordingly.
	You will almost certainly be using larger sections of text in preaching on Job. Rarely in Job do we find a key truth neatly packaged in five verses. As a preaching unit, you might look at the prologue, the epilogue, the Elihu speeches or Yahweh speeches and so on. This means that you are effectively preaching on a few chapters at a time. Of course, it does not follow that all of the text has to be read out in the context of a church service. Sometimes it is enough to read the first part of the story, or the end of the section, or a string of passages through the sermon. As the preacher your task will be to guide the congregation through a section, and fill in the gaps.
	This reinforces my view of the value of integrating small group Bible study material for the parish with your sermon series. If mid-week Bible study groups are covering some of the details of the passages, you skip through larger chunks on Sunday, knowing that the rest can be picked up in another context. It again reminds us of the value of doing a series on one book rather than a group of 'one-off' sermons.
	It is also vital to read any section of Job as part of the book as a whole. Indeed, Donald Gowan has written that "it may be questioned whether one can legitimately preach from any part of [the book of Job] without taking the entire book as one's text." You need to be clear in your mind about how the book hangs together, and you need to communicate the flow and movement of the book to your hearers.
	Finally, in your sermon series as a whole, you need to focus away from the details of the dialogues, to the various answers and perspectives of the book. Many issues are explored in the dialogue, but they are often picked up in the chapters which follow. In particular, some ways forward (of various merit) are proposed in chapters 28, 29-31, 32-37, 38-41 and 42. Furthermore, it is often better to deal with the friends' speeches before you preach on Job's speeches (see Atkinson's Bible Speaks Today commentary). This makes it clear that Job's friends do not satisfactorily answer Job, and also highlights that Job, unlike his friends, speaks not only to the friends but also moves on to address God.
	Some series outlines
	I mentioned above the value of picking up the different themes of the book to give variety. Here are some that I explore from Job:
	Is disinterested faith (faith with no strings attached) possible?—Job 1-2
	How not to care for those who are suffering (Lord, deliver me from my friends!)
	Truth misapplied—the advice of Job's friends
	What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be faithful?
	Is life worth living? What lies beyond death?
	The experience of Job—being God's enemy; lessons learnt in suffering
	Living with unanswered prayer/feeling cut off from God
	What is wisdom? Is the fear of the Lord enough? (Job 28)
	A righteous life (Job 31)
	How does God run his world? Is there justice in the world?
	God and creation—Job 38-41 (let God be God)
	Is Job a person of faith (Job 42)?
	I've recently been given the transcript of a series of 5 Lenten sermons by Norman Habel, who has written a major commentary on Job. Habel weaves into the book of Job a developing story of a lady who has been sexually abused as a child, and whose son is burnt alive, and who is dropped by her friends. He sets it out, with parallel NT passages, as follows:
	Senseless suffering — Why, God, Why? (Job 1 & Matt 27:45-50)
	Suffering of the soul — What did I do? (Job 3 & Lk 22:39-46)
	Suffering — the Second Wound (Job 4-6 & Lk 22:54-62)
	Suffering Injustice — a no-win case? (Job 9 & Lk 23:1-16)
	The Pain of Healing (Job 31 and 42 & Lk 22:14-22)
	Bob Fyall, in his book How Does God Treat His Friends? (which is based on a series of talks at the Christian Union at Durham) covers the book in this way:
	Is God the author of evil? (Job 1, 2)
	Where is God when it hurts? (Job 3)
	When counselling does not help (Job 4-11)
	If it is not he, then who is it? (Job 9)
	Where can wisdom be found? (Job 28)
	Trying to tie him down (Job 32-37)
	The grandeur of God (Job 38, 39)
	The enemy unmasked (Job 40-41)
	The vision glorious (Job 42)
	A couple of years ago Peter Adam developed a series at St. Jude's Carlton:
	Job on Trial (Job 1, 2)
	Job's Endurance (Job 2 & 3)
	Job's Friends (Job 4, 8:1-19; 11, 32, 33)
	Job's Autumn Years (Job 1:1-5; 29)
	The Lord Speaks (Job 40, 41)
	My Servant Job (Job 42)
	Jesus Answers Job (Job 1:1-5; 19:23-29; 42:7-17)
	It is clear from all these series that it is possible to put together a really interesting series of many weeks on the book of Job. There is room for creativity, but in each case there is a desire to draw out the distinct threads of the book, while giving the shape of the book as a whole.

	Home	Index of Articles