(Our Reforming Groups Bible studies are designed to be inductive, using the COMA form of study: Context, Observation, Meaning, Application). For more on this method, check out this article.)

By way of introduction: Where have you seen people hold onto hope in suffering?

Read Job 15

1. Job has just finished speaking in response to the first three speeches of his three friends. What did we see Job start saying he needed, with longing? (Job 14:4, 12, 13, 14, 16-17).

2. What are the similarities and differences in tone between Eliphaz’s first speech and this, his second speech?

3. As Eliphaz speaks in 15:17-35, what is the point of this his second speech to Job?

   Read Job 16-17

4. We have already seen that Job’s suffering was intense, yet what makes it unbearable for Job (16:6-17)?

5. As you read Job 17, could you see any verses that point to Christ?

6. When we suffer, prepare to suffer, or reflect on our suffering - how is it that hope can be produced in suffering (Romans 5:1-5)?

7. Job says to his friends what has been called the “ultimate oxymoron”, that they are ‘miserable comforters’. In what ways could we prepare ourselves for the pastoral ministry of being a comforter to others?

Pray for one another, that the Lord Jesus would change everything