The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
Job 1-5
Act 2: God’s Covenant People
Scene 1: The People: God Calls a Covenant People
Background Information: Job 1-5
This is not a story of cosmic dualism, Satan versus God. God is sovereign, he has no competition. Satan has to ask God for permission to test God and God sets the limits on that testing. This leads to another “problem” for the human mind and heart. Why would God allow this evil in order to make a point? There was clearly more than just making a point, but it is the question of questions. If God is good and powerful, why is there so much evil and suffering? The book of Job doesn’t offer a philosophical answer and while it does give a theological one, the bottom line is this, God is good and what he does is right. Job finds out personally that God is so good he can be loved for himself and not for his gifts. Job grieved his loss, he wished he had not been born, but even then he did not charge God with wrongdoing. He said, “should we accept good from and God and not trouble?” What a minute, I thought God was good! He is, and out of his goodness sometimes comes trouble. Beware as you read Job! Job’s friends present a tame, predictable God who can be easily held within the confines of the human mind. Job’s experience does not fit within their neat and tidy parameters. God is bigger and more “dangerous” than their tame human theology. Job is presented to us as a good man. He is not perfect but clearly he is good. How can all this bad come to such a good man? Behold Jesus, the perfectly good man who suffered a terrible death on the cross. Read Job with your heart open to what this man Job truly suffered and learned. Read Job with your heart open to the God who is worthy of worship and love even when all has been taken from us.
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Ask God for…(One prayer for River per day)
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call some now and tell them…
What you are praying for.
What stood out from God’s word today.
Review the Storyline Map: Where we are in the Bible
Act 1 God’s Plan for All People
Scene 1: The Creation: The God of all of life.
Scene 2: The Fall: Rejecting God’s vision for life
Scene 3: The Flood: God judges and makes a covenant to preserve life
Act 2 God’s Covenant
Scene 1: The People: God calls a covenant people
Week 4:
Reading 1: Job 1-5
Reading 2: Job 6-9
Reading 3: Job 10-13
Reading 4: Job 14-17
Reading 5: Job 18-21
Reading 6: Job 22-24
Scene 2: Deliverance: God rescues his people.
Scene 3: The Sinai Covenant and law: God embraces and instructs his people
Scene 4: The Land: God’s place for his people
Scene 5: Kings and Prophets: God shapes a kingdom people
Scene 6: Kings and Prophets: God divides the kingdom people.
Scene 7: Kings and Prophets: The southern kingdom as God’s people
Scene 8: Exile: God disciplines his people
Scene 9: Return: God delivers his people again
Act 3 God’s New Covenant People
Scene 1: Christ’s coming: God’s true king arrives
Scene 2: Christ’s ministry: God’s true king manifest his kingdom
Scene 3: Christ’s deliverance of his people: God’s work through the death, resurrection, and enthronement of his king
Scene 4: Christ’s church: God’s people advance the kingdom
Scene 5: Christ second coming: God future for the kingdom