He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.”
Parallel Translations
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He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.”
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And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
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And he said; naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither; the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Cross-references (28)
Passages linked to Job 1:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ecclesiastes 5:15 As he came out of his mother’s womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.
- 1 Timothy 6:7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can’t carry anything out.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:18 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
- James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
- Job 2:10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.
- Psalms 49:17 for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory won’t descend after him.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Ephesians 5:20 giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father;
- Genesis 3:19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”
- 1 Samuel 2:7 Yahweh makes poor and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up.
- Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.
- Lamentations 3:38 Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
- Psalms 39:9 I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.
- Isaiah 42:24 Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.
- Matthew 20:15 Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’
- Genesis 45:5 Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
- 1 Samuel 3:18 Samuel told him every bit, and hid nothing from him. He said, “It is Yahweh. Let him do what seems good to him.”
- Psalms 34:1 I will bless Yahweh at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.
- Isaiah 24:15 Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea!
- Acts 4:28 to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
- Genesis 30:2 Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
- 2 Samuel 16:12 It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”
- 1 Kings 12:15 So the king didn’t listen to the people; for it was a thing brought about from Yahweh, that he might establish his word, which Yahweh spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
- 2 Kings 20:19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?”
- Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”
- Ecclesiastes 5:19 Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.
- Amos 3:6 Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?
- Psalms 89:38-52 But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed. You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin. All who pass by the way rob him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries. You have made all of his enemies rejoice. Yes, you turn back the edge of his sword, and haven’t supported him in battle. You have ended his splendor, and thrown his throne down to the ground. You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. How long, Yahweh? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men! What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Lord, where are your former loving kindnesses, which you swore to David in your faithfulness? Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples, With which your enemies have mocked, Yahweh, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one. Blessed be Yahweh forever more. Amen, and Amen.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, into the belly of the earth, which…
That is, into the belly of the earth, which is the mother of all.
Hereby he confesseth that God is just, and good, although his hand be sore upon him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of…
Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Ver. 21. And said] He lay not on the ground dumb as a stone, as it is said of Nabal, 1Sa 25:37, and feigned of Niobe. He rageth not as Xerxes did, when he beat the sea, by way of revenge; neither vexeth himself without measure, as Achilles, at the death of his friend Patroclus. He curseth not God to his face (as Satan, that old liar, said he would do), nor so much as the Sabeans and Chaldees, or the devil, the chief engineer of his present sufferings; but, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer," Rom 12:12, he said, in the words of truth and soberness,
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Naked came I out of my mother’s womb] Hence the proverb, Nudus tanquam ex matre, not having a rag to my back, but stark naked, as ever I was born. Hither I came a pitiful, poor, destitute, shiftless, and forlorn creature, not having a cross to bless myself with, as they say; much less sheep and oxen, children and servants, &c.; howbeit God provided for me then; and as he took me out of the womb, so he made me to hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts, Psa 22:9-10. I was cast upon him from the womb, &c. And shall I now cast away my confidence, which hath so great recompense of reward? No, though he hath stripped me stark naked, and left me with as little as he first found me, yet I will trust in him. It is he that maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up again, 1Sa 2:7. The will of the Lord be done. Here I am, let the Lord do with me that which is right in his own eyes, 2Sa 15:26. He is Lord paramount, the true proprietary and owner of all; I have been only his steward, his tenant at will.
Iamque meos dedo Domino tibi iure penates:
Tu mihi ius dederas, posse vocare Meos.
And naked shall I return thither] sc. To the womb of my Magna Parens, Great mother, the earth, Magna parens terra est The great mother is the earth, (Ovid.), fitly called a mother, because, as thence we came in Adam, so there hence shall we be born again, as it were, at the resurrection; called, therefore, the regeneration, Mat 19:28, for so some read the words there, Ye which have followed me, shall in the regeneration (when the Son of man shall sit in his glory) sit upon twelve thrones, &c. See Psa 2:7 Act 13:33. This Plato hammered at in his παλιγγεννεσια, or great Revolution. To the grave, therefore, that womb of the earth, that congregation house of all living, as Job elsewhere calleth it, Job 30:23, shall I return, saith he, implying that our life is nothing but a coming and a returning, Repatriasse erit hoc, saith Bernard, concerning death. It is but a coming and a going, saith a divine, it is but a flood and an ebb, and then we are carried into the ocean of eternity. I read of one who, being asked what life was? made an answer answerless; for he presently turned his back, and went his way. The truth is, we fetch here but a turn, and God saith, Return again, Psa 90:3. To live is but to lie a dying; the earth receiveth us like a kind mother into her entrails; when we have a while trodden her underfoot, we haste to our long home, Ecc 12:5; Heb. to our old home, sc. to the dust, from whence at first we were taken. Tremellius rendereth it, in domum saeculi, to the house of our generation, where we and all our contemporaries shall meet. Cajetan, in domum mundi, the house which the world provided for us; and to this house (much in Job’s mind, and, therefore, he here saith, thither), this house of the grave, as the Chaldee paraphraseth, men must return naked. "As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came," saith Solomon, "and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand," Ecc 5:15. Death, as a porter, stands at the gate, and strips men of all their worldly wealth, leaving them ne obolum quidem unde naulum solvant.
Haud ullas portabis opes Acherontis ad undas,
Nudus ab inferna stulte vehere rate (Propert.).
Some have had great store of gold and silver buried with them, but to small purpose more than to proclaim their own folly. Some wiser than some: if I must leave all the rest, yet this I will take with me, said a silly fellow, when, giving up the ghost, he clapped a twenty shillings piece of gold into his mouth. Athenaeus telleth of one, that at the hour of his death devoured many pieces of gold, and sewed the rest in his coat, commanding that they should be all buried with him. Hermocrates being loth that any man should enjoy his goods after him, made himself, by will, heir of his own goods. These muck worms, like those ten men, Jer 41:8, having treasures in the field, of wheat, barley, oil, &c., are full loth to part with them; and having much cattle, as those Reubenites and Gadites, Num 32:5, they would fain live still on this side Jordan; having made their gold their god, they cannot think of parting with it; they would, if possible, carry the world with them out of the world. But what saith the apostle? We brought nothing with us into this world, and it is certain (see how he assevereth and assureth it, as if some rich wretches made question of it) we can carry nothing out, nothing but a winding sheet, 1Ti 6:7; as Sultan Saladin’s shirt, which he commanded to be hung up at his burial; a bare priest going before the bier and proclaiming, Saladin, the mighty monarch of the East, is gone, and taketh no more with him than what you here see. And to the same sense the poet speaking of Hannibal, saith,
- modo quem fortuna fovendo
Congestis opibus donisque refersit opimis,
Nudum tartarca portarit navita cymba (Sil. Ital.).
The Lord gave] It is his blessing upon the diligent hand, that maketh rich, Pro 10:22, as without that all pains and policies are but arena sine calce, sand without lime, they will not hold together. Not only every perfect (that is, spiritual blessings in heavenly things), but every good gift, that is, temporal blessings in creature comforts, come from above, from the Father of lights, Jas 1:17, as pledges of his love to those that are his, and as an earnest of better things hereafter, Psa 23:5-6 Gen 27:28 God give thee the dew of heaven, saith Isaac to Jacob. Esau likewise hath the like, but not with a God give thee; he profanely sacrificed to his own net, not having God in all his thoughts. He said with that Assyrian, Isa 10:13, By the strength of my hand have I done this: my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me all this wealth, &c., Deu 8:10-11. Is not this great Babel that I have built? &c. Job uttereth no such bubbles of words; he arrogateth nothing to himself, but ascribeth all to God, whom the heathens also acknowledge Dωπηρα εαων, The giver of all good (Hom.).
And the Lord hath fallen away] As well he might, for though I had the possession, yet he hath the property; neither can he possibly do me wrong, since he is Lord of all, and may dispose of me and mine as he pleaseth. Jerome teacheth his friend Julian to say, Tulisti liberos quos ipse dederas: non contristor quod recepisti, ago gratias quod dedisti, Thou hast taken away the children which thou hadst given me. I grieve not that thou hast taken them, but give thee thanks for giving them. Julian, that vile apostate, said at his death, I gladly render up my life to Nature requiring it; as a thankful and faithful debtor, Vitam reposcenti naturae tanquam debitor bonae fidei redditurus exulto (Ammian. 1. 25). This was, sure, but a copy of his countenance, and merely for a name. And what shall we think of Quintus Fabius Maximus? who, when he heard that his mother and wife, whom he loved dearly, were slain by the fall of a house, and that his younger son, a brave hopeful young man, died the same time in Umbria, he never changed his countenance (though his friends lamented the loss with many tears), but went on with the business of the commonwealth, as if no such calamity had befallen him: was this patience or stupidity, whether? Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, Gal 5:22, so that Aquinas needed not to have questioned, whether a man can have patience sine auxilio gratiae, without the help of God’s grace. A natural man may, for sinister ends, bite in his pain, as Marius did, when his leg was cut off by the surgeon; he may conceal his grief, as Mithridates did for a time; but all the while he was in a kind of fever (Epialis the physicians call it) wherein men be cold without, but hot as fire within. And the like we may judge of Philip II, king of Spain, who is said to have borne the loss of his invincible Armada that had been three years a rigging, with much patience, giving, and commanding to be given all over Spain, thanks to God and the saints, that it was no more grievous. This was but a feigned and a forced patience; it was rather pertinacy than patience, it was an obstinate stiffness of mind, &c. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and what was the ground of it? he beheld God in all, the Lord hath taken away, saith he: not a word of the Chaldean and Sabean plunderers, not a tittle against the devil who had employed them; and why? Job easily discerned God’s arrows in Satan’s hand, and God’s hand on the arms of those that had robbed him, and wronged him; hence Taceo, Fero, Spero, I am silent, I endure, I hope. was his motto. It is the Lord, said Eli, when threatened with the loss of all. I was dumb, saith David, because it was thy doing, 1Sa 3:18 Psa 39:9. So was Jacob for the same reason, in the rape of Dinah, his only daughter, afterwards married to Job, say the Jewish doctors, Gen 34:5. So was Aaron in the untimely end of his untowardly children, Lev 10:3. So was Mauricius, the good emperor, when he saw his wife and children slain before his eyes by the traitor Phocas. And so was, lastly, that noble lord of Plessis, who when he had lost his only son (a gentleman of marvellous great hope) in the Low Countries, and shortly after, his lady died of that grief, he took up those words of David, I was silent, and said no word, because thou, Lord, hadst done it.
