Job 1: 6 through 3: 4; 40: 1-8 & 42: 5-8
POY! SKIT GUIDELINES:
- In a small group, participants might simply read their lines, or glance at their lines to get the idea so they can speak in their own words.
- Most POY! skits require no practice in advance.
- Have any small children play a brief part. Most scripts have an optional part for children, listed last under Participants.
- Most scripts have a Narrator who should read the script beforehand to see how to keep moving the story along.
- It is not necessary to employ costumes and objects, unless the skit recommends such.
- It is not required to have an audience watch the skit. All present may participate.
- Scripture and paraphrases, if any, usually appear in bold.
PARTICIPANTS:
Job (also serves as Narrator)
Voice (of God) Stand to one side, read slowly and loudly.
Satan
Servants (4)Prompter (Optional). Prompter shouts a brief line and Companions repeat it.
Companions (Optional): children and all adults that want to take part. Make sure Companions know who the Prompter is, and that they are to repeat Prompter’s words.
SCRIPT:
|
Job |
I am Job, a patriarch who some 4,000 years ago. My story starts in heaven where God is speaking to Satan. |
|
Voice |
Have you considered My servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. |
|
Satan |
Ha! Does Job fear You for nothing? You made a hedge about him, his house and all that he has, on every side. You blessed his work, and his possessions have increased. But put forth Your hand to touch all that he has, and he’ll curse You to Your face! |
|
Voice |
Look, all that he has is in your power, only do not touch him. |
|
Job |
Back down on earth, one of my servants comes running with terrible news. |
|
Servant #1 |
Job, Job! Sabeans attacked and stole the oxen that were plowing and the donkeys. They slew your servants with swords, and I alone escaped to tell you. |
|
Job |
Oh, no! No! No! |
|
Prompter & Companions |
Oh, no! No! No! |
|
Servant #2 |
Oh, more bad news, master Job. Fire fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants. I alone escaped. |
|
Job |
No! No! No! |
|
Prompter & Companions |
No! No! No! |
|
Servant #3 |
I have an even more devastating report, my master. Chaldeans made a raid on your camels and slew your servants. I alone escaped. |
|
Job |
No! No! No! |
|
Prompter & Companions |
No! No! No! |
|
Servant #4 |
Alas! I bear the worst news of all, master Job. Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in your oldest son’s house when a great wind came from across the desert and struck the house; it fell on them and they died. I alone have escaped to tell you. |
|
Job |
I arise, tear my robe, shave my head, fall to the ground and worship. Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Bless the name of the Lord! |
|
Prompter & Companions |
Bless the name of the Lord! |
|
Job |
Again the angels come before the Lord and Satan also comes among them. |
|
Voice |
Lucifer, have you considered My servant Job? He still holds fast his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause. |
|
Satan |
Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. But touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse You to Your face. |
|
Voice |
Look, he is in your power, only spare his life. |
|
Job |
Satan strikes me with sore boils from the sole of my foot to the crown of my head. I scrape myself with a broken piece of pottery while sitting among ashes. Then, my wife tempts me, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die! Die!†|
|
Prompter & Companions |
Die! Die! Die! |
|
Job |
Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity? |
|
Job |
My friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, come to sympathize and comfort me. Seeing my plight, they tear their robes and throw dust over their heads. |
|
Job |
Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said a boy is conceived. |
|
Job |
My three friends spend many days trying to comfort me, reasoning with me. They keep telling me to confess my sins so God will forgive me and stop punishing me. They keep accusing me, telling me how bad I’ve been! Bad! Bad! Bad! |
|
Prompter & Companions |
Bad! Bad! Bad! |
|
Job |
But I keep telling you, my friends, I’m not as bad as you keep accusing m to be! Oh, how I yearn to plead my case before God! |
|
Job |
Arguing goes on day after day and grows hot. Each tried to show how much he knows. Blah, blah, blah! |
|
Prompter & Companions |
Blah, blah, blah! |
|
Job |
Then God’s voice sounds. God rebukes Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar seriously  for their arrogant assumptions. He also gives me a mild rebuke for thinking I know so much. I am forced to confess I am nothing! What can I reply to You, O God? Oh! I lay my hand over my mouth!  I take it all back. I repent in dust and ashes. |
|
Voice |
My wrath is kindled against you three friends of Job. You’ve not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. Therefore, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. |
|
Job |
God heals me, and restores all that I had. He gives me a new, beautiful family and more cattle than before. |
DISCUSS:
Why is it wrong to assume always that someone’s misfortune is due to his sin?
What role did Satan play in Job’s agony?
Why did God permit Satan to torment Job?
(Good answer: to understand Job’s experience, one must see it from the eternal perspective of heaven, from God’s point of view, which is a difficult for us mortals to picture. What we can be sure of, however, is that Job and all believers who suffer on earth will someday see it from heaven’s perspective, and they will thank God for it, for all eternity.)
[…] Why God let Job suffer […]