Job 1:1–2:10 — Group Study

A note before you begin: Job is one of the harder books of the Bible to study, because it doesn't work the way other books do. Every part of it has to be read in light of the whole, and especially in light of how it ends. That matters a great deal in these first two chapters: there are conclusions we could draw here about what God is like that the rest of the book goes on to critique. So in a few places below you'll find extra explanation, and in other places the question is less "what is this passage teaching?" and more "what is this passage pushing us to ask?"

1. Read Job 1:1–5.

How would you summarize the picture of Job given to us here?

(Note: the numbers here aren't meant to be exact, but to indicate completeness. Job's blessing and wealth are meant to be seen as total — he has everything you could imagine.)

2. Read Job 1:6–19 and 2:1–8.

• How would you describe what happens to Job?
• Why do you think the story is told to us this way — letting us see something Job himself never sees?
• Even knowing what we've been shown, are we any closer to being able to justify Job's suffering? Does what we've seen actually work as an explanation?

(Note: this is a place where we should be careful not to conclude that this scene is teaching us how God actually operates. The book as a whole teaches that we can never explain how God works or why he does what he does. Any conclusion we draw here about the mechanics of God's dealings is heavily critiqued later.)

3. Read Job 1:9, then 1:20–22 and 2:9–10.

In 1:9 the accusation is that Job only fears God because of what he gets out of it. Everything that follows is a test of that claim.

• Job responds twice, in 1:20–22 and 2:10. What does he do, and what does he say? Why does the narrator tell us both times that Job did not sin?
• In 2:9 Job's wife offers a very different response to the same suffering. What is she urging him to do, and why might it make sense to her?
• Why is it significant that Job calls God by his covenant name, the LORD, in 1:21?
• How does this highlight that Job may not understand the "why" of his suffering, but he does know the "who" he should turn to in it?



4. What is it about our God that makes him trustworthy even in the midst of unexplainable suffering? How does the gospel of Jesus Christ help us know that even when we do not understand, we can still praise the name of the Lord?

(Note: as the rest of the book shows, Job's trust in 1:21 does not mean he isn't still confused and angry — and there are ways that God will go on to vindicate that confusion and anger. So we should be careful not to think that trusting and praising God in the midst of our suffering erases all of our questions and pain.)

5. What are you wrestling with as we conclude this introduction? This can be really hard, and we want to support one another deeply. How can we pray for one another? How can we encourage one another to know the Lord, and remember that He can be trusted?