Blessed be the name of the Lord] As well for taking away as for giving. This was a rare bird that would thus sing in winter. It is easy to swim in a warm bath, and every bird can sing in a warm sunshine; but to bless God heartily when afflicted most heavily, this, this is the breathing of an excellent spirit. In everything to give thanks, O quam hoc non est omnium! O then is this not all things! In this theme of blessing God for afflictions, also Basil spendeth all his sermon which he entitleth, Giving of thanks in all things. Christianorum propria virtus est, Courage is peculiar to Christians, saith Jerome, it is a virtue proper to true Christians, heartily, and not hollowly, to give God thanks for crosses, for it proceeds from the joy of faith, and some taste of God’s fatherly care of us in our corrections. If good things befall thee, bless God, and they shall be increased; if evil things, bless God, and they shall be removed, saith Austin; of whom also it is reported, that he had always in his mouth Deo gratias, Thanks be to God, for whatsoever befalleth us; Si bona dederit Deus, gratias agito, et augebuntur, &c. If God gives good things I will be thankful, and if he increases … &c The prophet, Psa 89:38-52, lamentably complaineth of the Church’s miseries, and yet concludeth, Blessed be the Lord for evermore; and this he doth, not formally and slightly, but earnestly, and with much affection. Lo, this is the guise of those that be gracious. But how blank (think we) was the devil, when, hoping to hear Job blaspheme God, he heareth him blessing God’s name in this sort, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord! The Greek and Latin translations insert here another sentence that is not found in the Hebrew verity; viz. even as it pleaseth the Lord, so come things to pass, ως τω κυριω εδοξεν, ουτω εγενετο (Sept.). Our late common prayer book also hath the same words in the form for burial of the dead.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I brought none of these things which I have…
I brought none of these things which I have now lost with me, when I came out of my mother’s womb into the world but I received them from the hand and favour of that God who hath now required his own again. I still have all that substance wherewith I was born, and have lost only things without and beside myself.
Naked shall I return thither; I shall be as rich when I die as I was when I was born, and therefore have reason to be contented with my condition, which also is the common lot of all men.
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Thither, i.e. into my mother’s womb, which in the former clause is understood properly, but in this figuratively, of the earth, which is our common mother, as it is called by many authors, out of whose belly we were taken, and into which we must return again, Gen 3:19; Ecc 12:7. And as our mother’s womb is called
the lower parts of the earth, Psa 139:15, so it is not harsh if reciprocally the lower parts of the earth be called our mother’s womb. Nor is it strange that the same phrase should be taken both properly and metaphorically in the same verse; for so it is Mat 8:22, let the dead spiritually bury the dead corporally. See also Lev 26:21,24; Psa 18:26, &c.
The Lord hath taken away; he hath taken away nothing but his own, and what he so gave to me that he reserved the supreme dominion and disposal of in his own hand. So I have no cause to murmur or complain of him. Nor have I reason to fret and rage against the Chaldeans, and Sabeans, and other creatures, who were only God’s instruments to execute his wise and holy counsel.
The name of the Lord, i.e. the Lord; God’s name being often put for God himself, as Psa 44:5; 48:10; Psa 72:18,19; Da 2:19,20; as names are put for men, Act 1:15; Rev 3:4. The sense is, I have no cause to quarrel with God, but much cause to bless and praise him that he did give me such blessings, and suffered me to enjoy them more and longer than I deserved; and that he hath vouchsafed to afflict me, which I greatly needed for my soul’s good, and which I take as a token of his love and faithfulness to me, and therefore ministering more matter of comfort than grief to me; and that he hath left me the comfort of my wife, and yet is pleased to continue to me the health of my body, and a composed mind, and a heart to submit to his good pleasure; and that he hath reserved and prepared such a felicity for me, whom no Chaldeans or Sabeans, no men nor devils, can take away from me; of which see Job 19:25.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And said, naked came I out of my mother's…
And said, naked came I out of my mother's womb,.... Either literally, where he was conceived and lay, and from whence he came into the world, though he afterwards wishes he never had, or had died as soon as he did, Job 3:10, and so it is expressive of his birth, and the circumstance of it; or figuratively, his mother earth, from whence the first man sprang, and so all his posterity with him, being as he of the earth, earthly, see Ecc 12:7, which sense is mentioned by Jarchi and Aben Ezra; but the first sense seems best: the nakedness referred to is not of the mind or soul, being destitute of righteousness and holiness, with which the following clause will by no means agree, but nakedness of body; and therefore as soon as a child is born, one of the first things done to it is to wrap it in clothes provided for it, see Eze 16:4 and also a being without the things of this life; the apostle's words are a proper comment on these, and explain them, and perhaps these are referred to by him, "we brought nothing into this world", Ti1 6:7, this shows the necessity of the early care of Providence over us, and what reason we have to be thankful for unknown mercies at the time of birth, and in the state of infancy, Psa 22:9 and what obligations children lie under to parents, and what benefits they receive from them at their first entrance into the world, and which they should religiously requite when through old age they stand in need of their assistance, Ti1 5:4, and this may also serve to abate the pride of man, who will have no reason to boast of his riches, nor of his fine clothes, when he considers his original nakedness; and more especially the use of it may be, and which seems to be the use Job made of it, to make the mind easy under the greatest losses. Job considered he did not bring his substance, his servants, and his children into the world with him; and now they were taken from him, he was but as he was when he came into the world, and not at all the worse; he knew how to be abased, and to abound, and in both was content:
and naked shall I return thither; not into his mother's womb in a literal sense, which was impossible, Joh 3:4, but to the earth, and to the dust of it, Gen 3:19, pointing to it with his finger, on which he now lay; meaning that he should go to the place appointed for him, the grave, the house of all living, Job 30:23, and so the Targum here has it,
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to the house of the grave, where he should lie unseen, as in his mother's womb, till the resurrection morn; which would be a kind of a regeneration of him, when he should be delivered up from thence, and enjoy a state of happiness and glory: he should descend into the grave as naked as he was born, respecting not so much the nakedness of his body, as being stripped of all worldly enjoyments, see Ecc 5:15 and he says this in his present view of things; he thought once he should have died in his nest, Job 29:18, in the midst of all his prosperity, and left a large substance to his children; but now all was taken away, and for the present had no hope or expectation of a restoration, as afterwards was; but whereas he was now naked and bare of all, he expected he should continue and die so: or this is said with respect to the common case of men, who it is certain cannot carry anything out of the world with them, either riches or honour, but must leave all behind them, Ti1 6:7 which may serve to loosen the minds of men from worldly things, not to set their eyes and hearts upon them, nor to put their trust and confidence in them; and good men may part with them, especially at death with pleasure, since they will have no further use of them, and will have a better and a more enduring substance in their stead:
the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; all outward enjoyments, all the good things of this world, are the Lord's, and at his dispose; the earth, and the fulness of it; kingdoms, nations, countries, houses and lands, the beasts of the field, and cattle on a thousand hills; the gold and silver, and all the riches of the earth: and these are the gifts of his providence to the sons of men; nor have they anything but in a way of giving and receiving; and even what they enjoy, through diligence and industry, is owing to the blessing of God; and who gives not in such sort as that he loses his property in what is given; this he still retains, these are talents which he puts into the hands of men to use for themselves and others, and for which they are accountable to him; and they are but stewards, with whom he will hereafter reckon, and therefore has a right to take away when he pleases; and both Job ascribes to God, not only the giving, but the taking away: he does not attribute his losses to second causes, to the Sabeans and Chaldeans, to the fire from heaven, and the wind from the desert, but to God, whose sovereign will and overruling hand were in all; these were but the instruments of Satan, and he had no power but what was given from God; and therefore to the counsel of his will, who suffered it, Job refers it, and for that reason sits down satisfied and quiet. This is all to be understood of temporal things only; for of spiritual things it cannot be said that God gives and takes away; such gifts are without repentance, and are irreversible, Rom 11:29, the Targum is,
"the Word of the Lord hath given, and the Word of the Lord and the house of his judgment hath taken away; the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions add,
as it pleased the Lord, so it is done:''
blessed be the name of the Lord; for all his blessings and mercies; for all the gifts of nature and providence that had been bestowed, which could not be claimed, and of which he knew himself unworthy; and for the continuance of them so long with goodness and mercy had followed him all the days or his life hitherto, and still he had mercies to bless God for; his wife was still with him, he had some servants left, his own life was spared; he continued as yet in health of body, and therefore could sing of mercy as well as judgment; nor is there any state on earth a man can be in, but there is something to bless God for; wherefore the apostle's exhortation will always hold good, "in everything give thanks": Th1 5:18; besides the name, the nature, the perfections, of God are always the same, and therefore always to be celebrated, and blessing, honour, and glory, are to be ascribed to him continually, in every state and condition of life; wherefore the Arabic version adds, "from henceforth, and for ever"; which agrees with Psa 72:19; and thus Job, instead of cursing God, blesses him, and proves the devil to be a liar, as he was from the beginning; and shows his superiority over him through the power of divine grace; this evil one could not touch him, he was overcome by him, and his designs defeated.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Naked - I brought none of these things with…
Naked - I brought none of these things with me, when I came out of my mother's womb into the world, but I received them from the hand of God, who hath now required his own again. Return thither - I shall be as rich when I die as I was when I was born, and therefore have reason to be contented with my condition, which also is the common lot of all men. Into the lap of our common mother, the earth, as the weary child lays its head in its mother's bosom. We go out of the world naked; the body doth, tho' the sanctified soul goes clothed. (2Cor v, 3.) Death strips us of all our enjoyments: clothing can neither warm nor adorn a dead body. Taken - He hath taken away nothing but his own, and what he so gave that he reserved the supreme disposal of in his own hand. And what is it to me, by what hand he that gives, resumes what he gave?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 21. Naked came I out of my mother's…
Verse 21. Naked came I out of my mother's womb] I had no earthly possessions when I came into the world; I cannot have less going out of it. What I have the Lord gave: as it was his free gift, he has a right to resume it when he pleases; and I owe him gratitude for the time he has permitted me to enjoy this gift.
