Job Youth Bible Study

Brief: This Bible lesson on Job for youth shows us there’s always hope with God.

(Printable Student Sheet)

 

Needed: nothing

 

Scripture: Job 1:1-4:8; 38; 42:7-17

 

Note: For the sake of time, you might want to read selections from Job 38.

 

Does anyone have an idea of when Job lived? What time period of the Bible was it?

We think Job lived sometime during the time of Genesis – after the Flood and probably after the Tower of Babel.

Read Job 1:1-7

Why does Satan come to present himself before the Lord? Why does he answer God’s questions?

Satan is still under the authority of God. He has to come when God calls, and he has to answer when God asks.

Who is Satan?

We don’t know much about the angels, but this is what many Christians think.

Satan was Lucifer, one of the three archangels.

The three archangels are Gabriel who is the chief messenger angel. He is the one who spoke to Daniel in the Old Testament and to Zechariah about the birth of John the Baptist and to Mary and Joseph about the birth of Jesus in the New Testament. He may have spoken to other people in the Bible, but those are the times he’s named.

Michael, the second archangel, is the chief warrior angel. When we talk about spiritual warfare and guardian angels, Michael and his division of angels are who we’re talking about.

Lucifer, who became Satan, was the chief musician in Heaven. We hear about the choirs of angels and the beautiful worship that occurs in Heaven. Lucifer was the choir director. But for some reason, he got tired of worshiping God and decided that he wanted people to worship him. So he and his angels tried to overthrow God. It didn’t work. Instead of overthrowing God, it was Lucifer who got kicked out of Heaven.

And now what does Lucifer do all day long since he got fired from directing the choir? He tries to get his revenge against God by tricking people, God’s creation, God’s children, into sinning against God and betraying Him.

Read Job 1:8

Why is God bringing up Job? What is God doing here?

He’s bragging. God is proud of Job because Satan has not convinced Job to turn against God.

Read Job 1:9-11

What is Satan doing here?

He’s challenging God. He’s saying that Job is only faithful to God because Job has it easy in life. Things are going good for him. It’s easy to worship God in the good times. So, Satan challenges God and says that he can get Job to turn against God if Job has some trouble.

Read Job 1:12

Why does God agree to the challenge?

God knows that our faith needs to be tested sometimes. We need our faith to be tested. Because if I can go through a little trouble and still remain faithful to God, then that’s training that will make it easier for me to remain faithful when a big trouble comes.

Read Job 1:13-22

Job passed the test!

Read Job 2:1-3

Listen to God bragging on Job again. I wonder how many times God gets to brag on us. Do you pass the tests? Do you resist temptation? If so, God is proud of you and brags against Satan because of you.

Read Job 2:4-5

Does Satan quit after tempting Job once? Does he say, “Oh, well, I couldn’t get him, so I guess I’ll give up”?

No. He keeps going. Satan doesn’t give up. He keeps tempting us, and we have to keep resisting. It’s a constant battle.

Read Job 2:6-10

Job passed the test again! He did not sin in what he said.

Read Job 2:11-3:26

What is Job saying here? What does he wish had happened?

He’s saying he wishes he were dead. He wishes he had never been born or that he had died in childbirth.

But I thought that the Bible said that Job didn’t sin in what he said. How can he be saying he wishes he were dead?

It’s not a sin to wish we were dead. It’s a sin to commit suicide. But it’s not wrong to think that life is bad at a particular time. It’s not wrong to be sad and frustrated like Job was. Sometimes, we get the idea that Christians have to be happy all the time. But we don’t. That’s fake. Bad things happen, and we can’t be expected to be happy about those things. It’s okay to be upset.

Read Job 4:1-8

What is Eliphaz saying? Why does he think these bad things are happening to Job?

He thinks Job must have sinned and that’s why bad things are happening. God is punishing him.

But is that what’s happening? Is God punishing Job? Is that why the bad things are happening to him?

No. It’s happening because Satan wants to make Job sin, not because Job is being punished for already sinning.

Does Job know why these bad things are happening?

No. He doesn’t know anything about the conversations between God and Satan.

So the rest of the story goes something like this: Job’s friends tell him he sinned and Job says he didn’t, but he doesn’t know why God is letting these things happen.

Read Job 38

Why does God ask Job all these questions? What is the point?

Job wanted to know why God was letting all this bad stuff happened to him. Now God asks Job all these questions to show Job that he can’t always understand everything that God does. Job won’t always be able to understand why things happen. We won’t always be able to understand why things happen.

Read Job 42:7

What did Eliphaz and the other friends say that wasn’t right?

They said that God was making bad things happen to Job because Job had sinned, which wasn’t true.

Read Job 42:8-17

When all the bad things were happening to Job, he said that he wished he had never been born or that he had died in childbirth. Do you think Job would have said the same thing when God blessed him again? When his new children were born?

Of course not! Job was frustrated and depressed about the problems he was having, and rightfully so. But the great thing about God is that there’s always hope. If we’re going through a rough time in life, even if it’s as rough as Job had it, we can trust God to bring us through it and bring us into better times. When things are bad, we can believe that God will make them better.