⇒INDUCTIVE BIBLE STUDY HELPS⇐

Some Sample questions for the wisdom books

JOB:

Job has 2 chapters of prose (regular writing like a newspaper) and 39 1/2 chapters of poetry and then 19 verses of prose at the end.  You can deal with the prose part just as you would deal with any prose part, but the poetry has some of its own unique challenges.

Sample Questions for the Poetry section of Job:

Who is talking in this section? Is it job? Is it God? Is it Elihu?  These speeches have lots of great wisdom in them, even though job (like many of the Psalms) questions God and his goodness at times.

If the speakers are Joe’s friends or his wife, That’s quite challenging. So the questions you’re going to be asking have to do with“ is this person attacking job directly or indirectly? Is this person on job’s side or against him? Is this person defending himself? Is what this person is saying in line with what God says?

If job is speaking, then it is important to ask compassionate questions. What is job feeling at this moment? Is job accusing God of being sinful? His job defending himself against the attacks of his so called friends? Is Joe telling us how he feels or what he believes?

Since we are looking at poetry you want to look at exaggerations which are common for many different kinds of poems and not just Hebrew poetry. You also want to look for images which fill the poetry sections of job.

How are these images in your passage supposed to make you feel as you read them?

Does the author of job want you to feel the emotions that job himself must be feeling at this point?

There are a lot more questions to ask when you’re studying the book of job and you should use your imagination to think through why the text is saying what it is saying.  Remember, the book of job is written to help the reader to not simply hear of God with his ears but the sea god and all of his glory. Job is not better off in the end because he’s rich again but because he has seen God and that has transformed his life. So make sure that you’re asking the right questions as you read through the text.

Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes has different kinds of discussions. Some of it is plain wisdom like the book of proverbs, but a lot of it is asking the most brutal questions of life. Ask questions about Solomon himself. If your paragraph in the book of Ecclesiastes is dealing with the vanity of life or the emptiness of futility of life ask questions about clues in your paragraph or in the context before or after which might explain why the world seems so empty of meaning for Solomon.

You might want to ask questions as well about Solomon’s relationship or lack of relationship with God. Ask questions about what seems to be most important in your paragraph. There are some things which Salomon value very highly; ask questions about those kinds of things.

You might want to ask the question as you go through your paragraph about whether or not your Readers see any clues that Solomon has any real joy in his life. Maybe you’d want to ask a question if there’s any comparison between true joy and pleasure, if that shows up in your paragraph.

Since vanity/emptiness/futility Seemed to be there subject of the book ask questions that might point that out to your readers.

Lamentations:

This brilliant and beautiful book is one of the great treasures of all literature. The questions you need to be asking for this book center on the experience and feelings of those who saw Jerusalem destroyed by Babylon. That’s where your questions need to center.  What were the people experiencing? Ask questions about their despair.

Yes, the author is certainly talking about the evil deeds that were done by the Babylonians, but far more, this book gives aid eyewitness chronicle the sufferings of those who loved God and saw the city that they adored, Jerusalem, destroyed at the hands of Godless Babylonian soldiers.

Ask questions that will help your readers to see special words in the paragraph you’re looking at.

If the whole paragraph is hopeless, with some paragraph seemed to be in the book of lamentations, ask questions to highlight that hopelessness. Look for sentences that admit the guilt carried by the Hebrews for the rebellion against God.