Naked shall I return thither] Whither? Not to his mother's womb surely; nor does he call the earth his mother in this place. In the first clause of the verse he speaks without a metaphor, and in the latter he speaks in reference to the ground on which he was about to fall. As I came out of my mother's womb destitute of the earthly possessions, so shall I return שמה shammah, THERE; i.e., to the earth on which he was now falling. That mother earth was a common expression in different nations, I allow; but I believe no such metaphor was now in the mind of Job.
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The Lord gave] The Chaldee has, "The WORD of the Lord, מימרא דיי meymera dayai, gave; and the WORD of the Lord and the house of his judgment, have taken away!" WORD is used here personally, as in many other places of all the Targums.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.] The following is a fine praphrase on the sentiment in this verse: -
"Good when he gives, supremely good;
Nor less when he denies;
Afflictions from his sovereign hand,
Are blessings in disguise."
Seeing I have lost my temporal goods, and all my domestic comforts, may God alone be all my portion! The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Covedale, add, The Lord hath done as he pleased.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 1:21. Naked came I out of my mother’s…
Job 1:21. Naked came I out of my mother’s womb — I brought none of those things which I have now lost with me when I came out of my mother’s womb into the world, but I received them from the hand and favour of that God who hath now required his own again; and naked shall I return — I shall be as rich when I die as I was when I was born; and therefore have reason to be contented with my condition, which also is the common lot of all men. We go naked out of the world into the womb or lap of our common mother the earth, as the weary child lays its head on its mother’s bosom. Death strips us of all our possessions and enjoyments; clothing can neither warm nor adorn a dead body: a consideration which silenced Job under all his losses. The sanctified soul, however, goes out of the world clothed, (2Co 5:3,) and when it appears in the presence of God is not found naked. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away — He hath taken away nothing but his own; nothing but what he so gave to me as to reserve the supreme dominion and disposal of it in his own hand. So that I have no cause to murmur against him or complain. Nor have I reason to fret and rage against the Chaldeans and Sabeans, the fire or the wind, which were only God’s instruments to execute his wise and holy counsel: for, what is it to me by what hand or means he that gives resumes what he gave? Blessed be the name of the Lord — That is, blessed be the Lord, his name being put for himself. The sense is, I have no cause to quarrel with God, but much cause to bless and praise him that he did give me such blessings, and suffered me to enjoy them more and longer than I deserved, and that he hath vouchsafed to afflict me, which I greatly needed for my soul’s good; and which I take as a token of his love and faithfulness to me, and therefore ministering more matter of comfort than grief to me; and that he hath left me the comfort of my wife, and yet is pleased to continue to me the health of my body, and a composed mind, and a heart to submit to his good pleasure; and that he hath reserved and prepared a felicity for me, which no Chaldeans or Sabeans, no men or devils, can take away from me; of which see Job 19:25.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And said, Naked came I out - That is,…
And said, Naked came I out - That is, destitute of property, for so the connection demands; compare 1Ti 6:7; “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” A similar expression also occurs in Pliny, “Hominem natura tanturn nudism.” Nat. Hist. proem. L. vii. Job felt that he was stripped of all, and that he must leave the world as destitute as he entered it.
My mother’s womb - The earth - the universal mother. That he refers to the earth is apparent, because he speaks of returning there again. The Chaldee adds קבוּרתא לבית lebēyt qebûratā' - “to the house of burial.” The earth is often called the mother of mankind; see Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 26; compare Psa 139:15. Dr. Good remarks, that “the origin of all things from the earth introduced, at a very early period of the world, the superstitious worship of the earth, under the title of Dameter, or the “Mother-goddess,” a Chaldee term, probably common to Idumea at the time of the existence of Job himself. It is hence the Greeks derive their Δημήτνρ Dēmētēr (Demeter), or as they occasionally wrote it Γημήτηρ Gēmētēr (Ge-meter), or Mother Earth, to whom they appropriated annually two religious festivals of extraordinary pomp and solemnity. Thus, Lucretius says,
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Linquitur, ut merito materhum nomen adepta
Terra sit, e terra quoniam sunt cuneta creata.
v. 793.
- “Whence justly earth
Claims the dear name of mother, since alone
Flowed from herself whate’er the sight enjoys.”
For a full account of the views of the ancients in regard to the “marriage” (ἱερός γάμος gamos hieros)of the “heaven” and the “earth,” from which union all things were supposed to proceed, see Creuzer’s Symbolik und Mythologie der alt. Volk. Erst. Theil, p. 26, fg.
And naked - Stripped of all, I shall go to the common mother of the race. This is exceedingly beautiful language; and in the mouth of Job it was expressive of the most submissive piety. It is not the language of complaint; but was in him connected with the deep feeling that the loss of his property was to be traced to God, and that he had a right to do as he had done.
The Lord gave - Hebrew יהוה yehovâh. He had nothing when he came into the world, and all that he had obtained had been by the good providence of God. As “he” gave it, he had a right to remove it. Such was the feeling of Job, and such is the true language of submission everywhere. He who has a proper view of what he possesses will feel that it is all to be traced to God, and that he has a right to remove it when he pleases.
And the Lord hath taken away - It is not by accident; it is not the result of haphazard; it is not to be traced to storms and winds and the bad passions of people. It is the result of intelligent design, and whoever has been the agent or instrument in it, it is to be referred to the overruling providence of God. Why did not Job vent his wrath on the Sabeans? Why did he not blame the Chaldeans? Why did he not curse the tempest and the storm? Why did he not blame his sons for exposing themselves? Why not suspect the malice of Satan? Why not suggest that the calamity was to be traced to bad fortune, to ill-luck, or or to an evil administration of human affairs? None of these things occurred to Job. He traced the removal of his property and his loss of children at once to God, and found consolation in the belief that an intelligent and holy Sovereign presided over his affairs, and that he had removed only what he gave.
Blessed be the name of the Lord - That is, blessed be yahweh - the “name” of anyone in Hebrew being often used to denote the person himself. The Syriac, Arabic, and some manuscripts of the Septuagint here adds “forever.” - “Here,” says Schmid, “the contrast is observable between the object of Satan, which was to induce Job to renounce God, and the result of the temptation which was to lead Job to bless God.” Thus, far Satan had been foiled, and Job had sustained the shock of the calamity, and showed that he did not serve God on account of the benefits which be had received from him.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Thither. To that earth from which all are taken.…
Thither. To that earth from which all are taken. (Haydock) --- Ista terra gentes omnes peperit & resumet demum. (Varro.) --- Ut ater operiens. (Pliny, [Natural History?] ii. 63.) See 1 Timothy vi. 7. --- As....done. Some copies of St. Jerome omit this, which is borrowed from the Septuagint. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Naked-- (Ti1 6:7). "Mother's womb" is poetically the earth,…
Naked-- (Ti1 6:7). "Mother's womb" is poetically the earth, the universal mother (Ecc 5:15; Ecc 12:7; Psa 139:15). Job herein realizes God's assertion (Job 1:8) against Satan's (Job 1:11). Instead of cursing, he blesses the name of JEHOVAH (Hebrew). The name of Jehovah, is Jehovah Himself, as manifested to us in His attributes (Isa 9:6).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 21. Return thither — The Chaldee paraphrast interprets thither…
21. Return thither — The Chaldee paraphrast interprets thither by “the house of burial.” In the Apocrypha is an evident paraphrase of this verse. “A heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam from the day that they go out of their mother’s womb till the day that they return to the mother of all things.” Sir_40:1. Cyprian thus quotes the passage: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go under the earth.” Comp. Ecc_5:15. The classics, in like manner, speak of the earth as the mother of all mortals. (LIVY, Hist., 1:56; SUETONIUS, Julius Cesar, chap. 7.) J.D. Michaelis and others erroneously adduce this passage in proof of the pre-existence of souls in the depth of the earth.
