Title: Why Do You Serve God
Author: Andrew Nugteren
Company: Private

The Lord Gave And The Lord Has Taken Away
Text: Job 1:6-2:10, esp. 1:21
Readings: 
•	Psalm 27 
•	Job 1:6-2:10 

Theme: Job responded to God's providence in his life with thankfulness, acceptance and praise. 
Purpose: To encourage responses of thankfulness for blessing, acceptance of suffering, and an attitude of worship. 

Congregation, 
Someone has said that "Trials are the making of some men and the destruction of others" That is an accurate observation. When trials come on us we have two choices - we can accept them as the hand of God in our lives and grow through them, or we can shake our fist at God and become angry and bitter.
People respond to trials in one of these two ways. 
You have probably seen examples of both reactions in the lives of other people. 
The question we need to face today is: How are we responding to trials? How will we respond? 
Are you able to respond with the faith and trust of Job who was able to accept good from the Lord as well as trouble (2:10). Who was able to say: "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." (1:21) 
Today we will consider Job's response to his losses as we look at the three phrases of that sentence: We will consider: 
1. God's Provision, 
2. God's Providence, and 
3. God's Praise. 

1.	First of all then, GOD'S PROVISION: "The Lord gave" 
Job was a very wealthy man with large numbers of sheep, camels, oxen & donkeys. He was "the greatest man among all the people of the East. 
Being very wealthy poses particular temptations for people, and not many men or women or young people can resist those temptations. It is not for nothing that Jesus said that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 
The main temptation is that of independence - of self-sufficiency. Who needs God when you have all that money and all you need!?
But there are also temptations to greed and selfishness - the more we have, the more we want. 
These temptations must have come to Job, but he resisted them. 
He recognised that all he had was a gift of God - that "The Lord gave" all these things to him. He came into the world with nothing, naked, and everything he had owned had been given to him by the lord. 
That is true for us as well - Our next meal, a warm bed, 8 hours sleep, good health, a steady job - all of these things come from God. None of these are ours by right. We can't claim anything as our own. 
Job recognised this and it made him thankful. In his speeches he often looks back at all that God had given him and it is clear that he was grateful for those things. 
His thankfulness made him generous with his wealth and he was kind to others. He did what the Heidelberg Catechism urges us to do: To be "thankful when things go well". Job was thankful for God's provision - that must be true of us too. 

2.	But notice his response to GOD'S PROVIDENCE: 
He could say, "The Lord Gave, and the Lord has taken away". 
This is the best expression of faith and trust in the will of God that you will find anywhere in the Scriptures. We can appreciate just how much faith and courage it took to say this when we consider the extent of Job's Losses 
He lost his possessions. In one swift blow after another messengers arrive to tell him of the disasters that had fallen on his oxen, donkeys, sheep and camels, as well as the servants who looked after them. 
Then, while the last messenger was still speaking, another messenger arrived with the news that all his children had died. Some of you have lost one child. There are others who have lost more than one child. Here Job receives the terrible news that all his children, his seven sons and three daughters, have all been killed -suddenly, unexpectedly, without warning! 
Surely this is too much for any individual - to lose all your possessions and then your family! But this isn't all. The Lord gives Satan permission to take his testing even further. The noose tightens even more. 
For Job loses his health. Satan "afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head." (2:7). We don't know exactly what Job had but it was clearly a terrible skin disease. It had all sorts of associated side effects that Job describes in later speeches: his body wasted away, fever, depression, sleeplessness, nightmares. His vision failed, his teeth rotted, his breath stank. 
All in all Job must have suffered shocking pain and have been hideous to look at. He was miserable and despairing. 
But finally Job lost the support of his wife. Let's not be too hard on her. Remember that his losses were also her losses - They were her possessions, and they were her children. All this affected her as much, if not more so, than Job himself. 
After losing all this, the sight of her husband suffering like this was too much. No woman who loves her husband wants to see him suffer and this is even harder when it goes on and on. I'm sure you can think of examples of marriage partners who have stuck by their spouse through great suffering - but it hasn't been easy. 
Having said that, her response was a sin against God and a severe blow to Job. "Curse God and die" was the last thing he needed to hear in these circumstances. At a time like this he needed the spiritual support and help of his wife - but she failed him. He lost his companion in the faith just when he needed her. 
This reminds us that there are times in our lives when we are all alone - just the Lord and me. When the narrow path that leads to life narrows so much that it allows only one abreast, one person at a time. There may well be times when you must go through suffering or trial and you are utterly alone; when even those closest and dearest to you don't under-stand you or even desert you. 
At times like these you are alone in terms of human comfort. But you are not utterly alone - because the Lord is there. 
Let's not forget that Jesus was forsaken by God so that we would never be forsaken by Him. The Father abandoned His Son of the cross so that He would never abandon us. Because of that God assures us: "Never will I leave you or forsake you" (Deut 31:8) Or think of the words of Psalm 27:10, "Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me." 
This is what Job believed, as we see in his response to these losses. 
He believed everything was in God's control and he accepted this. He didn't know what was going on in the background; he didn't know about the conversations in heaven. But he believed that God was sovereign, God was in charge. 
Now this is not easy to accept. Think of the murder of a child by his own mother, or the earthquake in Turkey, or the nuclear accident in Japan, or the train crash in London. Yet we must say that all of these are part of the will and plan and purpose of God. These things are not "accidents", or "natural" disasters, nor are they merely luck or fate. They are "acts of God". 
This does not mean that God is the author of sin or the cause of these evil things. But God can even use human sin for his good purposes. So we can say, with the authors of the catechism, that "all things come to us, not by chance, but from his Fatherly hand." So Job could say, "the Lord has taken away." 
William Cowper reflected on this. He was a believer who at times fell into times of insanity. It was as he was sliding into one of these times that he wrote that hymn: 
"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform.
He plants his footsteps in the sea 
and rides upon the storm. 
"Deep in unfathomable mines
of never failing skill.
He treasures up his bright designs
and works his sovereign will." 
How do you respond when things go wrong? When you get the flu? When you lose your job? When the doctor tells you you need surgery? When a loved one dies?
Do you believe that God is in control? Can you be patient when things go against you? Can you say with Job: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away"? "Shall we accept good from the Lord and not trouble?" We too need this attitude of acceptance. 
Job was thankful for God's provision.
He was accepting of God's providence. And, 

