Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Lord Gave, and the Lord Has Taken Away: Bitter Providence and the Worship of God

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The Lord Gave, and the Lord Has Taken Away: Bitter Providence and the Worship of God · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So imagine your entire life,
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your house, your bank account, your health, your family.
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I mean, your very breath is technically just a rental,
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right? You know you do not hold a deed
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to any of it, and the landlord who owns all of it can break the
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lease at any second without asking for your permission,
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without giving you a heads up, and without owing you an
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explanation. Yeah, that is a well, it is a
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terrifying thought for the modern mind.
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It really is. And today we are taking a deep
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dive into a stack of historical theological sources that claim
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that scenario is not just, you know, a hypothetical thought
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experiment. It is the absolute reality of
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the universe. Spot on.
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We are looking at the startling, very weighty doctrine of Divine
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Providence. Yeah, and the core tension we
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are examining today, it centers on a single agonizing confession
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from a man sitting in the literal ashes of his ruined
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life, Job. Yes, the man is Job and his
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confession in Job Chapter one verse 21 is this.
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He says the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Wow.
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Yeah, it's a heavy text. It is, and we want to be clear
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right up front for you listening.
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This information is not abstract classroom theory, you know.
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No, not at all. We are not dealing with
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philosophical riddles designed to keep academics busy.
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This is practical theology for the sick bed.
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This is theology for the graveyard.
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Yeah, this is the framework you need for the hour of devastating
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loss. Absolutely.
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So today's deep dive aims to dismantle the massive sense of
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modern entitlement we all carry around, and we want to re anchor
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the soul in the absolute sovereignty of God over both
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life and death. That mission is, I mean, it's
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totally necessary, because we cannot truly grasp Job's
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reaction to his staggering tragedy until we recognize how
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drastically his worldview differs from the worldview most
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people hold today. Yeah, the gap is huge.
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It is vast. The gap between how Job thought
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about his life and how a modern person thinks about their life
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is just night and day. Right, let's unpack that a bit.
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Well, our modern era has been heavily shaped by Enlightenment
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thought. You know, we are the products of
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cultural and political shifts, things like the drafting of the
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Declaration of Independence, which baked certain assumptions
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into our collective psyche. Yeah, those unalienable rights
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we hear so much about. Yes, those historical shifts
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have conditioned human beings to assume a right to life.
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And we assume this right exists not just horizontally, you know,
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in relation to other humans, but vertically, in relation to God
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himself. I see what you mean.
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We view God as a debtor. We do.
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We subconsciously assume he owes us a long, healthy life, and we
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assume he has no right to take human life without our consent.
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And you see this modern allergy to divine sovereignty flare up
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whenever massive tragedies occur, right?
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Like think back to when 2004 tsunami took over 200,000 lives
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in the Indian Ocean. The visceral reaction from the
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modern mind was intense. Yeah, the anger was palpable.
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You saw immense anger directed toward the heavens, or you saw
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theologians and commentators making an immediate attempt to
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distance God from the event altogether.
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Right. They argued that he must have
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been a helpless bystander who was crying alongside us but
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lacked the ability to stop the wave.
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Which is wild to think about, but that reaction makes total
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sense if you operate from a baseline of entitlement.
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Yeah, it does. It goes back to that renting
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versus owning analogy I mentioned at the start.
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When you own a house, you hold the deed.
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You dictate what happens to the property right.
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It's yours. If someone comes in and starts
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tearing down walls or ripping up the floorboards, you call the
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police because your rights have been violated.
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But when you are renting, you are just a tenant.
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You live there at the pleasure of the landlord.
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Yeah, and if the landlord decides to sell the property or
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alter it, you might not like it, but you do not have the ultimate
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say. We walk through life acting like
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we hold the deed to our own existence.
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We act like we are the owners. You really do.
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Honestly, modern people get intensely angry if their Wi-Fi
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goes down for 10 minutes because we feel entitled to constant
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convenience. That is so true.
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But Job understood that he was only a tenant.
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He possessed A patriarchal worldview that completely alters
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how a person reacts to loss. He did not look at his children,
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his wealth, or his health as things he had earned or things
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he had an unalienable right to keep.
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I think we need to break that down further.
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What was that patriarchal reality like, and how did people
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in that ancient context view the stewardship of human life?
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Well, the patriarchal period was an era characterized by a very
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immediate, stark recognition of God as the Creator and the
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sustainer of all things. OK, in that historical setting,
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the reality of God's absolute ownership of the universe was
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not clouded by centuries of academic debate or political
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theories about personal autonomy.
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That makes sense. They were closer to the dirt, so
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to speak. Yeah, exactly.
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Well, yeah, spot on. Life was universally understood
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as a temporary stewardship. It was held at the pleasure of
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the Almighty, not possessed as an autonomous right.
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So it was a completely different baseline.
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It was. If you look back to the Book of
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Genesis, specifically Chapter 9, verses 5 and 6, you see the
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clear establishment of what we call horizontal rights.
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OK, lay that out for us. So God institutes A strict
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reckoning for human blood after the flood.
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This means that humans have absolute rights horizontally
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against other humans who might try to shed their blood.
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Right, you cannot murder your neighbor.
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Yes, because your neighbor is made in the image of God, taking
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their life is a severe crime against the image of the
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Creator. But that horizontal right never
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translated into a vertical right against the Creator himself.