Lord gave… Lord… taken… blessed be… Lord — In this remarkable passage, which Dr. Chalmers calls “one of the most precious memorabilia of the Scriptures,” and Hitzig “the epilogue of a prayer,” the word Jehovah is used three times with marked significance. Under the sanction of an oath Satan had declared Job would renounce (curse) יברךְ, God, (Job_1:11;) on the contrary, the coincidence is notable that with the same word, מֶברךְ he “blesses” and worships God. The Septuagint adds after the second clause, “As it seemed good to the Lord so it has come to pass.” In the subsequent dialogues of the book the name Jehovah is used by the speakers but once, and then by Job himself, Job_12:9.
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1. The word Jehovah is a personal proper name, intended to express the personality of Deity. It is from the verb היה, hayah, to be, and indicates independent and underived existence. Self-existence necessarily implies eternity and unchangeableness, (Mal_3:6,) and this, and this only, furnishes a proper basis for the moral attributes of Deity. The word struggles to convey the idea of the innermost being of God, the very essence of his personality. The word Elohim, on the contrary, with its root idea of power, sets forth God as creator, and partakes more of the character of a common noun, being quite generally used with the article or some other qualification, etc., while Jehovah, as a proper name, dispenses with the article. The frequent recurrence in Job of the older names for God, such as Shaddai, El, and Eloah, is in keeping with the earlier usage of the Pentateuch, and points to a remote antiquity for the authorship of this book. (See Hengstenberg, “Genuineness of the Pentateuch,” 1:231-308.)
2. The word Jehovah, whether pointed יהוה, or יהוה, as others would read, is believed by many to indicate futurity, and to contain a prophecy of the incarnation, which is also supposed by some to be implied in its radical meaning of life, which was the pre-eminent attribute of Christ. Delitzsch (Symb., p. 29) finds the interpretation of the meaning of Elohim in the mystery of the trinity — that of Jehovah in the incarnation. The one name would then be the exponent of creation, preservation, and government; the other of salvation and of grace.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 21. naked shall I return thither] The general sense…
21. naked shall I return thither] The general sense is plain, though the precise idea is obscure. The words “my mother’s womb” must be used literally, and return thither somewhat inexactly, to describe a condition similar to that which preceded entrance upon life and light. Or, as growth in the womb is described, Psa_139:15, as “being curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth,” the womb and the bosom of the earth, “the mother of all,” may be compared together. “We brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out,” 1Ti_6:7. All that man has is a gift of God which He may recall. Job blesses God alike who gave and who recalled.
the name of the Lord] The Author here lets the Israelitish name Jehovah fall from the lips of his hero, contrary to his usual habit of putting the names God, Almighty, which were not distinctively Hebrew, into the mouths of the speakers. Perhaps the phrase was a general one which alteration would have spoiled; or more likely, the writer was so much in sympathy with the sentiment put into Job’s mouth that it escaped him for the moment that it was not himself or his nation but one foreign to Israel that was uttering it.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (21) Thither.—If taken literally, can only refer to the…
(21) Thither.—If taken literally, can only refer to the womb, which in that case must here mean the earth, with a probable allusion to Gen_3:19. (Comp. Job_17:14.)
Blessed be the name of the Lord.—The very word used in a contrary sense (Job_1:11). Thus was Satan foiled for the first time.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And said, Naked came I out of my mother"s…
And said, Naked came I out of my mother"s womb, and naked shall I return thither. There is some difficulty in the word "thither," since no man returns to his mother"s womb, (Joh_3:4) at death or otherwise. The expression must not be pressed. It arises out of the analogy, constantly felt and acknowledged, between "mother" earth and a man"s actual mother. (Psa_129:1-5) The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Job is here represented as knowing God by his name "Jehovah," though elsewhere the "great Name" appears once only in the words of Job, (Job_12:9) and never in the words of his friends. The natural conclusion is that the name was known in the land of Uz at the time, but was very rarely used scarcely, except in moments of excitement. Blessed be the Name of the Lord; literally, may the Name of Jehovah be blessed! The emphatic word is kept for the last. According to Satan, Job was to have" cursed God to his face" (ver. 11). The event is that he openly and resolutely blesses God. That the same word is used in its two opposite senses rather accentuates the antithesis.
Vers. 21, 22. Job"s resignation.
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We cannot but be struck with the magnificent calmness of Job after receiving the successive blows of unprecedented calamities. He is not stunned; he is not distracted. He possesses his soul in patience. With a singular dignity of bearing he is seen to be greater now in his calamity than ever he appeared when at the height of success.
I HOW JOB BEHAVED.
1. He mourned. This was natural, reasonable, and right. He would have been less than mall if he had taken his troubles without a pang. God loves the heart of flesh, not the stony heart; and the heart of flesh must needs feel great trouble very keenly. God"s saint is not a stoic. But though Job mourned, he did so with calmness and self-restraint. He did not fling himself down in passionate grief. His rising, his rending his mantle from neck to girdle, according to custom his shaving his head, all indicate his marvellous self-possession. He goes through the dreary process of conventional mourning with unflinching decision. His calmness, however, only covers the depth of his sorrow. There is something terrible about that methodical process. The tragedy is sublime.
2. He worshipped. He did not renounce God. On the contrary, he blessed the Name of the Lord. He could not understand the meaning and end of his strange experience. But he knew God, and he never dreamed of doubting God. Moreover, his trouble drives him to God. He falls before God in adoration. The singular thing is that he is not seen praying for help. His trouble is beyond help, and he is not one to whine in weak misery. He loses himself in adoration of God. This is the great secret of fortitude not to cry for deliverance, but to forget ourselves in God.
II WHAT JOB RECEIVED. He spoke to God, or perhaps uttered a soliloquy, for the relief of his own heart, yet doubtless conscious of the sustaining presence of God. His words show his perfect reasonableness. There is nothing which makes people so unreasonable as trouble. Yet Job was not yet turned one hairs breadth from the line of truth and reason by his fearful calamities. It is a great security to see things as they are. Half our distress arises from our viewing them in false lights of passion and prejudice. If we are only calm enough to look about us, we may discover a strange revealing light in great calamities. They break through the conventional forms, and flash out facts.
1. Job saw his own littleness. In a moment he perceived that he had no natural right to all he had possessed. He had nothing when he entered the world; he could carry nothing out with him. Pride prepares for distresses which humility escapes. When we perceive how very small we are, we cannot be amazed at any loss which we may sustain.
2. Job recognized Gods right. He who gives has a right to withdraw. All we have is on loan from God. This truth does not make our loss the less, but a perception of it calms the foolish, rebellious spirit, which is the source of our deepest misery. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Naked came I out of my mothers womb, and…
Job_1:21
Naked came I out of my mothers womb, and naked shall I return thither.
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Jobs resignation
Job was very much troubled, and did not try to hide the outward signs of his sorrow. A man of God is not expected to be a stoic. The grace of God takes away the heart of stone out of his flesh, but it does not turn his heart into a stone. I want you, however, to notice that mourning should always be sanctified with devotion. Ye people, pour out your hearts before Him: God is a refuge for us. When you are bowed down beneath a heavy burden of sorrow, then take to worshipping the Lord, and especially to that kind of worshipping which lies in adoring God, and in making a full surrender of yourself to the Divine will, so that you can say with Job, Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. It will also greatly alleviate our sorrow if we then fall into serious contemplations, and begin to argue a little, and to bring facts to bear upon our mind. While I was musing, said David, the fire burned, and it comforted and warmed him. Job is an instance of this kind of personal instruction; he has three or four subjects which he brings before his own mind, and these tend to comfort him.
I. The extreme brevity of life. Observe what Job says, Naked came I out of my mothers womb, and naked shall I return thither. We appear for a brief moment, and then we vanish away. I often, in my own mind, compare life to a procession. Well now, because life is so short, do you not see where the comfort comes? Job says to himself, I came, and I shall return; then why should I worry myself about what I have lost? I am going to be here only a little while, then what need have I of all those camels and sheep? If my earthly stores vanish, well, I shall vanish too. Further, Job seems especially to dwell with comfort upon the thought, I shall return to the earth, from which all the particles of my body originally came: I shall return thither. You recollect how the tribe of Gad and the tribe of Reuben went to Moses, and said, If we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. Of course, they did not want to cross the Jordan if they could get all their possessions on the other side. But Job had not anything this side Jordan; he was cleaned right out, so he was willing to go. And, really, the losses that a man has, which make him desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better, are real gains. What is the use of all that clogs us here?
