Job 1:21

"He said, 'Naked. came from my mother's womb, and naked. shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord'"

How. man responds to tragedy does reveal the inner spirit of. man. On the day that Job lost everything, he worshipped! He thanked God for all his blessings. "Job worships in the same spirit. In his prosperity, he does not forget to praise God for his blessings. Thus, when the temporary is taken away, the permanent still remains" (McKenna pp. 41-42). Is this how we handle adversity? Unfortunately some feel that adversity gives them the right not to worship.

Job recognizes that God has the right to remove blessings as well as give them. Adversity is followed by adoration and woe by worship. He did not give into bitterness or resentment and neither does he blame God.

Think how Satan must have responded when, instead of rage, he heard praise coming from Job's mouth! Think how proud God was of Job! Job finds plenty of reasons to bless God even in this moment of sorrow. "Unlike William E. Henley who, in his infamous poem, 'Invictus', boasted that his head was 'bloody, but unbowed', Job could praise God for all circumstances" (Jackson p. 21).

Job 1:21 "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away": Let us remember as well that God is the true source of all our blessings (James 1:17). None of them have we truly earned or merited. All physical blessings we must let go of one day (at death), thus any loss prior to death should not be viewed as the end of the world. We are simply stewards of such things and they are temporary.