1. Omaha Presbyterian
School for Pastors
Hastings 2012
Session 2

2. Saving Job

3. School for Pastors
Hear our prayer for the School for
Pastors, O Lord.

4. School for Pastors
We pray that you may grant, in accor-
dance with the riches of your glory, that
we may be strengthened in our inner
being with power through your Spirit.

5. School for Pastors
We pray that you will dwell in our
hearts by faith, as we are established
and grounded in your love.

6. School for Pastors
We pray that we may have the power to
comprehend, with all the saints, the
breadth and length and height and
depth of your love: to know this love
that surpasses knowledge.

7. School for Pastors
We pray that we may be filled with all
your fullness, O God.

8. School for Pastors
By the power at work within us you are
able to accomplish abundantly far more
than we can ask or imagine.

9. School for Pastors
To you be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus to all generations, forever
and ever. Amen.
– from Ephesians 3:16-21

10. Saving Job
Job 1:1
Once there was, in the land of Uz, a
man named Job.

11. Saving Job
Job 1:1
Once upon a time, in the land of Uz,
there was a man named Job.

12. Saving Job
Job 1:1
That man was blameless and upright,
one who feared God and turned away
from evil.

13. Saving Job
“Nobody who believes in the doctrine
of total depravity can be all bad.”

14. Saving Job
The author of Job clearly does not
believe in the doctrine of universal
depravity

15. Saving Job
Job 1:2
There were born to him seven sons and
three daughters.

16. Saving Job
Job 1:3
He had seven thousand sheep, three
thousand camels, five hundred yoke of
oxen, five hundred donkeys,

17. Saving Job
Job 1:3
and very many servants, so that this
man was the greatest of all the people
of the east.

18. Saving Job
Job 1:4
His sons used to go and hold feasts in
one another’s houses in turn; and they
would send and invite their three
sisters to eat and drink with them.

19. Saving Job
Job 1:5
And when the feast days had run their
course, Job would send and sanctify
them,

20. Saving Job
Job 1:5
and he would rise early in the morning
and offer burnt offerings according to
the number of them all;

21. Saving Job
Job 1:5
for Job said, “It may be that my
children have sinned, and cursed God
in their hearts.”

22. Saving Job
Job 1:5
This is what Job always did.

23. Saving Job
How old are Job’s children?

24. Saving Job
How old are Job’s children?
The seven sons all have houses

25. Saving Job
How old are Job’s children?
The seven sons all have houses
The three daughters do not?

26. Saving Job
How old are Job’s children?
If the three daughters are still at home,
they are perhaps 10 -15 years old?

27. Saving Job
How old are Job’s children?
If the seven sons have houses, they are
perhaps 18 - 28 years old?

28. Saving Job
How old are Job’s children?
Job is perhaps a grandfather?

29. Saving Job
How often do Job’s children have
family feasts?

30. Saving Job
How often do Job’s children have
family feasts?
They rotate through 7 houses

31. Saving Job
How often do Job’s children have
family feasts?
They rotate through 7 houses
Once a month?

32. Saving Job
How often do Job’s children have
family feasts?
They rotate through 7 houses
Once a week?

33. Saving Job
How often do Job’s children have
family feasts?
They rotate through 7 houses
Every evening?

34. Saving Job
How often do Job’s children have
family feasts?
They rotate through 7 houses
There is a pattern of 7, which makes
us think of another pattern of 7

35. Saving Job
How is it that Job offered burnt
offerings on behalf of his children?

36. Saving Job
How is it that Job offered burnt
offerings on behalf of his children?
At the end of the cycle of 7

37. Saving Job
How is it that Job offered burnt
offerings on behalf of his children?
On the Sabbath?

38. Saving Job
How is it that Job offered burnt
offerings on behalf of his children?
Wait, can Job do that?

39. Saving Job
How is it that Job offered burnt
offerings on behalf of his children?
Can’t just male descendants of
Aaron offer burnt offerings?