II. Job seems to comfort himself by noticing the tenure of his earthly possessions. Naked, says he, came I out of my mothers womb, and naked shall I return thither. He feels himself to be very poor, everything is gone, he is stripped; yet he seems to say, I am not poorer now than I was when I was born. One said to me, the other day, All is gone, sir, all is gone, except health and strength. Yes, but we had not as much as that when we were born. We had no strength, we were too weak to perform the least though most necessary offices for our poor tender frame. Old men sometimes arrive at a second childhood. Do not be afraid, brother, if that is your case; you have gone through one period already that was more infantile than your second one can be, you will not be weaker then than you were at first. Suppose that you and I should be brought to extreme weakness and poverty, we shall neither be weaker nor poorer than we were then. It is wonderful that, after God has been gracious to us for fifty years, we cannot trust Him for the rest of our lives; and as for you who are sixty, seventy, or eighty years of age, what! has He brought you thus far to put you to shame? Did He bear you through that very weakest part of your life, and do you think He will now forsake you? Then Job adds, However poor I may be, I am not as poor as I shall be, for naked shall I return to mother earth. If I have but little now, I shall soon have still less. I want you to notice, also, what I think really was in Jobs mind, that, notwithstanding that he was but dust at the beginning, and would be dust at the end, still there was a Job who existed all the while. I was naked, but I was; naked shall I return thither, but I shall be there. Some men never find themselves till they have lost their goods. They, themselves, are hidden away, like Saul, among the stuff; their true manhood is not to be seen, because they are dressed so finely that people seem to respect them, when it is their clothes that are respected. They appear to be somebodies, but they are nobodies, notwithstanding all that they possess.
III. But perhaps the most blessed thing is what Job said concerning the hand of God in all things: The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. I am so pleased to think that Job recognised the hand of God everywhere giving he said, The Lord gave. He did not say, I earned it all. He did not say, There are all my hard-earned savings gone. What a sweet thing it is if you can feel that all you have in this world is Gods gift to you! A slender income will give us much content if we can see that it is Gods gift. Let us not only regard our money and our goods as Gods gifts; but also our wife, our children, our friends. Alas! some of you do not know anything about God. What you have is not counted by you as Gods gift. You miss the very sweetness and joy of life by missing this recognition of the Divine hand in giving us all good things richly to enjoy. But then, Job equally saw Gods hand in taking them away. If he had not been a believer in Jehovah, he would have said, Oh, those detestable Sabeans! Somebody ought to go and cut to pieces those Chaldeans. That is often our style, is it not,--finding fault with the secondary agents? 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.
IV. Jobs last comfort lay in this truth, that God is worthy to be blessed in all things--Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let us never rob God of His praise, however dark the day is. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job means that the Lord is to be blessed both for giving and taking. The Lord gave, blessed be His name. The Lord hath taken away, blessed be His name. Surely it has not come to this among Gods people, that He must do as we like, or else we will not praise Him. God is, however, specially to be praised by us whenever we are moved by the devil to curse. Satan had said to the Lord concerning Job, Put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face; and it seemed as if God had hinted to His servant that this was what the devil was aiming at. Then, said Job, I will bless Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The entrance and exit of life
1. That every man is born a poor, helpless, naked creature.
2. When death cometh, it shakes us out of all our worldly comforts and possessions.
3. The life of man is nothing else but a coming and a returning.
(1) That a godly man in his straits studieth arguments to acquit and justify God in all His dealings with him.
(2) That the consideration of what we once were, and of what at last we must be, may relieve our spirits in the greatest outward afflictions of this life. (J. Caryl.)
Infancy and after life
Job feels himself to be very poor indeed, everything is gone, he is stripped; yet he seems to say, I am not poorer now than I was when I was born. I had nothing then, not even a garment to my back but what the love of my mother provided for me. I was helpless then; I could not do anything for myself whatever. One said to me the other day, All is gone, sir, all is gone save health and strength. Yes, but he had not so much as that when he was born. David often very sweetly dwells upon his childhood, and still more upon his infancy; and we shall do well to imitate him. Suppose that you and I should be brought to extreme weakness and poverty, we shall never be weaker nor poorer than we were then. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Empty-handed departure from life
We have heard of a rustic who, when dying, put a crown piece into his mouth, because he said he would not be without money in another world; but then he was a clown, and everyone knew how foolish was his attempt thus to provide for the future. There have been stories told of persons who have had their gold sewn up in their shrouds, but they took not a penny with them for all their pains. The dust of great Caesar may help to stop a hole through which the blast blows, and the dust of his slave cannot be put to more ignoble uses. The two ends of our life are nakedness; if the middle of it should not always be scarlet and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day, let us not wonder; and if it should seem to be all of a piece, let us not be impatient or complaining. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.
The right attitude in time of trouble
It is an easy thing to smile when we are pleased, when our enterprises are successful, and our garners are filled with all manner of store. It is a far different thing to maintain a thankful spirit in the day of adversity, to rest in the day of trouble, It is no easy thing to contemplate, with an even mind, the reverses of human life. Yet the patriarch Job was able to meet the most afflicting changes with a holy composure, to own the hand and to bless the name of God in the cloudy as in the sunny day. In these words we have a clear statement of the providence of God in the affairs of human life, and an example of the true disposition and experience of a child of God.
1. The troubles of Job had fallen upon him four fold. Of each of the four great troubles which had befallen him, a natural cause had been reported. If Job could have anticipated the light of modern wisdom, he would, no doubt, have fixed his mind, and allowed it to rest, upon the instruments of his great affliction. In second causes men seek and find the potency of human events; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. The conduct of Job is an instructive contrast to this, and an edifying example of the good and right way. He exclaims, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. It is no less strange than deplorable, that, in proportion as great discoveries in sciences and arts have wrought effects, there has been an evil and unreasonable heart of unbelief growing and spreading, and emboldening men to limit or deny the power of God to exercise a controlling influence in His own creation and in the affairs of men.
2. We have represented to us the true disposition and conduct of a child of God in the example before us. Job in deepest distress could say, Blessed be the name of the Lord. (Edward Meade, M. A.)
Right conduct under the smiles and frowns of God
I. Men ought to acknowledge God under the smiles and frowns of providence. God is the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things. He rules in the kingdoms of nature, providence, and grace. He controls all the views, purposes, and actions of men. No good nor evil can come to them but under His direction and by virtue of His influence. Since God guides all the wheels of providence and governs all secondary causes, all good and evil are to be traced up to His holy, wise, powerful, righteous, and sovereign hand.
II. Men ought to bless as well as acknowledge God under both the smiles and frowns of His providence. Job acknowledged that God had given and taken away, and then adds what was still more important, Blessed be the name of the Lord.
1. God never takes away any favours from mankind but what He meant to take away when He gave them. As He always has some purpose to answer by every good gift, so when that good gift has answered the purpose for which it was given, He takes it away, and not before. So that He acts from the same benevolent motive in taking away as in bestowing favours.
2. It becomes men to bless God in taking away as well as in giving peculiar favours, because the favours He continues are generally more numerous and more important than those He removes.
3. The afflicted always know that whatever personal evils God brings upon them, He constantly seeks the general good of the universe; and that all the sufferings they endure are calculated and designed to answer that wise and benevolent purpose.
4. The afflicted and bereaved have often reason to bless God, because the evils they are suffering are so much lighter than those that many others have suffered and are suffering. They are apt to think and say there is no sorrow like unto our sorrow.
5. Men should always bless God, because this is the only way to make all His dealings towards them eventually work for their good. There is an infallible connection between their feeling and acting right under Divine corrections, and their receiving spiritual and everlasting benefit from them.
Reflections--
1. This subject suggests the propriety of drawing near to God, and conversing with Him under His correcting hand. His providential dealings have a meaning and a voice, which the afflicted ought to hear and understand.
2. See the nature of true submission under the afflicting and bereaving hand of God. It is something very different from stupidity and insensibility under Divine chastenings. This is not submitting to them, but despising them, which is highly displeasing to God. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Job recognising Gods hand
I. The words spoken imply a conviction of the doctrine of a particular providence. Many there are who, although they aver that God will not utterly leave an abandoned world, still deny the existence of a particular providence. Job saw the hand of God in all the afflictive dispensations under which he lay.
II. Although Job praises God for the giving of His mercies, still he recognises His hand in the taking of them away. Tell one who is healthy of the mercy of God in giving him his strength, and this he may readily acknowledge. But on the withdrawment of these mercies, how does he receive it?
III. These words Flow from the conviction of one who saw the Divine justice shining in all His acts. The real Christian is widely distinguished from the man of the world. The latter charges God foolishly as acting foolishly, but the former sees plainly that God is just and holy in all He does.
IV. Job recognised the Divine wisdom which superintended and controlled his sufferings, for a good end. These words, as well as recognising Gods dealings as wisest and best, whether in gain or in bereavement, are an answer to the voice of lying and temptation. Satan had been exceedingly busy, and wished to overwhelm the holy man with despair. He continually threw in gloomy thoughts and doubts of the care, and goodness, and wisdom of God. But Job was not to be moved by such words. (T. Judkin, A. M.)
