Grasping and Heeding God's Message to You in the Book of Job

An Overview of the Book of Job

One of our church members asked advice at our evening gathering about reading the book of Job.

Picture taken from cover of a John Piper book, Job, now out of print.

My advice would be to read it in as few sittings as possible. There's an introduction (chapters 1-2), 3 rounds of conversation which you can read in 1 or 3 settings (3-31), Elihu's response (32-37), God's response (38-42), then the conclusion (42).

So read it in one sitting, three sittings, or in 6 sittings.

Here's an overview of Job I preached in one sermon at BBC.

Main goal: When overwhelmed by disorder trust God's wisdom beyond your current understanding so that you endure for the reward.

Trust God when overwhelmed by . . . 

1. by blessing God (1-2)

2. by lamenting to God (3)

3. by knowing that you don't know (4-31)

4. by holding/running to integrity (4-31)

5. by listening to godly counsel (32-37)

6. by humbling yourself before God's greatness and plan (38-42)

You can listen to the sermon here.

I pray this helps those who consider these words and meditates on God’s words to us in the book of Job.