40. Saving Job
How is it that Job offered burnt
offerings on behalf of his children?
What about Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram? (Numbers 16)

41. Saving Job
Who is Job?

42. Saving Job
Who is Isaiah?

43. Saving Job
Who is Isaiah?
Isaiah, son of Amoz

44. Saving Job
Who is David?

45. Saving Job
Who is David?
David, son of Jesse

46. Saving Job
Who is Zephaniah?

47. Saving Job
Who is Zephaniah?
Zephaniah son of Cushi son of
Gedaliah son of Amariah son of
Hezekiah

48. Saving Job
Who is Job?

49. Saving Job
Who is Job?
Is there a single word to tell us that Job
is descended from Aaron, ordained to
make offerings?

50. Saving Job
Who is Job?
Is there a single word to tell us that Job
is descended from Levi?

51. Saving Job
Who is Job?
Is there a single word to tell us that Job
is descended from Abraham?

52. Saving Job
Who is Job’s friend Eliphaz?

53. Saving Job
Who is Job’s friend Eliphaz?
Eliphaz the Temanite

54. Saving Job
Genesis 36:9
These are the descendants of Esau,
ancestor of the Edomites, in the hill
country of Seir.

55. Saving Job
Genesis 36:10
These are the names of Esau’s sons:
Eliphaz, son of Adah the wife of Esau;
Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife
Basemath.

56. Saving Job
Genesis 36:10
These are the names of Esau’s sons:
Eliphaz, son of Adah the wife of Esau;
Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife
Basemath.

57. Saving Job
Genesis 36:11
The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar,
Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz …

58. Saving Job
Genesis 36:11
The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar,
Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz …

59. Saving Job
Thus Teman was the grandson of Esau,
the great-grandson of Isaac, the great-
great-grandson of Abraham.

60. Saving Job
Teman’s father Eliphaz was cousin to
Judah, Levi, Naphtali, Joseph, and the
rest of the sons of Jacob.

61. Saving Job
Teman was second cousin to Ephraim
and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph.

62. Saving Job
So the Temanites would be the
descendants of Teman, and many
generations later a boy born in that
tribe might be named Eliphaz the
Temanite

63. Saving Job
Who is Job’s friend Bildad?

64. Saving Job
Who is Job’s friend Bildad?
Bildad the Shuhite

65. Saving Job
Genesis 23:1
Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven
years; this was the length of Sarah’s
life.

66. Saving Job
Genesis 23:1
Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven
years; this was the length of Sarah’s
life.
Abraham was 10 years older, so 137

67. Saving Job
Genesis 23:2
And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is,
Hebron) in the land of Canaan …

68. Saving Job
Genesis 25:1
Abraham took another wife, whose
name was Keturah.

69. Saving Job
Genesis 25:1
Abraham took another wife, whose
name was Keturah.

70. Saving Job
Genesis 25:2
She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan,
Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

71. Saving Job
The descendants of Midian would be
the Midianites

72. Saving Job
The descendants of Shuah would be
the Shuhites

73. Saving Job
Who is Job’s friend Zophar?

74. Saving Job
Who is Job’s friend Zophar?
Zophar the Naamathite

75. Saving Job
Alas, there seems to be no other
reference to Naamath in the Bible

76. Saving Job
Alas, there seems to be no other
reference to Naamath in the Bible
Scholarly research has discovered one
more-contemporary reference:

77. Saving Job

78. Saving Job
Who is Job’s friend Elihu?

79. Saving Job
Who is Job’s friend Elihu?
Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite

80. Saving Job
Genesis 22:20
Now after these things it was told
Abraham, “Milcah also has borne
children, to your brother Nahor:

81. Saving Job
Genesis 22:21
“Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother,
Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed,
Hazo, Pildash, Kidlaph, and Bethuel.”

