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Life’s Questions – Week 9 Study Guide

PART 1. WHAT IS THE BIBLE ABOUT AND WHY I SHOULD TRUST IT?
8. The Wisdom Books

Opener: Terry said that, “everyone [non-believers as well as believers] has a set of mental wall pegs or hooks, like you would hang clothing on, but these are pegs for hanging life experiences on. The mental pegs are a collection of ideas about how we think the world really works. What is good and bad. What is true and false. What is real and not real. What is the good life and how do you get there?”

Question: Have you ever thought about your expectations/assumptions about life as pegs or hooks before? Is it helpful to think about them as pegs or hooks and if so why?

Take a moment and see if you can identify some of the pegs/hooks that you have in your own life.

  • How do you think they would hold up when life doesn’t go quite as planned?
  • Have your ever experienced a “peg” falling off or loosening from the wall of your own life?
    How did that feel?
  • What happens when what you thought was true of life is not matching your experience of life. What then?

Now think back to our goal—why we are talking about all of this? The goal is confidence! Confidence in the Scriptures, in God’s Word, in the firm pegs/hooks they provide for what is true about life.

Read Paul’s description of dealing with life’s experiences from a fully Christian perspective and see if you can identify the hook. “7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” 2 Cor. 4:7-12

Question: What can we learn from Paul?

Answer: We are clay pots, not steel pots. The fact that we are not crushed (or in despair or abandoned or destroyed) is not due to our own strength, but to the reality of God. The goal is not to look strong and powerful or even to be strong and powerful. It is to more fully trust God in all the situations and experiences of our lives.

Transition: We have reason for confidence because God has given us a book [the BIBLE] that communicates to us in ways that address our full humanity. The Scriptures give us solid hooks to hang all of life’s experiences on if we will choose to fully trust God.

Summary Statement: Today we look at the books of the OT that deal with worship and wisdom, referred to as the poetic books. These books consist of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job and Song of Solomon. Taken together, these books tell us what kind of world we live in (God’s world) and how we are to live in that world (with wisdom in our choices) and what to do with the many things we will not and cannot understand (accept with humility and ultimately trust in God). The sermon’s focus was on two books: Proverbs and Job.

Passage: Proverbs 1:7 “7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

Proverbs 3:5-10 “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. 9 Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”

Job 1 “1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil… 8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil 9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Job 40:6-8 “6 Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm: 7 “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 8 “Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?”

Job 42:1-5   “1 Then Job replied to the LORD: 2 “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. 3 [You asked,] ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. 4 [“You said,] ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ 5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Proverbs theme: God has placed an order in creation to which we should pay attention in order to live wisely. The book is a collection of the observations of a wise person who has looked broadly at a number of situations and offered advice on how to align life with God’s design. The observations are short, catchy statements that use the fewest words possible to communicate truth about the way life generally works.Read Proverbs 1:7 This verse is the theme for Proverbs. What is foundational in the verse? (You could have you group read the entire chapter and ask the same question.) What comes to mind when we hear the words, “fear of the Lord?”

Answer: The fear of the Lord is a healthy respect for God’s definition of good and evil. It is respect for God’s authority in the universe and in our lives. So, fear (awesome respect) for God’s will and ways is letting God define the good life, it is the beginning of wisdom.

Question: Read Proverbs 3:5-10. What does the passage tell us about life?

Answer: This is how life generally works: cause and effect. Wisdom. Living life God’s ways works really well. Folly doesn’t.

Question: Does it say that if you do things just right, everything will go perfectly for you? If things are not perfect, is it your fault?

Job can give us a fuller picture. Have your group read Job 1. Think back to Terry’s sermon.

  • What were some of the things He told us about Job?
  • How did Job and his friends’ pegs differ from each other?
  • What were the choices Job had?

Answer: Job could curse God, accept the fact that he sinned or bad would not have happened to him, blame God for his problems. Or He could trust God, period, not give explanations (lots of demonstrations but no explanations); Job could be satisfied with God even though God doesn’t answer the “why.”

Transition: So what do we do with Proverbs and Job together?

Answer/Conclusion: We live with the balance they present to us. We are responsible to choose wisdom. God is sovereign over all things. His world IS a world of cause and effect; it is not random. To do right is right or to live with wisdom is wise. Ours is a world that God has designed to work a certain way and a world in which God stays engaged with intimate details. Job received no answer as to why he suffered…but he experienced God.

 Ecclesiastes 12:13 “All has been heard and here is the conclusion…Fear God and keep his commands this is the whole duty of man.”

The wisdom books force us to choose what or whom we will choose to trust.

Will you trust God and not yourself? This is wisdom.

Application / Personalize it:

  • How or what are you trusting in more than God? Why?
    Is there something you’ve made into an idol?
  • Ask God to reveal what it is and then repent and choose to trust God.

He does not demand we trust Him…He won’t bully you into belief. He will allow us to go our own way…(Proverbs says we can choose folly). Because love calls but it does not coerce.

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