The life of the true
I. The life of the true has the ordinary vicissitudes. Job had received children, cattle, and property from the Lord, and all had been now taken away. In the life of all men there is a constant receiving and losing. Health, pleasure, friendship, fame, property, these come and go. How much that we all once had has been taken away from us. The freshness of childhood, the buoyancy of youth, the circles of early friendships. These vicissitudes of life--
1. Remind us that this world is not our rest.
2. Urge us to rest on the Unchangeable.
II. The life of the true has an ennobling creed. Job felt that God was in all the receivings and losings of his life. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Some trace their vicissitudes to chance, and some to necessity, but Job to God. He recognised God in all the events of his life. This creed is--
1. Reasonable. If there be a God, He must be concerned in everything--the small as well as the great.
2. Scriptural. The Bible is full of it. Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without His notice.
3. Dignifying. It brings God in conscious proximity to man in his everyday life.
III. The life of the true has a magnanimous religiousness. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The language is that of pious exultation. This spirit is something more than submission to the Divine will under suffering--even something more than an acquiescence in the Divine will in suffering. It is exultation in the manifestation of the Divine will in all the events of life. It amounts to the experience of Paul, who said, We glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, patience, experience, etc. (Homilist.)
Gods dealing with Job
Let us consider Gods seemingly hard dealing with Job, notwithstanding He had once dealt so bountifully with him, that is, The Lord hath taken away. It is hard, no doubt, for a man to be born in poverty; and be obliged to struggle on in poverty and want all his life long; but still I should imagine it must be much easier for a man who had been born poor to be able to live in poverty, than for a man who had been born and reared up in plenty and luxury; for a man never misses what he never possessed. We have a striking instance of this in the history of the unjust steward. When that unfaithful man was about to be turned out of office, we find him absorbed for a time in private meditation and pondering over the terrible change that awaited him; and at last he was forced to give vent to his feelings in these words, I cannot dig, and to beg I am ashamed. A man of gentle birth, or a man who has been used to enjoy life, when he is suddenly reduced to poverty and want through some unforeseen and unavoidable misfortune, has not been used to the hardships that a poor man has been accustomed to bear, and therefore his want of experience makes the change so much the more intolerable for him. And I have no doubt but that it was the terrible change which came so suddenly upon him that made the young prodigal son in the Gospel, who had wasted his substance with riotous living in the far country, and who would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, to cry out with a heavy heart and tearful eye, How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! Job was cognisant of the fact that the Almighty had delivered him into the hands of Satan to do what he would with him, provided he only spared his life; and therefore, instead of saying, The Lord gave, and Satan hath taken away, Job saith here, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. True it is that it was the Sabeans that had seized upon the oxen and the asses, and had taken them away, and had slain all the servants with the edge of the sword. It was true that it was a fire from heaven that had burned up and consumed all the sheep and the servants. It was true that the Chaldeans had fallen upon the camels, and carried them away, and had slain all the servants with the edge of the sword. It was only too true that a great wind from the wilderness smote the four corners of the house in which all his sons and daughters were feasting together, and buried them all beneath its ruins. But Job uttered not a word of complaint against any of these, for well he knew that all these were only instruments in the hands of Satan with the express permission of God, and that by these Satan was to prove his uprightness: hence Job still persists in saying, The Lord hath taken away. It was the same God that had dealt so bountifully with Job at first, that had now again stripped him of all that he had; and when the Almighty gave them unto Job at first, He made no conditions with him; He never promised him that he should have to keep his riches or property for any definite period, much less that he should have them absolutely and forever. Oh, no! and hence it was only just that God should do with His own things as seemed good unto Himself, and to all this just and righteous dealing of Gods Job agrees; and he confesses that in the text when he says, The Lord hath taken away. (H. Harris Davies, M. A.)
The Lord hath taken away
These words were not lightly uttered. They were said by one who, with mantle rent and head shaven, had fallen on the ground and worshipped. After all, it is not the praise of jubilant moments that is the truest, but that which is murmured low in the thick darkness, mixed with tears. It is all very fine to sing with the linnets in the sunshine, but to sing against the weather is finer. Everything around us looks mournful in the fall of the leaf--all is fading and vanishing, and the odour of death is in the damp air. Yet nature in her bright tints seems to say, Isnt it beautiful? This decay is a happening fit and seasonable. And every fading and vanishing face is a bright advent. It is well, though it look ill to us; and it is always opportune, however bad it seems to us who remain. Believing in God and immortality as we do, it is the quite best thing for them. God in His wise government brings punctually the change of air which the soul requires. But what of us who are left?
I. Our true possession in those who are taken away remains untouched. The portion of the heart, that is the true possession--not what we see and hear. This affection is ours still. Death does but refine and sublime it. The dead are not gone from us, they are given to us as we never had them before. The ancient violin makers wrote of their work, making the wood speak, Being dead, I sing more than when I was alive. May it not be that the idealising touch of death reveals that which we had missed before? We can see now the beauty that was not able to shine out in them before. It is the real man we see now. Let us be bold and loving enough to imagine good when only evil is apparent.
II. The true-hearted and beloved are still with us as regards their influence. In this respect we have lost nothing, but perhaps gained something. Sometimes the pity is that one cannot escape from the influence of ones ancestors, and get clear of the black drop in the blood which we inherit. But a brave, upright, holy life is more quickening in its effect when that life is over. The thought of such has had a restoring, wholesome, moulding influence. And let us not doubt for a moment that those who are taken away still live. They, not their influence only. I never doubt that. Extinction at death is altogether too poor and low as the solution of the mystery of humanity. To me it is an impossibility to believe that of the soul developed in long evolution; to think that is the end of the greatest work the great Creator ever made. To believe what some call nature, what I call God, should be so foolish and so wasteful as to throw away the only great thing, evolved at such tremendous cost--to extinguish the conscious soul, that subtle and wonderful essence which took the Creator ages to distil, is an impossibility to me. Death means life. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (S. A. Tipple.)
Jobs gracious words
Although he was bereaved of every comfort, although his heart was pierced with many sorrows, although his patience was tried by the extremity of pain, and his ear stunned with the words of a foolish woman, Job still retained his integrity, and continued to look up with cheerful resignation to the hand that chastened him. The calamities which befell Job are a standing lesson, confirmed by the experience and observation of mankind in all ages, that this world furnishes no armour which is proof against the arrows of adversity; and that the more diversified are the comforts which any person enjoys, he is exposed to the greater variety of suffering in the days of darkness which may overtake him.
I. The words of Job discover a recollection of the goodness of God. Instead of searching for other causes of the distinguished prosperity which he had enjoyed, he says, with the simplicity and humility of a grateful spirit, The Lord gave. There is no portion under the sun precisely similar to that which was given to Job. But all we have we have received from the hand of God. If you accustom yourselves to remember the years of the right hand of the Most High, no change of situation will obliterate from your minds the good which you have received; and to be deprived will seem but another phase of the same Divine goodness.
II. The words of Job imply an acknowledgment that the Lord does not deal unjustly with the children of men when He takes away what He gave. The security and joy of possession may have produced a mistaken opinion of the good things of this world. But you do not find in Scripture any promise of their being continued to you. They are in their nature temporary. When they are bestowed in the largest measures, they cease not to be precarious. You cannot demand from the justice of your Creator that He should never take away from you anything that He gave. If He takes away you should, with Job, be disposed to bless His name.
III. The words of Job imply a conviction that the evil which the children of men receive is intended for their benefit. He represents it as proceeding from the same independent and unchangeable Being from whom they receive good. God rejoices over His creatures to do them good; but it is needful that He should sometimes afflict. In the sober solitude of affliction He corrects that giddiness with which continued prosperity often inspires frivolous minds, and His chastisements bring back to Himself those hearts which His indulgence had estranged. By touching something dear to those who are at ease in their possessions, He rebukes their former indifference about the distresses of others, and melts them into a fellow feeling of all the infirmities of the children of sorrow. Although the salutary effects are often counteracted by the foolishness of man, yet it has been understood in all ages that adversity is, by the appointment of nature, the season of recollection, and the school of virtue.
IV. The words of Job imply a belief that the benefit which the children of God derive from affliction is imparted to their souls with tenderness and grace. Attend then to the consolations of religion. The consolations are founded on the principle that all the sorrows of life are appointed by God. The same hand which, at one time, fills your houses with good things, at another time measures out the waters of affliction which you drink. Attend to the hopes which religion provides for the afflicted. But these hopes belong only to His dutiful children. If you honour the God of your fathers, if you enjoy with moderation what He gives, and serve Him with gladness of heart in the multitude of His goodness, He will revive you when you walk in the midst of trouble. The best preparation for adversity, then, is the sentiment of religion, habitually cherished by acts of devotion. (G. Hill, D. D.)
The mourners song
Atheism in sorrow is a night without a star.
1. Man cannot have any property apart from God.
2. Death is the assertion of Gods proprietorship.
3. Submission to Divine arrangements is the highest test of obedience.
4. Submission is most honourable to man, and most acceptable to God, when it rises into thankfulness.
In sorrow the soul finds its surest refuge in fundamental principles.
1. There is a God.
2. That God is careful of me.
3. By impoverishing me of other possessions, He is seeking to enrich me with Himself.
4. He will ultimately take me as well as my family and property.
5. If I can bless His name in the very sanctuary of affliction and death, what rapture shall I feel in the heaven of unclouded and undying love! He who submits most lovingly and reverently on earth shall sing most sweetly in heaven.
