He Gives and Takes Away

  1. While Job is bowed before the Lord in worship, he does two things.
  2. First, he acknowledges that he entered this world with nothing and that he will leave with nothing.
  3. He’s finding perspective. He knows that all that he has is from God and that he can’t hold onto any of it forever. It’s a good perspective. It’s amazing to have that on your mind when you just received horrific news.
  4. Second, he speaks a line which we still quote today, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” The song you might know says, “He gives and takes away. My heart will choose to say, ‘Blessed be Your name.’”
  5. Job is acknowledging that God is the one who gave him all things and He is within His rights to take away all things.
  6. He offers God blessing whether he is being given all or having all taken away. God is still good whatever He decides to do. We need to always see God as good.
  7. One of the reasons it’s hard being a Christian in America is that we have this idea that we have rights.
  8. When we come into God’s kingdom, it means we’re coming under His kingship. It’s not a democracy. We don’t have rights and a vote. We submit ourselves to His lordship. “Yes, my Lord. Whatever you say, my Lord. Right away, my Lord. Whatever you have need of, my Lord.”
  9. We tend to feel wronged when things go wrong. It literally doesn’t seem right, and certainly doesn’t feel right.
  10. It doesn’t help that in America we have so many teachers, that we have so many wrong teachings including many who tell us we should be getting the things we want and who teach that God’s blessing looks like us having ease and comfort.
  11. We need to humble ourselves! If God’s in control, being upset at what’s happening is accusing God of not being good or of failing somehow. We need to humble ourselves. God’s the one with the rights, not us.