Jensens survey of the old testament adam 156

opens with the problem and concludes with
the solution.
1. The Problem of Pain: Why do the
righteous suffer, and the wicked
prosper?
2. The Wrong Answer of Job’s Three
Friends: Suffering is God’s judgment for
sin.
3. The enlightened answer of Elihu:
Suffering is God’s way to teach,
discipline, and refine.
4. God’s perfect answer: Suffering is a test of
trusting God for who He is, not for what
He does.
C. GENUINE TRUST

The book of Job teaches that the person
with genuine trust worships God basically
f o r who He is. That person may have
unanswered questions as to why God does


what He does, but he still worships God
wholeheartedly for who He is. Job the
combatant became Job the worshiper when
he heard God reveal Himself to His smitten
child (38:1 .). E. Heavenor writes: “The
Word came through a fresh vision of God….
That Word brought a transformation which
the word of man had been totally unable to
achieve…. The Word convinced Job that he

could trust such a God.”19
V. KEY WORDS AND VERSES
Some of the main key words of Job are:
sorrow, curse, cry, wicked, sin, Satan, how,
why, perfect, righteous, just, and wisdom.
Read 23:10 as a key verse of the book.
Choose others from the Bible text.
VI. APPLICATIONS
1. What do you think are God’s purposes


in permitting Satan to exercise certain
powers, limited though these powers may
be?
2. If Satan is the Christian’s active
archenemy, what help does the child of God
have in such a daily warfare? Does the book
of Job give any answers? Read what the
New Testament teaches in Luke 22:31-32
and 1 Peter 5:6-11.
3. Does all su ering of believers originate
the way Job’s did? What answers to this
question do the following passages give:
Psalm 66:10; John 9:1-3; Philippians 3:8;
Hebrews 2:18; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:21; 3:18; 4:1214; 5:10?
4. How is a believer’s su ering related to
Christ’s su ering, according to these verses:
2 Corinthians 1:5-7; Philippians 3:10-11; 1
Peter 2:21-23; 4:13; 5:1?
5. How would you answer the following

challenge of an unbeliever concerning the
problem of pain:
If God were good, He would wish to
make His creatures perfectly happy,
and if God were almighty He would be
able to do what He wished. But the
creatures are not happy. Therefore God
lacks either goodness, or power, or
both.20

6. What is the connection, if any, between
physical sickness and sin?
7. Some of Job’s words reveal the depths
of despondency to which a child of God may
sometimes fall. What preventives from this
mood of despair does the Christian have
today? What antidotes for despair does the
believer have?
8. “Neither is there any daysman [umpire,
arbiter, mediator] betwixt us, that might lay