6. Out of this filial submission comes a doubling of the very possessions which were taken away. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
God the subtractor
It sounds a Christian commonplace when we sing that all blessings flow from God. Existence itself, with its range of faculty and wealth of delight, becomes ours by the daily will of God, to be recalled and revoked at His good pleasure. For these unnumbered bounties and benefits we find it easy to bless the Lord who gives. But can we, as we lose them, one after another, also bless the Lord who takes away? How hardly we learn to trust in God the subtractor! Consider, for instance, how springtime belongs to us all to begin with--and bounding health and sunny spirits and the zest of being alive. In lifes April we are happy as with a singing of birds in the heart. But the season draws on when He who gave these boons of youth will take some of them, perchance most of them away. And so, too, we have hope granted us to begin with, and generous ambitions, and gallant dreams of what we will be and what we can do. These also are the gifts of God. It is an instinct with the young to gird themselves for the peaks and prizes of life, albeit we see only a few in each generation walking with tranquil breath about those high tablelands, for which we all secretly feel that we were born. And this is not because, as in a competition, some must be first. Real eminence is a region, not a pinnacle, and those who dwell there beckon us up to the ample spaces by their side. Yet the forlorn sense of limitation creeps over most men in middle age. You have measured your own powers by that time, and found the end of your tether. The God who kindled those brave hopes and plans is the God who quenches them one by one. Can we accept our limitation, and gain peace even in what seems defeat and failure, as we say quietly, The will of the Lord be done? Then again, how strangely God often gives a man his great opportunity. Once perhaps in a lifetime the door opens, and he may enter in and obtain his hearts desire and win his fame and success. But it is not for always. The man himself may have no blame to bear. Yet the door shuts again as strangely as it opened, and God has taken the opportunity away. For the rest of his days that man will never go any farther. But when the roses fade out of your own garden, can you say as you stand among their dead petals, Blessed be the name of the Lord? Or think again of friendship, that golden gift of God, which is granted to most of us but for a season. How sadly our dearest friends divide and scatter, or more sadly we outlast their affection. For the bitterest losses and withdrawals of life there is no final or sufficient solution. We can but accept them in blind faith which falls back on the Inscrutable Will. The Lord hath taken away is the last word that can be said. Nothing can go beyond it, and at times it is the only ground which we feel does not shake under our feet. The Lord Himself is left. And in the hour of our utmost desolation it is He who whispers, I am thy Youth, and thy Health, and thy Opportunity, and thy Success, and thy Consolation. I am thy Friend and thy Shield, and the whole inward nature lies parched and barren, when impulse flags and sickens, and desire grows languid, and the fountain of love seems shrunken and low. The holiest and most mysterious gifts of God--the touch of His awful presence, the solemn rapture of His communion, the clasp and embrace of His love--they are not with us always. When we say, The Lord gave, sometimes we must say also, The Lord hath taken away. Too many Christians fret and perplex and blame themselves when they sink below the high-water mark of some former experience of the Divine bounty. Yet from the nature of the case that must needs be. No pilgrim to Jerusalem may linger on the shining Mount of Transfiguration. It may be that our Lords warning against treasures on earth applies to the hoarding up even of spiritual experiences and emotions. The apostles word that we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out, may prove true at last concerning those inward possessions which even the saints have prided themselves on, and clung to and trusted in. God will bring our very faith to the bare simplicity of childhood, so that we may repose not in our creed, not in our fidelity, but in Himself alone. And thus it comes to pass with the Christian who has suffered the loss of all things, that he gathers grace to bless God even out of that very nakedness to which God has reduced his spirit. Yet the ultimate truth stands sure, that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He cannot tantalise His children with a mere loan of blessings which they must so soon lament. What He grants once He never reclaims absolutely and forever. When we confess that we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, we affirm more than bare immortality. We mean that the life to come shall realise and make perfect all that this life has come short of, and failed at, and left undone. Heaven for a Christian is the home prepared for his lost causes and unfinished labours and impossible loyalties. Christ Himself has taken charge of all our dead hopes, our ruined plans, our buried joys, our vanished years, our broken dreams. He has laid them away safe in His holy sepulchre. So the resurrection of the dead shall include the blossoming again of every fair thing that has faded and withered out of our hearts. The world to come shall renew all the fulness and glow and passion of existence which this world half bestowed and then extinguished. The time-worn disciple can feel at last detached and disengaged from everything save the Fathers perfect will. God has taken away so much from him that he has now so many hostages in Paradise. One after another his treasures have been lifted into heavenly places, until his heart is only waiting for the call to follow and regain them there. (T. H. Darlow, M. A.)
God giving and taking
All heaven must have kept holiday when this calm, intelligent, and believing utterance was made. Over against Cicero, with his culture, philosophy, and eloquence, when mourning as those who have no hope in the decease of a beloved daughter, may we gladly set the Chaldean patriarch who, in the deprivation of health, wealth, and children; in the swerving counsel of an uncongenial wife; in the oil of vitriol which self-righteous friends poured into his gaping wounds, could still honour God and possess his soul in patience. Successive inundations, which would have swept others into hell, only raised this grand old hero on their mountain billows to higher altitudes of faith, self-conquest, and endurance.
I. The nature of Christian resignation.
1. Implies belief in a wise and loving Providence.
2. Contentment with our allotments.
3. Calm yielding to the will of God. No retaliation, no resistance, and no flight, like Adam or Jonah, is attempted.
4. Deep sense of our mercies God leaves more than He takes. Lots property lost, yet family spared; himself saved. If Isaac must die, yet Ishmael lives. If Joseph is devoured, Benjamin and the other sons survive.
5. A strong confidence in God. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
II. The manner in which it is shown.
1. It is sincere (31).
2. It is cheerful (Job_2:10).
3. It is immediate (Job_1:20).
4. It is constant (Job_42:7-8).
III. Proofs of its reasonableness.
1. Perfections of God require it (Isa_40:26-31).
2. The Word of God demands it (Jam_5:11).
3. The honour of religion closely related to it (1Pe_2:20).
4. The example of Christ sanctions it (Heb_12:3).
5. Our present and future felicity depends on it (1Pe_5:10). (Homiletic Review.)
Submission to bereaving providences
The affliction and the patience of Job are set before us as an example, and there is scarcely any case that can occur but something in his complicated trials will be found to correspond to it. His afflictions were sent, not so much in consequence of any particular sin, as for the trial of his faith. However painful any affliction may be, while we are exercised by it, yet when it is over we often perceive that all was wise and good; at least, we see it so in others. In Jobs trials, a particular, God was glorified, Satan confounded, and the sufferer comes forth as gold. That which supported him under all was the power of religion, the value of which is never more known than in the day of adversity. This is the armour of God, which enables us to stand in the evil day; and having done all, to stand.
I. The spirit of submission under bereaving providences exemplified in the conduct of Job. There are several particulars in this case which serve to show the greatness and severity of Jobs affliction, and the aboundings of the grace of God towards him, which enabled him to endure it all with so much meekness and submission.
1. The degree of his afflictions. The objects taken away were more than were left, and seemed to leave him nothing to comfort him.
2. His trouble came upon him suddenly and unexpectedly, and completely reversed his former circumstances. It was all in one day, and that a day of feasting too, when everything appeared promising around him. Prosperity and adversity are like two opposite climates: men can live in almost any temperature, if but inured to it; but sudden reverses are insupportable. Hence it is we feel most for those who have seen better days when they fall into poverty and want.
3. Though Job was eminently pious, it is doubtful whether his children were so in any degree, and this would render the bereavement far more severe.
4. His submission also appears in a holy moderation which attended his griefs. A man of no religion would have been distracted, or have sunk in sullen despair. A heathen would have cursed his gods, and perhaps have committed suicide, being filled with rage and disappointment.
5. Amidst all his sorrow and distress he preserves a holy resolution to think well of God, and even blesses His holy name.
II. The principles on which Jobs submission was evidently founded. There is the patience of despair, and a submission to fate; but Jobs was of a very different description.
1. He considers all that befell him as Gods doing, and this calms and quiets his spirit.
2. He recollects that all he had was from the hand of God; that it was merely a gift, or rather lent for a time, to be employed for His glory.
3. He feels thankful that they were once given him to enjoy, though now they are taken from him. We may see reason to bless God that ever we had property or children or friends to enjoy, and that we possessed any of them so long as we did; though now, by the will of providence, we are deprived of them all.
4. Even when bereaved of every earthly comfort, he considers God as worthy of his gratitude and adoration. Job could bless the hand that took away, as well as the hand that gave; and this must have been a special act of faith. Reflections--
(1) How wise and how heedful to choose the better part, which shall never be taken from us.
(2) Afflictions, if not sanctified, will only tend to aggravate our guilt.
(3) The example of Job teaches us that a spirit of despondency and discontent in a time of trial is utterly inconsistent with true religion.
(4) While we admire the patience of Job, we cannot but abhor the unfeeling conduct of his friends. (J. Haman.)
True resignation
This sentence is one of the pillars of Christian ethics, and represents one of the highest attainments taught by Gods revelation. If Job had said nothing else, this verse is sufficient to stamp him as one of the greatest of moral philosophers.
I. The facts here stated.
1. The Lord gave. Everything came from Him. He gave us life at first. He gives us every breath we draw, every meal we eat, every friend we value, every relative we love.
