The Book of Job book club questions

The reading plan

Meeting 1: Chapters 1 to 14

1. Does expecting something in return make devotion less sincere?
2. What might sharing Job's grief offer that challenging his innocence cannot?
3. How does imagining death as freedom change the way you hear Job's wish never to have been born?
4. When might urging acceptance of divine correction comfort a sufferer, and when might it deepen the hurt?
5. What would fair treatment from Job's companions look like when his suffering leads him to ask God for death?

Meeting 2: Chapters 15 to 30

6. What might a witness in heaven offer Job that his friends' comfort does not?
7. How do Job's pleas for pity and warnings of judgment affect your response to his confidence in his redeemer?
8. How does promising restoration affect the fairness of linking suffering to cruelty?
9. What changes when questions about divine judgment focus on vulnerable people's suffering rather than Job's own case?
10. What does the contrast between finding buried treasures and finding wisdom suggest about human achievement?

Meeting 3: Chapters 31 to 42

11. How persuasive is Job's willingness to accept punishment if guilty as a way of defending his innocence?
12. What should give Elihu's words authority when he challenges the wisdom of older men?
13. Does treating pain as instruction make suffering easier to understand, or place another burden on the sufferer?
14. How well do questions about creation answer Job's request for a hearing?
15. What can wild creatures teach about the difference between understanding something and controlling it?

Themes to talk about

Tips for the host

1. Open each meeting with one question everyone can answer, then go deeper.
2. Anyone who fell behind can catch up with the 15-minute summary.