82. Saving Job
The descendants of Buz would be
called the Buzites

83. Saving Job
The land where the descendants of Uz
lived might end up being called Uz

84. Saving Job
The land where the descendants of
Midian lived might end up being called
Midian

85. Saving Job
The land where the descendants of
Canaan lived might end up being called
Canaan

86. Saving Job
The land where the descendants of
Israel lived might end up being called
Israel

87. Saving Job
Job lives in a place, Uz, that has the
same name as one of Abraham’s
nephews.

88. Saving Job
Job’s friend Elihu is descended from
someone, Buz, who has the same name
as another of Abraham’s nephews.

89. Saving Job
Job’s friend Bildad is descended from
someone, Shuah, who has the same
name as Abraham’s sixth son by
Keturah.

90. Saving Job
Job’s friend Eliphaz is descended from
someone, Teman, who has the same
name as the grandson of Abraham’s
grandson Esau.

91. Saving Job
The story of Job and friends is about
people who are distantly related to “us”
– they are our cousins, but not in the
direct Abraham - Isaac - Jacob line

92. Saving Job
When would the people of Israel
compose and compile, perform and
treasure a story like Job?

93. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

94. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Where are the stories
from this in-between time?
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

95. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
The midwives Shiphrah & Puah
(Exodus 1)
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

96. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Generations who taught their children
God was faithful
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

97. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Generations who taught their children
God would redeem them
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

98. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Generations who taught their children
God had not forgotten them
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

99. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Generations who taught their children
to believe: despite appearances
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

100. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Generations suffering in painful
bondage, but still believing
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

101. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Generations suffering because
God was silent
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

102. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Generations suffering in fear that
it might be all their fault
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

103. Saving Job
Time of the Patriarchs
ca 1900 – 1800 BC
Generations that needed to hear
a story like Job
Time of the Exodus
ca 1350 BC

104. Saving Job
Job 1:8
The Lord said to the Satan, “Have you
considered my servant Job?

105. Saving Job
Job 1:8
“There is no one like him on the earth,
a blameless and upright man who fears
God and turns away from evil.”

106. Saving Job
Job 1:9
Then the Satan answered the Lord,
“Does Job fear God for nothing?

107. Saving Job
Job 1:10
“Have you not put a fence around him
and his house and all that he has, on
every side?

108. Saving Job
Job 1:10
“You have blessed the work of his
hands, and his possessions have
increased in the land.

109. Saving Job
Job 1:11
“But stretch out your hand now, and
touch all that he has, and he will curse
you to your face.”

110. Saving Job
Job 1:12
The Lord said to the Satan, “Very well,
all that he has is in your power; only do
not stretch out your hand against him.”

111. Saving Job
The book of Job turns on the fact that
God and the Satan have a bet going

112. Saving Job
The book of Job, Theory 1:
A poetical exploration of the Problem of
Evil; the narrative in chapters 1-2 and
42 is a later addition by an editor who
didn’t get the point of the poetry.

113. Saving Job

114. Saving Job
The book of Job, Theory 2:
A narrative exploration of the Problem
of God and Humanity;

115. Saving Job
The book of Job, Theory 2:
(most of) the poetry in chapters 3-41 is
a rhetorical device, pointing in the
wrong direction to build suspense

116. Saving Job
Job 3:23
Why is light given to one who cannot
see the way, whom God has fenced in?

117. Saving Job
Job 4:8-9
Those who plow iniquity and sow
trouble reap the same. By the breath of
God they perish.

118. Saving Job
Job 12:1-2
Then Job answered, “No doubt you are
the people, and wisdom will die with
you.”

119. Saving Job
Job 5-37
Et cetera, et cetera …

120. Saving Job
Job 30:18
With violence God seizes my garment;
he grasps me by the collar of my tunic.

121. Saving Job
Job 30:19
He has cast me into the mire, and I
have become like dust and ashes.

122. Saving Job
Job 30:20
I cry to you and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you merely look at me.

123. Saving Job
Job 30:21
You have turned cruel to me; with the
might of your hand you persecute me.

124. Saving Job
The children of Israel, suffering in
slavery in Egypt, could say that:

125. Saving Job
The children of Israel, suffering in
slavery in Egypt, could say that:
You have turned cruel to me; with the
might of your hand you persecute me.

