2025_02_16 Sermon Notes & Discussion Questions
February 16, 2025

Tears & Triumph (Part 2): The Voice from the Whirlwind

Job and His Friends

  1. Job cries out in agony.
  2. Eliphaz speaks gently, iterating the levers.
  3. Job responds by pleading for loyalty and rejecting his advice.
  4. Bildad is more direct and emphatic.
  5. Job responds with desperation and depression.
  6. Zophar speaks with more agitation than his friends. He also offers his recipe for success.
  7. Job responds - “I know! Be quiet!” He calls them “miserable comforters.”
  8. Job lays out his the case for integrity and innocence before the Lord.
  9. Elihu, the youngest, responds with partly good theology, but mostly with pride.


God Shows Up

God speaks through a whirlwind with immense power telling Job to brace himself.
1. God’s first message is to take Job on a tour of creation and reminds Job of his place.
2. God’s second message is pretty simple - Who do you think you are?
3. God’s third message is to be angry with Job’s friends, but pleased with Job.

Job receives more blessings than before, but not without scars, for he still lost his children.


Insights

  1. Faith is not a transaction where good behavior guarantees blessings and suffering means punishment.
  2. God welcomes our honest struggles, and we don’t have to pretend to be okay.
  3. Simplistic answers and bad theology can wound rather than heal.
  4. Humility before God means trusting Him even when we don’t understand.
  5. God’s justice and sovereignty are bigger than we can comprehend.


The Gospel:

Jesus is the True Mediator Job longed for. (1 Timothy 2:5, 1 John 2:1)




Small Group Discussion Questions

Opening Reflection Questions:

  • When have you seen the “lever system” at work in your own thinking or in the church (the idea that if we do good, God will bless us, and if we suffer, it must be punishment)? Why do you think we cling to this idea?

  • Job worshiped after losing everything (Job 1:20-22). What does this teach us about faith in suffering? How can we apply this in seasons when worship feels difficult?


Wrestling with God & Suffering:

  • Job’s friends insisted that suffering must be the result of sin. Why do you think it’s so tempting to explain suffering this way? How can we resist offering simplistic answers to complex struggles?

  • In Job 6:14, Job pleads for loyalty from his friends, even if he were to abandon his faith. What does this teach us about friendship and how we should support people who are struggling with doubt or despair?

  • Job accuses God of treating him unfairly and demands answers (Job 10:8-22). How do you think God views honest complaints and accusations like this? Is it okay to wrestle with God in our suffering? Why or why not?

  • Job’s friends start off well by sitting with him in silence but later give terrible advice. How do you think we can be better friends to those who are suffering? What are some things people tend to say that, though well-intended, are unhelpful?

  • Job cries out in despair, even wishing he was never born (Job 3:1-7). How does it challenge our understanding of faith to see this kind of lament in the Bible? Do we leave room for this kind of honesty in our relationship with God?


God’s Response in the Whirlwind:

  • When God finally speaks to Job, He does not give explanations but instead asks Job a series of questions about creation (Job 38:1-13). Why do you think God responded this way? What does this teach us about God’s wisdom versus our limited perspective?

  • God reminds Job of His vast power and control over the universe. How does this shift Job’s attitude? How can this perspective help us trust God when we face suffering and uncertainty?


The Gospel & Jesus as the True Mediator:

  • Job longed for someone to stand between him and God. How does Jesus, as our Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5-6), resolve the tension of suffering and bring us closer to God?