Job 1:20

THE WAY THAT A RIGHTEOUS MAN DEALS WITH DISASTER

"Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped; and he said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah. In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."

"Naked shall I return thither" (Job 1:21). Job did not mean that he would return to his mother's womb, but that he would return to "mother earth."[17] This analogy is expressed in Psalms 139:15, making it quite clear that man has two mothers, his fleshly mother, and the earth itself.

Here is revealed the manner in which a righteous person should accept disaster. He accepted it as coming from the hand of God. Everything that occurs on earth or in heaven may happen only with God's permission.

He worshipped God. Whatever misfortunes, disasters or calamities may overwhelm us, prostrating us with grief and tears, the right answer is always and forever, "Worship God."

He did not blame God, nor charge him foolishly. One of the saddest things ever witnessed by this minister of the gospel in some sixty-six years of preaching is the reaction, now and then, on the part of some bereaved or distressed Christian that resulted in the very sins Job here avoided. In my memory, there still stands the angry and belligerent couple who, having lost a beloved child in death, loudly condemned God for allowing it, vowing never to worship him again!

"The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away! Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). How priceless are these ringing words of faith! Christians of all ages have stood by the cold bodies of their beloved dead and repeated through falling tears these holy words. What a victory over his malicious enemy, Satan, did Job register in these words of sorrowful resignation! There are indeed righteous and holy men who love God and who serve him honorably and faithfully, regardless of their earthly circumstances, even in poverty, distress and bereavement. Such persons find the moral strength to do this because, like Job, they know that, "My Redeemer liveth," ... and that the God of all grace will, in the resurrection, reward the faithful with eternal life and glory.

The primary focus of the true Christian is not upon this world, but upon that which is to come. "If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:19).