Each meeting covers one lesson. The passage, questions and notes are all on the lesson page, and group members can print their own copy.
Leaders need only this guide: first the flow that is the same every time, then the focus points and tips for each lesson.
A lesson takes about an hour. Meet weekly or every other week — whatever fits your group.
Each Meetingabout 55 min
Snacks and catching up
10 min
Read together
10 min
Discussion
25 min
This week
5 min
Close (prayer optional)
5 min
Opening: Start with last time’s ‘This week’: ‘Did you do it? How did it go?’ For the first lesson, ask everyone to say in one sentence why they want to read about this person. The leader goes first.
Read together: Take turns reading the passage, a few verses each. The leader reads the short notes between sections.
Discussion: You don’t need to discuss every question in ‘Think It Through.’ Pick one or two from each group, add this lesson’s focus points, and that is plenty.
This week: Read it together, and ask each person to decide on the one small thing they will do this week.
Close: You can pray using a verse from the lesson. If some aren’t used to praying aloud, a minute of silence together is fine too.
Focus 1 (vv. 9–11): “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Ask the group: how much of their faith rests on ‘hedges’?
Focus 2 (vv. 8, 12): God brings up Job first, and Satan can act only with God’s permission. Ask the group what questions they have at this point. Don’t rush to answer; write them down for the later lessons.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone writes down three ‘hedges.’ Next time, those who are willing can share: after writing them down, what felt different?
Leader tip: This lesson can easily be told as ‘a bet between God and Satan,’ or used to explain ‘you are suffering because someone in heaven is accusing you.’ The passage records only this conversation. It does not explain why God allowed it, nor does it say every person’s suffering comes this way. Don’t draw conclusions the passage doesn’t draw. Some group members may be losing things right now; don’t press on questions 10 and 11, and let people share only if they want to.
Focus 1 (vv. 20–21): Job grieved first, then worshiped. Ask the group: in hard times, do they feel ‘it’s wrong to be sad’? How does the passage treat Job’s grief?
Focus 2 (Job 2:3): God himself says Job was ruined ‘without cause.’ Ask the group what questions this raises for them. Don’t rush to answer; keep them for the later lessons.
Focus 3 (This week): Invite the group to bring that sentence to God. Next time, those who are willing can share: after writing it down, what felt different?
Leader tip:
Some group members may be losing a loved one, a job, or their health right now. Don’t press; let people share only if they want to. Question 11 is just for them to write.
Don’t use verse 21 to tell someone who is weeping to ‘be thankful’ or ‘submit.’ Before Job said these words, he tore his robe; and it was Job who said them, not someone else saying them to him.
Don’t vilify Job’s wife. The passage records only one sentence from her, not her heart; she too lost ten children.
Don’t look for a reason behind ‘without cause.’ God said it, the passage does not explain it, and neither do we.
Focus 1 (Job 2:13): Seven days and seven nights of silence. Ask the group: when you were suffering, what kind of company helped most, and what kind of words were hardest to hear?
Focus 2 (vv. 20–23): Job’s ‘whys.’ Ask the group how they feel reading these words — without hurrying to answer for Job, and without hurrying to correct him.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one person going through a hard time. Next time, ask each other: did you go and spend time with them? Was it hard to just listen and not advise?
Leader tip: This chapter contains words of wanting to die. If someone shares thoughts of harming themselves, stay with them privately right after the meeting, and contact local emergency help (Canada and the U.S. 911 / Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 988; mainland China 110 / 120 / psychological support hotline 12356; Hong Kong 999; Taiwan 110, 119 / suicide prevention line 1925) or someone they trust; this is not something to discuss in the group. Don’t teach chapter 3 as ‘Job didn’t have enough faith,’ and don’t teach it as ‘complaining to God is fine’ — read it as it stands and let the group see for themselves. Question 11 is for each person to write alone, not to share in the group.
Focus 1 (vv. 2–5): “You are all miserable comforters!” Ask the group: what kind of comfort makes things worse, and what kind of company brings comfort?