2. The Lord taketh away. It is practical infidelity to look upon our losses in any other light than we regard our gifts. He gives and He takes away the gift. And He has the right to do so.
II. The sentiment implied. It is this inward sentiment that makes the aphorism so precious and valued. The undercurrent which gives life to the dead body is resignation to the Divine will. This is what Job manifested, and it is the proper course for us.
1. It is a natural course. What He does is done in wisdom. Hence acquiescence is the proper and natural feeling to be displayed.
2. It is a wise course. To murmur and complain at trials is a source of still greater misery and unhappiness. Resignation, like the honey in the lions carcase, will bring us comfort in our sorrow. It promotes the highest Christian graces. It tranquillises the disturbed passions and calms the troubled soul. The highest form of resignation is that brought before us in the text--a feeling which will not only submit, but will bless the gracious hand that deals the blow, knowing that the blow is only dealt in love. (Homilist.)
Submission with praise to God on the death of hopeful children
I. Show what we are to understand by blessing Gods name at such times.
1. It does not exclude a becoming grief at the loss of near and dear relatives.
2. It supposes that we are far from thinking, and much further from speaking, hardly of God.
3. We are not to bless God for such strokes, in themselves considered. They may be called evils, as sin is the occasion or procuring cause of them.
4. We should bless God at such times, because we may be assured, if we are true believers, that He designs to do us good thereby, though we at present, perhaps, cannot see how.
II. Demonstrate the truth of the proposition. Or make it appear that it is our duty to bless God, not only when He gives, but also when He takes away. Most, I fear, are not so thankful as they ought to be for the favours which they daily receive from God. All are too apt to forget His benefits. It is God who both gives and takes away. And He is infinite in all perfections. Therefore He must know what is fittest to be done. God only takes what He freely gave, or rather lent us. He never told us we should always enjoy our relations, or that He would not call for them. If our deceased relations were truly religious, or made partakers of saving grace, God hath taken them out of a sinful, troublesome world, and at the time which He thought best. And though God hath taken them from us, He hath taken them to Himself.
III. The application.
1. Nothing is by chance.
2. How unbecoming to murmur against God.
3. How miserable must they be who do not eye the providence of God in their affections.
4. What an excellent thing is grace.
5. Let us be weaned from earthly friends.
6. This may reconcile us to the death of godly relations. (Joseph Pitts.)
Praise for resignation
Dr. Pierson says, concerning a German pastor, Benjamin Schmolke, that a fire raged over his parish and laid in ruins his church and the homes of his people. Then Gods angel of death took wife and children, and only graves were left, then disease smote him, and laid him prostrate, then blindness took the light of his eyes away; and under all this avalanche of ills Schmolke dictated the sweet hymn beginning with the verse--
My Jesus, as Thou wilt!
Oh, may Thy will be mine;
Into Thy hand of love
My all I would resign.
Music from the heart
Blessed be the name of the Lord. God is a wonderful organist, who knows just what heart chord to strike (says a famous preacher). In the Black Forest of Germany a baron built a castle with two lofty towers. From one tower to the other he stretched several wires, which in calm weather were motionless and silent. When the wind began to blow the wires began to play like an AEolian harp in the window. As the wind rose into a fierce gale, the old baron sat in his castle and heard his mighty hurricane harp playing grandly over the battlements. So, while the weather is calm and the skies clear, a great many of the emotions of a Christians heart are silent. As soon as the wind of adversity smites the chords the heart begins to play, and when God sends a hurricane of terrible trial you will hear strains of submission and faith, and even of sublime confidence and holy exultation, which we never could have heard in the calm hours of prosperity.
In everything give thanks
There are bitter mercies and sweet mercies; some mercies God gives in wine, some in wormwood. Now, we must praise God for the bitter mercies as well as the sweet: thus Job, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Too many are prone to think nothing is a mercy that is not sweet in the going down, and leaves not a pleasant farewell on their palate, but this is the childishness of our spirits, which, as grace grows more manly and the Christian more judicious, will wear off. Who that understands himself will value a book by the gilt on the cover? Truly, none of our temporals (whether crosses or enjoyments) considered in themselves, are either a curse or a mercy. They are only as the covering to the book; it is what is writ in them that must decide whether they be a mercy or not. Is it an affliction that lies on thee? If thou canst find it comes from love, and ends in grace and holiness, it is a mercy, though it be bitter to thy taste. Is it an enjoyment? If love doth not send it and grace end it, it is a curse though sweet to thy sense. There are sweet poisons as well as bitter cordials. (W. Gurnall.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Job
SORROW THAT WORSHIPS
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Job 1:21.
This book of Job wrestles with the problem of the meaning of the mystery of sorrow. Whether history or a parable, its worth is the same, as tortured hearts have felt for countless centuries, and will feel to the end. Perhaps no picture that was ever painted is grander and more touching than that of the man of Uz, in the antique wealth and happiness of his brighter days, rich, joyful, with his children round him, living in men’s honour, and walking upright before God. Then come the dramatic completeness and suddenness of his great trials. One day strips him of all, and stripped of all he rises to a loftier dignity, for there is a majesty as well as an isolation in his sorrow.
How many spirits tossed by afflictions have found peace in these words! How many quivering lips have tried to utter their grave, calm accents! To how many of us are they hallowed by memories of times when they stood between us and despair!
They seem to me to say everything that can be said about our trials and losses, to set forth the whole truth of the facts, and to present the whole series of feelings with which good men may and should be exercised.
I. The vindication of sorrow.
He ‘rent his clothes’-the signs and tokens of inward desolation and loss.
It is worth our while to stay for one moment with the thought that we are meant to feel grief. God sends sorrows in order that they may pain. Sorrow has its manifold uses in our lives and on our hearts. It is natural. That is enough. God set the fountain of tears in our souls. We are bidden not to ‘despise the chastening of the Lord.’ It is they who are ‘exercised’ thereby to whom the chastisement is blessed.
It is sanctioned by Christ. He wept. He bade the women of Jerusalem weep for themselves and for their children.
Religion does not destroy the natural emotions-sorrow as little as any other. It guides, controls, curbs, comforts, and brings blessings out of it. So do not aim at an impossible stoicism, but permit nature to have its way, and look at the picture of this manly sorrow of Job’s-calm, silent, unless when stung by the undeserved reproaches of these three ‘orthodox liars for God,’ and going to God and worshipping.
II. The recognition of loss and sorrow as the law of life.
‘Naked came I out of my mother’s womb.’
We need not dwell on the figure ‘mother,’ suggesting the grave as the kindly mother’s bosom that gathers us all in, and the thought that perhaps gleams forth that death, too, is a kind of birth.
But the truth picturesquely set forth is just the old and simple one-that all possessions are transient.
The naked self gets clothed and lapped round with possessions, but they are all outside of it, apart from its individuality. It has been without them. It will be without them. Death at the end will rob us of them all.
The inevitable law of loss is fixed and certain. We are losing something every moment-not only possessions, but all our dearest ties are knit but for a time, and sure to be snapped. They go, and then after a while we go.
The independence of each soul of all its possessions and relations is as certain as the loss of them. They may go and we are made naked, but still we exist all the same. We have to learn the hard lesson which sounds so unfeeling, that we can live on in spite of all losses. Nothing, no one, is necessary to us.
All this is very cold and miserable; it is the standing point of law and necessity. An atheist could say it. It is the beginning of the Christian contemplation of life, but only the beginning.
III. The recognition of God in the law.
‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.’ That is a step far beyond the former. To bring in the thought of the Lord makes a world of difference.
The tendency is to look only at the second cause. In Job’s case there were two classes of agencies, men, Chaldeans and Sabeans, and natural causes, fire and wind, but he did not stop with these.
The grand corrective of that tendency lies in the full theistic idea, that God is the sole cause of all. The immanence of Deity in all things and events is our refuge from the soul-crushing tyranny of the reign of law.
That devout recognition of God in law is eminently to be made in regard to death, as Job does in the text: ‘The number of his months is with Thee.’ Death is not any more nor any less under His control than all other human incidents are. It has no special sanctity, nor abnormally close connection with His will, but it no more is exempt from such connection than all the other events of life. The connection is real. He opens the gate of the grave and no man shuts. He shuts, and no man opens.
Job did not forget the Lord’s gifts even while he was writhing under the stroke of His withdrawings. Alas! that it should so often need sorrow to bear into our hearts that we owe all to Him, but even then, if not before, it is well to remember how much good we have received of the Lord, and the remembrance should not be ‘a sorrow’s crown of sorrow,’ but a thankful one.
IV. The thankful resignation to God’s loving administration of the law.
The preceding words might be said with mere submission to an irresistible power, but this last sentence climbs to the highest of the true Christian idea. It recognises in loss and sorrow a reason for praise.
Why?
Because we may be sure that all loss is for our good.
Because we may be sure that all loss is from a loving God. In loss of dear ones, our gain is in drawing nearer to God, in being taught more to long for heaven. In our relation to them, a loftier love, a hallowing of all the past. Their gain is in their entrance to heaven, and all the glory that they have reached.
This blessing of God for loss is not inconsistent with sorrow, but anticipates the future when we shall know all and bless Him for all.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.