"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21) These are the words of a man who has just lost everything. Job has just had his entire livelihood and, more painfully, all of his children wiped out in a single day, and what is his first response? He falls down and worships God (v 20). This is remarkable. Job recognises the utter sovereignty of God. He is ultimately the one who has ordained Job's horiffic sufferings, and Job praises God for it.
Now this brings us to the question 'why?'. Why does a good and loving God ordain suffering and afflictions for His people? Why does God take from His people? Why does He ordain that we face such crushing losses - such as the losing of a wife or a child through death, or the losing of a job, or the loss of health?
When we grapple with these questions, especially in the midst of the fires of suffering, we need to recognise that God's purposes for His people in suffering are good purposes. We need to be able to say with the Psalmist, "I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me." (Psalm 119:75 - emphasis mine).
Now this brings us to the question 'why?'. Why does a good and loving God ordain suffering and afflictions for His people? Why does God take from His people? Why does He ordain that we face such crushing losses - such as the losing of a wife or a child through death, or the losing of a job, or the loss of health?
When we grapple with these questions, especially in the midst of the fires of suffering, we need to recognise that God's purposes for His people in suffering are good purposes. We need to be able to say with the Psalmist, "I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me." (Psalm 119:75 - emphasis mine).
What, then, might be God's good purposes in taking from us, in making us face loss? There are many purposes that God may have in doing such things. The Puritan writer Jeremiah Burroughs spells out one of these in his book "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment". Here is what he says:
God is contented, he is in eternal contentment in himself; now if you have that God as your portion, why should you not be contented with him alone? Since God is contented in himself alone, if you have him you may be contented with him alone, and it may be, that is the reason why your outward comforts are taken from you, that God may be all in all to you. It may be that while you had these things they shared with God in your affection, a great part of the stream of your affection ran that way; God would have the full stream run to him now.
Why does God take from us? Why does He allow us to face such crushing losses? It is because He wants us to have contentment. He doesn't want us to have our hearts fixed on things that will not bring contentment, but on the one thing that will give true contentment: God Himself. He doesn't want us to seek satisfaction in "broken cisterns" (Jeremiah 2:13), but to know the fullness of satsfaction that only comes from Christ "the fountain of living waters", the one who gives living water that eternally satisfies our thirst (Jeremiah 2:13, John 4:10).
This means that we can say with Job, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21). It means that we can rejoice as the tears roll down our cheeks. Whilst God may be taking something precious from us, the experiece of which is painful, He is doing it in faithfulness. He is doing it so that we might know even deeper the unequalled joy of being satisfied in Christ alone.
This means that we can say with Job, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21). It means that we can rejoice as the tears roll down our cheeks. Whilst God may be taking something precious from us, the experiece of which is painful, He is doing it in faithfulness. He is doing it so that we might know even deeper the unequalled joy of being satisfied in Christ alone.
