“Bible places: the land of Uz”
Job 1:1
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
What’s it like to lose everything? Author Rene Thompson writes, “At first, it’s terrifying. All the things you took for granted are stripped away.” And she should know. Eighteen years ago, she was in an accident. Suddenly and permanently, she was disabled, miscarried a child, and became unemployed. In a matter of moments, she went from growing up in the upper middle class to living in poverty.
Another author, Blake Bailey, tells of living through four hurricanes. First came Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004. He lost power for two weeks and said he had no choice but to live with rotting groceries, mosquitoes, and the headache you get from reading by candlelight.
Then he moved to New Orleans. But that’s when Tropical Storm Cindy struck.
Slowly and surely, he got his feet back on the ground. A handyman fixed his screens, replaced his doorknobs, and got all his appliances working again. He even invited friends over to celebrate his beautiful home, with its rounded moulding over the doors and gleaming parquet floors.
Then came Hurricane Katrina, first a Category 1, then a 3, a 4, and a 5. And since his house was in a “low risk” flood zone, he hadn’t bothered to get flood insurance. When it was over, he had nothing left but the clothes on his back and a laptop.
What’s it like to lose everything?
A man named Job knew. The book that bears his name tells his story.
Please turn to page 528, to the words of Job chapter 1. I’ll start where it says, “Job’s Character and Wealth.”
“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’ Thus Job did continually.”
Back in verse 1, the Bible said that Job was blameless and upright. He feared God and turned away from evil.
Even more, not only had God blessed him with a large and loving family--seven sons and three daughters--he was rich, with thousands of sheep and camels, and hundreds of oxen and donkeys, making him, verse 3, the greatest of all the people of the east.
Think Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, or Bill Gates. In fact, if a list of the world’s richest people had been printed four thousand years ago, Job’s name would have been at the very top of the list!
But strangely, mysteriously, the Bible goes on. Verse 6: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where have you come?’ Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’ Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason? Have You not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face.’ And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”
Now all of us know what it’s like to lose some things. Very few of us know what it’s like to lose everything.
And notice, it didn’t happen over a series of months or years. It happened in one afternoon.
Look at verse 13: “Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, ‘The oxen were plowing and the donkey feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’”
Verse 16: “While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, ‘The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’”
Verse 17: “While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, ‘The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’”
And verse 18: “While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, ‘Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.’”
One tragedy after another, after another, like lightning, hail, and thunder. And when it was over, absolute everything was gone.
And what did Job do when he heard such unbelievable, unimaginable news? What would you do? Verse 20: “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.”
To put it another way, even though he had lost everything--his wealth, his workers, and his children--he fell on his knees and blessed the name of the Lord.
He didn’t ask why. He didn’t accuse God of not loving him. And neither did he give up on his faith. Instead he said, in verse 21: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
It was 1927, and fifty-four year-old Arthur Gossip was at the height of his career, and served as the pastor of Beechgrove Church in Aberdeen, Scotland. Historians tells us he was humble and sincere, had a sharp mind, and was deeply devoted to his family and friends.
During World War II, he wrote an article in The British Weekly on the duties and opportunities of an army chaplain. He said, “Never have I found it so easy to preach as at the front: never have I known men so ready to listen. It was always the deep things that they wanted, not knowing what a day or an hour might bring forth. ‘What shall I preach about?’ I used to ask. They answered, ‘Tell us something about Jesus Christ.’”
And though all of his sermons were known for their depth, freshness, and intensity, one of the best and longest sermons he ever gave was in 1927, just after his wife, suddenly and unexpectedly, collapsed and died. He called it, “But When Life Tumbles In, What Then?”
This is what he said: “I do not understand this life of ours. But still less can I comprehend how people in trouble and loss and bereavement can fling away peevishly from the Christian faith. In God’s name, fling to what? Have we not lost enough without losing that too?”
He said: “You think you believe in immortality? Wait till you have lowered your dearest into an open grave, and you will know what believing it means.”
And he said: “You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else!”
In other words, God was good enough for you when you had money in the bank. But is He good enough for you when you have no money at all? He was good enough for you when you had your health. But is He good enough when the doctor says, “You have six months to live”? He was good enough when you were married. But is He good enough when the one you love walks out on you? He was good enough when your family was together. But is He good enough when you stand beside an open grave?
As Pastor Gossip once wrote, “When life tumbles in, what then?”
What did Job do? Verse 20: “He arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.” And he said: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
What does all this mean to teach us? It teaches us that God is the ultimate source of all that we have, and He has the absolute right to take it away.
Your house? It’s His. Your job? It’s His. Your future? It’s His. Your health? It’s His. Your children? Even your children are His. And so is your husband or wife. All that you have belongs to God. And in the end, you’ll give it all back to Him.
Consider, for a moment, the monarch butterfly. It’s short life begins as a tiny egg. And after a few days, the larva emerges from its soft shell, and crawls around eating its way through nearby leaves. Then it grows quickly, reemerging a little changed each time it sheds its outer skin. Finally, before its last shedding, when it’s right about two inches long, the toddler monarch attaches to the underside of a branch, encases itself deep inside a cocoon, and waits for the real change to begin.
Now watching the monarch larva wrap itself inside a cocoon is pretty amazing in itself. But what happens next is profound. Within its tightly wrapped sheath, the worm-like monarch begins to change. Its cells turn off, one-by-one, and it slowly dissolves from its former worm-like state into an unrecognizable, gooey substance. But within that goo is the promise of life and change and struggle. Sleeping cells that were present at birth turn on, and begin to build a completely new creature, so very different from what it ever was before.
Now you might think you could do that monarch a favor by cutting open its cocoon. But biologists have found that, if you did, it would never be able to fly.
You see, as the butterfly begins to push and stretch and tear its way out of that cocoon, its circulatory system is also sending essential nutrients all the way out to the ends of its wings. If the monarch didn’t struggle, its wings would never develop, and it would never be able to fly.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in life. If there were never any trials or troubles of any kind, we would never be as strong as we could be.
No wonder Job could say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Now if you know the story, and I hope you do, Job survived everything that Satan threw at him. And no matter what, he rested in the hands of God.
And when it was over, when his time of testing was done, God, in His grace, made him stronger than he ever was before.
Turn with me to the very end of the book, to page 566. I’ll pick it up at chapter 42, verse 12: “And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his son’s sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days.”
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Dear Father, sometimes You give, and sometimes You take away. Help us through those times, no matter how difficult they may be, as we seek to calmly and confidently rest in You. This we ask for Jesus’ sake. Amen