A Study in Job part six

 

Job was different. He was insightful and thankful, even in his unregenerate state. Look at his humble words as his life was torn apart:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Charles Spurgeon put his words into perspective when he said,

“Job lost his ten children at a stroke. O Death, what an insatiable archer you were that day, when ten must fall at once! Yet Job says, ‘The Lord hath taken away.’ That is all he has to say about it: ‘The Lord hath taken away.’ I need not repeat to you the story of the gardener who missed a choice rose, but who could not complain because the master had plucked it. Do you feel that it is just so with all that you have, if he takes it? Oh, yes! Why should he not take it? If I were to go about my house, and take down an ornament or anything from the walls, would anybody say a word to me? Suppose my dear wife should say to the servant, ‘Where has that picture gone?’ and the maid replied, ‘Oh, the master took it!’ Would she find fault? Oh, no! If it had been a servant who took it down, or a stranger who removed it, she might have said something; but not when I took it, for it is mine. And surely we will let God be Master in His own house; where we are only the children, he shall take whatever He pleases of all He has lent us for a while. It is easy to stand here and say this; but, brothers and sisters, let us try to say it if it should ever come to us as a matter of fact that the Lord who gave should also take away.”

What wise and wonderful words! Job held onto the things of this world with a loose hand, and so much we want to buttress ourselves against inevitable suffering. Job’s words need to be close to all of our hearts because his experience could happen to any of us in a moment of time. Every day we hear of lives being torn apart by bombs, tornados, hurricanes and accidents, and so that attitude is our fortification and consolation. We are mere custodians of loved ones. They belong to God as He is their Creator.

Continued tomorrow...