(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: Why do we like to think about “the good old days”?

Read Job 29

1. As Job reflects on “the good old days”, why were those days good for Job? (Job 29:1-6)

2. How did people treat Job, back then? (Job 29:7-10)

3. We see that Job was respected, most revered in past days, for what reasons was he respected (see Job 29:11-17)?

4. How did Job expect his life to pan out, from his reflections in Job 29?

   Application through Christ

5. As Job longs for the past (Job 29:2-6), how does reading this through Christ help us understand our future?

   Read Job 30

6. As you look at Job 30 compared to Job 29, what do you make of the different chapters side-by-side?

7. Who do you think is Job talking about in Job 30:1-15?

8. In Job 30:16 we see another repeated conjunction (like at Job 30:9), who is Job speaking about here? And what does this teach us about Job’s suffering and how it points to Christ’s suffering?

   Application through Christ

9. Go to the New Testament of God’s grace, and see the difference Hebrews 5:7 makes for understanding such extended suffering Job experiences.

10. In Job 30:24-31, we hear Job’s pain of “unanswered prayer”. With the gospel promises we have, what can we understand is going on in days when we have “unanswered prayers” and long for the “good old days”?

Pray for our church, that the Lord Jesus would comfort us in our suffering, and prepare our hearts for suffering.