”and said: "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."
Job 1:21New International Version (NIV)
Job 1:21 Devotional (Daily Bible Verse)
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised
Job 1:21 records Job worshipping God with the words “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” at his lowest moment. He worshipped God with these words because he reasoned that he had brought nothing into this world. And he continued to reason that he would take nothing with him when he departed from this world.
God boasted about Job
But unknown to Job, God had boasted about him to Satan (Job 1:8). And Satan had taken that opportunity to argue that he feared God because “God had put a hedge around him, his household, and everything he had” (Job 1:10).
Satan went further to argue that “Job would curse God if He struck everything that he had” (Job 1:11). Therefore, God gave Satan the go-ahead to strike Job’s household and the things he had (Job 1:12-19) – notice that God maintained a hedge around Job.
Satan struck Job, and Job worshipped/praised God
Without delay, one fateful day, Satan struck Job’s possessions and household. Therefore, Job “got up and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground in worship” (Job 1:20). And he worshipped God with the words recorded in Job 1:21. That is, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised”.
While it is commendable that Job worshipped/praised God during his moment of affliction, his theology when he worshipped/praised God was not commendable.
Worship of God
You are to therefore to worship/praise God at all times. So whether you are in abundance or lack, you are to worship/praise God. To praise God is to trust God.
Nevertheless, afflictions should push you to God, not away from Him. They should remind you of who God is, just as Job reminded himself of who God is. Because they are directly correlated to your walk with God. This implies that you may be afflicted even when you are in the right standing with God – prosperity or affliction is not a measure of your standing with God.
Affliction moreover reminded Job that God was in control of all the events and things of his life. The reality is that God is in control of every event and thing in your life.
Therefore, affliction should push you to worship God. And you are also to worship/praise God from an accurate theological point of view (foundation). Because, according to the Bible, God is a giver, not a taker like Satan. And Job acknowledged that God had given him what he had before Satan struck. But he also reasoned that God had taken (Job 9:22-24, 10:20, 21:15, 30:21), which he later repented of (Job 42:3-6).
In John 10:10, John revealed that God’s mission is to give you life, but Satan’s mission is to “steal, kill, and destroy”, just as he did in Job’s life. After all, God is holy, righteous, and just. Therefore, He cannot engage in evil.
God knows that you can overcome the affliction
Additionally, when Satan strikes with affliction, God knows that you can overcome the same. While Job was not privy to the happenings in the spiritual realm, you are because of the revelation that his account brings forth. Therefore, you have to be alive to the reality that the transactions of the spiritual realm have an effect on your physical realm.
Prayer/Blessing
Lord God, help me to know You better so that my theology about You can be accurate. I desire to worship from the point of truth, not the opposite.
So I pray that You reveal Yourself to me. This is my humble prayer in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Daily Bible Reading
Psalms 72-77 (see How to Read the Bible in One Year or How to Read the Bible (for Beginners))
