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Call to worship: Psalm 23

Text: Job 9-10

Sermon Outline:

1. The darkened case Job makes.
   • The impossibility of contending with God the Creator.
   • The perplexity of contending with God, Job's Creator.
   • The cataracts of suffering vocalized.
   • The desire for 'execution.'
2. The alighting Arbiter Job needs.
   • Jesus alights God's true character.
   • Jesus alights God's Gospel graces.
   • Jesus alights God's justice at last.
   • Jesus alights God's world upon death.
   • Jesus alights God's redemptive suffering.
   • Jesus alights God's ear to hear us.

Note that the video cuts off the initial reading of the sermon text. You'll have to read it on your own! But, this seemed better than the copy of the video that had audio/video out of sync by a couple seconds... GEM

Prepare

Questions to Consider:

1. In 9:2, Job sets forth the main assertion in these chapters by way of a question. In what ways, do you think, does Job agree with Bildad? In what does Job most definitely disagree? Is this question a prelude to the Gospel doctrine of justification more completely put forth in the New Testament? Why or why not? In the context of the book so far, how would you amplify this question for a better sense of it?
2. In 9:3-21, Job gives some immediate rationale to explain why his question in 9:2 must be answered 'he can't.' What's his rationale? In 9:11-18 (more specifically) and 10:1-13, he offers some more thought in explanation of his presumed answer in 9:2. What's different in these passages from that of 9:3-21 more broadly? (Hint: think personal relationship). How might this addition of Job's perplexity as to how God is relating to him (presumably contrary to covenant love and mercy) further Job's hopelessness in securing a successful vindication at God's bar?
3. In 9:22-24 and 10:14-17, Job's rashness goes overboard into wrongness in a way that more directly impugns God's character. What are some of the wrong things Job says? Does he really believe those things? Why or why not? If not, why is saying them?
4. In 10:18-22, a spent and hopeless Job asks God to forsake him and let him die. It's like a request for a merciful execution of sorts. How does Job describe death? What's right about it? What needs more light? Or what does he fail to see?
5. In 9:25-35 and 9:33 in particular, Job's suffering begins to reveal in his mind the need for a personal Arbiter or Mediator. It's a great mystery that his suffering will only intensify and clarify in the coming chapters. We know Him as Jesus Christ (1 Tim 2:5). What does Job specify as qualifying for this Arbiter? What are some of the ways that He would prove helpful for Job in this set of verses? What about in these two chapters as a whole? Have we done an adequate job of knowing and applying what it means for Jesus to be our Mediator with God and His with us? Is it just that He intercedes for us? Are there more ways than one in which Jesus intercedes for us? What else might His mediation entail? How might it bring light into the darkness of our suffering?