3.	He could still respond with GOD'S PRAISE 
He Worshipped God.
In chp 1:20 we read; "At this Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. The he fell to the ground in worship." 
Now this is not the reaction of most people. That Job could respond in this way at this time showed that he had practiced this. This shows us that he lived a life of worship. He worshipped God in all the good times, and this was so much part of him that when the bad things came, he could still turn to God and worship him. This shows us that worship was second nature to him. His whole life had been a preparation for this moment. This response was the result of the regular discipline of worship. 
This shows us the importance of the practice of worship, both personal and public. This is the great value in being regular in worship, each Sunday, morning and evening. As you practice it becomes second nature, so that you can still do this when misfortune and trial come. 
This also shows us the importance of worship that will have enough substance to carry us through these times of trouble. 
Job's response shows us that worship is much broader and deeper and bigger than we usually imagine it to be. 
Bright and breezy songs will not give us the words we need when we lose everything we have. 
Chirpy pep talks will not provide us with the doctrinal substance we need when we are all alone. 
So our worship needs depth and substance and strength if it is going to carry us through sickness, cancer, persecution, torture, and death. 
So Job was able to worship God. He was also able to Praise God.
"May the name of the Lord be praised" (1:21) 
Job's wife wanted him to curse God and die. Job told her that was a foolish thing to say. What a terrible way to end your life. 
When we face death we need to "trust God and die"! That is the only way to go into eternity. 
This was the attitude of this man, Job. He trusted God to the point he could praise him, even in suffering.
This does not deny his questions, his struggles, his doubts as you can see even in the next chapter. Here is a man as broken and sad and sorrowing as anyone can be. 
But he knew he had a choice - he could respond in anger & resentment & bitterness.
Or he could respond in acceptance, worship and praise. 
He chose the latter. 
So did a man called Horatio Stafford. He lived in Chicago last century. He had experienced financial disaster in the fires in that city in 1873. Then he sent his wife and four children over to England by ship. Halfway across the Atlantic that ship collided with another one. Over 200 people drowned, including his four children. When she reached Britain his wife sent a telegram to her husband with two words; "Saved Alone". He caught the next steamship to England and about the place where the ships had collided he composed a hymn. 
When peace like a river, attendeth my soul,
when sorrow like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, though hast taught me to say
it is well, it is well, with my soul. 
We need to be able to say that as well. 
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, 
May the name of the Lord be praised." 
Amen.