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Call to worship: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Text: Job 25-28

Sermon Outline:

1. Bildad's brief theological tantrum, 25:1-6
2. Job's two-pronged response:
   • The height of human religious wisdom cannot rise to the occasion of righteous-suffering, 26.1-27.23
   • The wisdom we need for it can only be found in God, 28:1-28.

     How is true wisdom the best tool for fine-tuning our suffering?

     • True wisdom says our suffering is *calculated, 28:24-26
     • True wisdom says our suffering's about *character, 28:28
     • True wisdom says our suffering points to *Christ, cf. Col 2:3
     • True wisdom says our suffering has a purposed *climax, theme of Job cf. Eph 3:9-11

Prepare

Questions to Consider:

1. In 25:1-6, Bildad offers the last words from Job's friends. What's the message? Why is it so brief?
2. In 26:1-14, Job begins to offer a final response to his friends before the book turns towards it's conclusion. How might you summarize Job's argument in 26:1-14? How does it relate to the failure of his friends' wisdom? How does what Job argues give him hope concerning his own case?
3. In 27:1-23, Job states his conviction based off of his argument in chapter 26. What's Job's conviction (27:2-6)? What does the rest of the chapter have to do with anything? To whom does he address it (27:7-12)? Doesn't it sound similar to what Job's friends have argued? Why might Job's take be more nuanced and, therefore, correct (hint: read 27:8 carefully. Is Job talking about *immediate retribution only?)
4. In 28:1-28, Job turns his attention to a main theme of the book: wisdom. Job is wisdom literature. How might a chapter on wisdom relate to the theme of righteous-suffering? What do you notice about wisdom in terms of it's worth? What do you think about the statement that Man doesn't know it's worth, doesn't seek it out, couldn't find it even if he did? Where can it be found? Is wisdom discovered at our initiative or God's (28:21-23)? What's the difference between human wisdom and divine wisdom, earthly and heavenly, Plato and Paul, what man can figure and what God must reveal? Read 1 Cor 1:18-31.
5. If you could have anything in the world, anything to help you in suffering, would true wisdom be that thing? Is it for Job? Should it then be for us? Meditate on this. In what ways might biblical wisdom fine-tune our suffering for us (look at 28:24-28, Col 2:2-6, Eph 3:9-11)?