The Lord Has Taken Away

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

Disaster has struck Job in such a way that he is left with nothing but his life. Satan has struck out in violence and hatred against Job. In the initial encounter between God and Satan, Satan points out to God, when God commends the blamelessness of his servant Job, that, this was because God had protected him: “Then Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face’” (Job 1:9–11).

It is important to note that Satan acknowledges that nothing can be done against Job unless God permits or does it. If God would but stretch out his (God’s) hand and touch Job, then Job would curse God. This is the key to understanding how the sufferings of Job came about. They did not happen because Satan can do as he pleases. He cannot do as he pleases. Once Satan strikes at Job (because God permits him), then Satan disappears from the scene and the rest of the book of Job is about Job and God. Job is not about a confrontation between Satan and Job. It is crucial to note this.

It is also clear that God knows Job far better than Satan does because, in chapter two, after Satan has taken and destroyed all that Job has, God points out to Satan that Job still maintains his integrity (Job 2:2–6). God even gives Job completely into Satan’s hand, except that Satan cannot take his life. God gives his servant Job into Satan’s hand, and Satan holds nothing back. He assaults and afflicts Job so terribly that even Job’s three friends do not recognize him when they came to comfort him (Job 2:11, 12). They are unable to speak with him for seven days because they see his suffering is very great (Job 2:13).

We must recognize at this point that nothing can happen to any child of God unless God either does it or permits it. Even Job understands this and articulates it in our verse. He acknowledges that it was the Lord who gave him all things—his oxen, donkeys, sheep, servants, camels, sons and daughters, and it was God who had taken them away. His response was to bless God, “blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). We have great difficulty trying to explain the involvement of God and Satan in the same event. How can the sufferings of Job be attributed to both God and Satan? Some will say this was all of Satan, but the first two chapters put that to rest. God was involved and the rest of the book focuses on the relationship between God and Job.

The first tragedy to befall Job was when the Sabeans came and struck down his oxen, donkeys and servants (Job 1:14, 15). The second tragedy was when fire came from heaven and consumed his sheep and servants (Job 1:16). The third tragedy was a raid by the Chaldeans that killed all the camels and servants with them (Job 1:17). Job hears all about these tragic events from individual servants who have managed to escape and tell him. The fourth tragedy follows the same pattern, yet this time a great wind blew down the home of Job’s eldest son where all Job’s children were celebrating their older brother’s birthday. They were all killed except the servant who escaped to bring the news (Job 1:18, 19). Job loses everything—his seven sons and three daughters, his 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys, and no doubt, many servants (Job 1:2, 3). The news alone of such devastation would be enough to stop the heart beating or cause someone to take his own life. But Job blesses God. How is this possible?

Notice that apart from Satan’s involvement, we find the Sabeans and Chaldeans involved. We note that they must be the tools of Satan. Satan has incited them to go and do what they did to Job. Behind their violence and wickedness is Satan’s hand. It was not Satan who made them violent or wicked. They were violent and wicked in and of themselves. Satan just uses them. But when Job hears about what the Sabeans and Chaldeans have done, he ascribes it to God. Job recognizes that God has taken away his property by the hand of the Sabeans and Chaldeans. So how can all of this be the work of God, Satan, the Sabeans and the Chaldeans? First of all, let us consider God’s involvement. God intends to train Job in patience by the means of adversity. Satan intends to drive Job to despair so that he curses God. The Sabeans and Chaldeans intend to acquire another man’s possessions by theft and murder. There is a massive difference in the intended purposes of all involved.

There are also differences in the means that are used to accomplish each of the intended purposes. God gives Job over into the hand of Satan so that Satan can afflict him. He also allows Satan permission to incite the Sabeans and Chaldeans for they are, ultimately, instruments. Satan, thus, stirs up the wicked Sabeans and Chaldeans to steal and destroy. The Sabeans and Chaldeans are unaware of God or Satan’s involvement. They simply commit their sin, yet Satan is involved in them. We can also say that God is doing his work because he uses Satan as an instrument of his wrath, according to his will to bring about judgment upon the Sabeans and Chaldeans for their sin. So the same event has the involvement of all four—God, Satan, Sabeans, Chaldeans. The difference between them is their intention and the means used to bring about their purpose. The result of this is that God remains blameless, Satan is shown to be evil, and the wickedness of the Sabeans and Chaldeans is revealed.

God’s goal is to bring Job to humble patience by bringing suffering into his life. Satan brings the suffering about using the Sabeans and Chaldeans, and they in turn act according to their sinful natures. God can condemn Satan for his wickedness and malice, and he can condemn the Sabeans and Chaldeans justly for their sins. In all of this, God is apart from sin; he is not the author of the sins of the Sabeans and Chaldeans. He is not the author of Satan’s sin. It is true that Satan can do nothing apart from God’s permission, but it is Satan who acts and sins, not God. We find the same idea expressed by Paul in Romans 9:17 and 18, when he says that God used Pharaoh to demonstrate his power and proclaim his name in all the earth. He did this by hardening Pharaoh’s heart (see Ex. 4:21; 7:3, 4; 10:1, 20, 27). Pharaoh also hardened his own heart because he was sinful and rebellious. But should we say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by not softening it? In one sense this is true, but there is more in Scripture. God is said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to stiffen his obstinacy. Augustine points out that when the wicked sin, “it is the power of the wicked to sin; but that in their sinning they can only do this or that sin… (because) it is God who divides the darkness and regulates it, so that even what they do as contrary to God’s will is not fulfilled except it be by God’s will” (On the Predestination of the Saints, NPNF, XVI. 33, p. 514). Joseph said the same thing to his brothers regarding their sin against him: “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20). This was how Job understood God’s giving and taking away and so should we.