126. Saving Job
The children of Israel, suffering in
slavery in Egypt, could say that:
I cry to you and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you merely look at me.

127. Saving Job
The children of Israel, suffering in
slavery in Egypt, could say that:
He has cast me into the mire, and I
have become like dust and ashes.

128. Saving Job
The children of Israel would identify
with Job’s feeling of being cast off: I’m
nothing more than dust and ashes,
blown away by God

129. Saving Job
What if the book of Job ended here?

130. Saving Job
Job 38:1
Then the Lord answered Job out of the
whirlwind:

131. Saving Job
Job 38:2
“Who is this that darkens counsel by
words without knowledge?

132. Saving Job
Job 38:3
“Gird up your loins like a man, I will
question you, and you shall declare to
me.

133. Saving Job
Job 38:4
“Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth …

134. Saving Job
Job 38:5 – 39:30

135. Saving Job
Job 38:5 – 39:30
The natural order is way cool.

136. Saving Job
Job 38:5 – 39:30
The natural order is way cool.
Look at the constellations!

137. Saving Job
Job 38:5 – 39:30
The natural order is way cool.
Look at the constellations!
How ’bout them mountain goats?

138. Saving Job
Job 38:5 – 39:30
The natural order is way cool.
Look at the constellations!
How ’bout them mountain goats?
Ostriches, horses, and hawks, oh my!

139. Saving Job
Job 40:1
And the Lord said to Job:

140. Saving Job
Job 40:2
“Shall a faultfinder contend with the
Almighty? Anyone who argues with
God must respond.”

141. Saving Job
Job 40:3
Then Job answered the Lord:

142. Saving Job
Job 40:4
“Oops.”

143. Saving Job
Job 40:4
“See, I am of small account; what shall
I answer you? I lay my hand upon my
mouth.

144. Saving Job
Job 40:5
“I have spoken once, and I will not
answer; twice, but will proceed no
further.”

145. Saving Job
Job 40:5
“I have spoken once, and I will not
answer; twice, but will proceed no
further.”
What if the book of Job ended here?

146. Saving Job
Job 40:6
Then the Lord answered Job out of the
whirlwind:

147. Saving Job
Job 40:7
“Gird up your loins like a man; I will
question you, and you will declare to
me.

148. Saving Job
Job: I won’t speak up again

149. Saving Job
Job: I won’t speak up again
God: Oh yes you will

150. Saving Job
Job 40:7
“Gird up your loins like a man; I will
question you, and you will declare to
me.

151. Saving Job
Part of the essence of humanity is to do
question-and-answer with God

152. Saving Job
Job’s intention to keep silent before
God gets firmly rebuked:
“Gird up your loins like a man; I will
question you, and you will declare to
me.

