Job

JOB

Objectives:

Students should be able to tell the story of Job – his losses and his struggle with Satan.
Students should know that Job did not curse God.

Possible Lesson Plan:

Open with prayer.
Scripture reference: the book of Job. Instead of reading the whole book in class, an impossible task, try a summary reading. Assign the parts of Lord, Satan, Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. The teacher can be the narrator. Have the appropriate student read these passages in this order to summarize the book:

Narrator – 1:1-4, 6 Lord – 2:2a Bildad – 18:2-4

Lord – 1:7a Satan – 2:2b Job – 19:1-7, 21-22

Satan – 1:7b Lord – 2:3 Zophar – 20:4-9

Lord – 1:8 Satan – 2:4-5 Job – 27:5-6

Satan – 1:9-11 Lord – 2:6 Narrator – 32:1-6

Lord – 1:12 Narrator – 2:7,11-13 Elihu – 33:8-28

Narrator – 1:13-20 Job – 12:4 Lord – 38:1-12,40:1-2

Job – 1:21 Eliphaz – 15:12-16 Job – 40:3-5

Narrator – 1:22, 2:1 Job – 16:1-3 Lord – 40:7-14

Job – 42:1-6

End with everyone reading Job 42:10-12

Learning Game: Quotations – Write several well-known quotes from Job on index cards. Now tear each card in half and hide one half around the room before class. After reading the Scripture, give each student a card and see if he can find the other half.

Cut out quotes:

Job:1:8 “Have you yet considered my servant Job….

since there is none like him on the earth?”

Job 1: 21 “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return…

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job 5:13 “He catches the wise in their craftiness….

and subverts the counsel of the cunning.”

Job 5:17-18 “Blessed is the man whom God corrects…

For He causes a man to be in pain, but He restores him again.”

Job 13:15 “Though the Mighty One should lay His hand upon me….

I will speak and reason before Him.”

Job 13: 26,28 “For You wrote evil things against me and have watched all my works….

which have become old like a wineskin or like a moth-eaten garment.”

Job 17:15-16 “Where then is my hope, or where shall I see my good things?....

Will they go down with me to Hades, or shall we go down together in the tomb?”

Job 19:25 “I know that my Redeemer liveth….

and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”

Job 24:1-2 “Why have the times escaped the Lord’s notice?,,,

Why have the ungodly stepped over the boundary, snatching away the flock with the shepherd.”

Job 38:4,6 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

To what were its foundations fastened, or who laid its cornerstone?”

Job 42: 3 “Who is he who hides counsel from You? …

Who will tell me what I knew not, Things too great and wonderful, which I did not know?”

Job 42: 5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear…

but now my eye sees You.”

Discussion: Job centers on suffering. What did Job suffer? Who caused his suffering? Why did he suffer? Did that mean he was a bad man? Did his friends help him? How or how not? How would you have felt if they’d been your friends? Why did Job decide he wanted to die? Was that a good decision? Why or why not? List some forms of suffering today or some people or groups of people who are suffering on the board. Why is there so much suffering in the world? How could God allow this suffering? What can we do to bring hope to those who suffer? What is the worst suffering you have experienced? How did you survive?

Make a “Job Egghead”: Take a raw egg for the head. Poke holes in both ends and blow over a bowl until the egg is emptied. Decorate a sad face with markers, yarn, etc. Use half a pipe cleaner in the upper hole for a hanger. Leave the egg on its “chin” in an egg carton for a week to drain; wipe clean.

Close with prayer. Pray specifically for those who are suffering that the students listed.