Focus 2 (Job 4:7; 42:7): The three friends’ principles were not all wrong; what went wrong was using them to explain Job’s suffering. Ask the group: what is the difference between ‘a true principle’ and ‘using it rightly’?
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one person going through a hard time. Next time, ask each other: did you go? Did you just listen?
Leader tip: Some in the group may have been hurt by a ‘spiritual explanation’ — ‘you’re suffering because of your sin,’ ‘your faith isn’t strong enough.’ Don’t press; let people share only if they want to. If someone does share, first say, ‘Thank you for telling us,’ and don’t hurry to defend the person or the words that hurt them. A reminder for leaders themselves: in discussion it is very easy to play Eliphaz and look for the cause of someone’s trouble. The work of this lesson is, first of all, not to do that. Don’t use this lesson to judge how any group member’s suffering came about.
Focus 1 (vv. 1–11): People are good at finding things. Ask the group: what are you most willing to spend effort searching for?
Focus 2 (vv. 12–22): The question of wisdom is asked twice, and the deep, the sea, and death all say they do not know. Ask the group to share one thing they have never found an answer to, however hard they searched.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone copies out verse 28. Next time, ask each other: this week, what did ‘fear’ look like when you did not understand?
Leader tip: This chapter is easily turned into ‘once you believe in God, you understand everything,’ or used to tell someone who is suffering, ‘don’t ask why, just fear God.’ Verse 28 speaks of fear, not of an answer, and it does not forbid asking — Job keeps asking all through the book. When questions 10 and 11 touch group members who are suffering and cannot find answers, don’t press and don’t hurry to a conclusion; only those who want to share need to.
Focus 1 (Job 31:35; 38:1): Job asked God to answer, and God did — but not in the way Job wanted. Ask the group: what do you most hope God will answer?
Focus 2 (vv. 4–11, 41): Of the questions God asks, which one moves you most? Why?
Focus 3 (This week): Next time, ask each other: did you take those ten minutes? — what was said to God does not need to be shared.
Leader tip:
Someone will press, ‘So why, then?’ Don’t hurry to give an answer; you can say plainly that the passage does not give one here, and we do not give one on God’s behalf.
Don’t turn this lesson into ‘God is rebuking Job for talking too much,’ or into ‘look at nature, and your suffering is nothing.’ Job’s suffering was real.
Some in the group may be suffering right now. Be with them first, rather than explaining; for questions 6 and 10, only those who want to share need to, and question 11 is written for oneself only.
Focus 1 (vv. 3–5): Job received not an explanation but God himself. Ask the group: if you never get an explanation, would you still want God?
Focus 2 (vv. 7–10): God asks Job to pray for the friends who hurt him. Ask the group why this step is hard.
Focus 3 (This week): Pray once for someone who has hurt you. Next time, just ask ‘Did you do it?’ — no need to say who, or how you prayed.
Leader tip: This lesson is easy to turn into ‘Endure to the end, and God will pay you back double.’ The passage makes no such promise, and the ten children born later did not replace the ten who died. If anyone in the group has lost a child, lost their health, or lives with long illness, don’t comfort them with ‘twice as much later.’ Be with them first; don’t argue a point. Don’t turn v. 7 into ‘everything Job said was right,’ and don’t go through the three friends point by point deciding who was right; God only said that in speaking of him, they had not spoken what is right, as Job had. Question 11 is just for each person to write down.
Principles
The leader is not a teacher, but someone walking alongside everyone else.
Give everyone a chance to speak. If some talk a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s hear from those who haven’t spoken yet.’
Don’t rush to give answers. If there is silence, wait a few more seconds.
If you can’t answer a question, it’s fine to say, ‘I don’t know — let’s look into it together,’ and come back to it next time.
What is said in the group stays in the group.
At the start, the leader can share their own answer first. Keep it simple and honest.
In the lessons, words in double quotes with a reference are scripture. What the passage does not say, we can only guess; guessing is fine, as long as we say we are guessing.
Don’t press on painful things. If someone becomes upset, stay with them after the meeting; if needed, involve a pastor from their church or a professional counselor.