153. Saving Job
Job 40:8
“Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be
justified?

154. Saving Job
Job 40:9
“Have you an arm like God, and can
you thunder with a voice like his?

155. Saving Job
Job 40:10
“Deck yourself with majesty and
dignity; clothe yourself with glory and
splendor.

156. Saving Job
Job 40:11
“Pour out the overflowings of your
anger, and look on all who are proud,
and abase them.

157. Saving Job
Job 40:12
“Look on all who are proud, and bring
them low; tread down the wicked where
they stand.

158. Saving Job
Job 40:13
“Hide them all in the dust together;
bind their faces in the world below.

159. Saving Job
Job 40:14
“Then I will also acknowledge to you
that your own right hand can give you
victory.

160. Saving Job
You think if you were God, you could
solve all the world’s problems

161. Saving Job
You think if you were God, you could
just apply your omnipotence and do it

162. Saving Job
Well, why don’t you just try to apply
your omnipotence and do it

163. Saving Job
Oh, that’s right, you don’t actually have
the omnipotence to do it

164. Saving Job
And actually, omnipotence isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be

165. Saving Job
Being omnipotent doesn’t mean you
can do just anything, you know

166. Saving Job
If the idea is to create the Pleiades or
snow or oceans, that’s easy enough

167. Saving Job
If the idea is to cast down the wicked
and destroy them, that’s easy enough

168. Saving Job
But there are some problems that no
amount of power can solve

169. Saving Job
If the book of Job is about the Problem
of Evil, omnipotence could destroy evil

170. Saving Job
The cost is high: to destroy all evil
would be to destroy all humanity

171. Saving Job
If the book of Job is about the Problem
of God and Humanity, omnipotence
won’t solve that problem

172. Saving Job
If the book of Job is about the Problem
of God and Humanity, that problem
won’t be “solved”

173. Saving Job
If the book of Job is about the Problem
of God and Humanity, it’s a relationship
that involves asking and answering
questions

174. Saving Job
Job 42:1
Then Job answered the Lord:

175. Saving Job
Job 42:2
“I know that you can do all things, and
that no purpose of yours can be
thwarted.

176. Saving Job
Job 42:3
“[You asked,] ‘Who is this that hides
counsel without knowledge?’

177. Saving Job
Job 42:3
“Indeed, I have uttered what I did not
understand, things too wonderful for
me, which I did not know.

178. Saving Job
Job 42:4
“[You said,] ‘Hear, and I will speak; I
will question you, and you declare to
me.’

179. Saving Job
Job 42:5
“I had heard of you by the hearing of
the ear, but now my eye sees you;

180. Saving Job
Job 42:6
“therefore I despise myself and repent
in dust and ashes.”

181. Saving Job
What does it mean, if Job now despises
himself and repents in dust and ashes?

182. Saving Job
Job 42:6
“therefore I retract; I repent dust and
ashes.”

183. Saving Job
Job 42:6
“therefore I retract; I repent [in] dust
and ashes.”

184. Saving Job
Job 42:6
“therefore I retract; I repent [of] dust
and ashes.”

185. Saving Job
Job 42:6
“therefore I take back what I said
before; I change my mind about ‘dust
and ashes.’ ”

186. Saving Job
Job 30:19
The relationship between God and a
human like me is this: I am nothing but
dust and ashes, blown away by God

187. Saving Job
Job 42:6
I retract my previous analysis; I’ve
changed my mind about ‘humans are
nothing more than dust and ashes’

188. Saving Job
One of the stories we remember from
the heritage of Israel:
To be human isn’t simply to be silent in
the face of God’s inscrutable power.
Job 40:4-5

189. Saving Job
One of the stories we remember from
the heritage of Israel:
To be human is to be called into
conversation with God.
Job 40:7

190. Saving Job
One of the stories we remember from
the heritage of Israel:
No matter how much distress the Satan
might create, God is betting on Job.
Job 1:8-12

191. Saving Job
One of the stories we remember from
the heritage of Israel:
In the end God will restore all things.
Job 42:10-17

192. Saving Job
One of the stories we remember from
the heritage of Israel:
Job’s prayers will save Eliphaz, Bildad,
and Zophar, even though they had
misunderstood the ways of God.
Job 42:7-9

193. Saving Job
One of the stories we remember from
the heritage of Israel:
We are not just dust and ashes.
Job 42:6

194. Saving Job
Deep in their time of bondage in Egypt,
this is a message that would have
resonated with the people of Israel

195. Saving Job
God is betting that we will be faithful,
despite all the trials and suffering we
experience

196. Saving Job
We are invited to be deep in question-
and-answer with God: to be fully
human is to interact with God about our
hardest situations

197. Saving Job
And someday – someday! – we will see
that all things will be restored.

198. Saving Job
And in the meantime, perhaps our
prayers will save those who have never
quite understood.

199. Saving Job
What do we learn, about God and about
ourselves, from hearing the story of
God betting on Job?

200. Saving Job
What do we learn, about God and about
ourselves, from the story of Job
learning he isn’t just dust and ashes,
he’s God’s conversation partner?