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Never. Humans have absolutely 0 rights
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vertically against the one who breathed life into their lungs
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in the first place. The breath in your lungs right
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now, the beating of your heart, the neurological firing in your
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brain, all of it is borrowed property.
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That, and a staggering thought. The Creator who started the
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heartbeat has the absolute, uncontested right to stop it
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whenever His holy wisdom dictates.
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Which brings us to a massive, undeniable reality about the
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sheer volume of life God grants. Yeah, because, you know, before
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Job could ever grasp the bitter reality of his loss, his heart
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was heavily schooled by gratitude for the good things he
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had already received. That is a crucial point.
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We often focus on the tragedy in job story, but we forget the
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decades of immense blessing that preceded.
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It we too. I was reading through the data
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we pulled for this deep dive and the sheer scale of what we call
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sweet Providence is staggering. All the statistics on birth
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rates. Yeah, it's wild.
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Roughly 127 million new lives are granted by the Creator every
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single year. If you break that down, it comes
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out to about 250 children born every single minute. 250 a
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minute. Yeah, think about that every
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minute of every day. 250 * A mother forgets her physical
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anguish because a new human being has entered the world.
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That is incredible. That is sweet Providence.
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It is a staggering display of generosity.
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And that is precisely where Job starts his confession.
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He says the Lord gave. He does not start with the loss,
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he starts with the gift. Yes, gratitude is the absolute
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prerequisite for surviving loss. If you do not recognize that
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every single breath you took prior to your tragedy was an
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unmerited gift, you will never survive the day that gift is.
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Reclaimed, you will just become bitter and resentful.
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Completely. So let's look at the original
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language there, because the Hebrew structure of Job chapter
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one, verse 21 is incredibly precise here.
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It really is, and it leaves no room for misunderstanding
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regarding who is taking the action.
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The inspired writer balances 2 active verbs.
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OK, what are they? Well, the active verb for gave
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is Nathan. It is perfectly symmetrically
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balanced with the active verb for taken away, which is
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lacache. Nathan and Lacache.
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Yeah, both of these verbs are active, meaning God is the
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direct, intentional agent of both the giving and the taking.
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So there's no passive permission there, it's direct.
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Right. What is equally vital to
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understand is this specific word Job did not use.
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He did not use the Hebrew word ganab, which translates to
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stolen or robbed. Oh.
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That's fascinating. Yeah, when God rebound claims a
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human life or when he removes wealth or health, he is not
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stealing. A person cannot steal what they
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already own. Right.
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God is exercising A sovereign repossession of His own
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property. Yes, and this directly confronts
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and refutes specific theological frameworks that are very popular
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today, like Arminianism and open theism.
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OK, let's clarify those for anyone listening who might not
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be familiar. Sure, Open theism is essentially
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the idea that God does not know the future perfectly, or that he
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limits his own control over the universe, so he is just reacting
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to tragedies as they happen. He's out there wringing his
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hands. Yeah, it paints a picture of a
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God who wishes things were different, but simply lacks the
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ability to stop human evil or natural disasters.
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But the text of Job aggressively rejects that.
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It does. The writer ensures we know that
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attributing this massive loss directly to the hand of God was
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not a sin. It was an act of high altitude
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worship. Job did not blame Chance and he
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did not view God as a helpless spectator.
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No, he didn't. OK, hang on.
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I have to stop you there and push back on this because this
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is where the tension gets incredibly tight for the person
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listening to this right now. Go for it.
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You are saying God is the direct agent and Job is praising him
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for it. But if we look at the actual
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text of Job's story, the agents of destruction are very clearly
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defined, and they are not God. That's true, they are listed
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out. The text details human agents,
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specifically the Sabians and Chaldeans who formed raiding
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parties, stole the livestock, and murdered Job's servants with
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swords. Right.
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It details natural agents describing a great wind,
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basically a massive tornado that struck the four corners of the
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house and crushed Job's children.
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It even details demonic agents, with Satan himself striking Job
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with loathsome sores from the soles of his feet to the crown
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of his head. That's a.
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Comprehensive list of disasters. So my question is, if a literal
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raiding party swings the sword and a literal tornado collapses
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the roof and literal Satan brings the disease, how can Job
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look past all of those immediate visible threats and say God did
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it? It's a heavy question.
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Like if a criminal steals my car, the criminal is the one who
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did it. If God planned for the criminal
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to steal my car, how is that not just shifting the blame to God
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and making him the author of evil?
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Well, that is the crucial theological boundary we must
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establish, and it requires us to understand the difference
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between primary causes and secondary causes.
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OK, break that down 1st. Physical causes, the natural
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disasters and the satanic causes are completely real.
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The Sabines really rated they made a conscious, wicked choice
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to murder and steal. They weren't robots.
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Right, they weren't. The wind really blew due to
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atmosphere conditions. Satan really inflicted those
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sores with intense, calculated malice.
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But those secondary causes are never ultimate, and they are
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never decisive. So they are real but
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subordinate. Exactly.
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I mean spot on. Think of it like an author
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writing a book. Let us say Jr.
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Tolkien is writing about the villain Sauron.
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Oh, I love this analogy. Yeah, within the story, Sauron
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commits real evil. He's malicious, he's
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destructive, and he is fully responsible for his actions
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within the narrative. But Tolkien as the author is
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governing the entire story to bring about a glorious
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conclusion. Tolkien is not evil for writing
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a story that contains evil. He is using the villains wicked
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choices to highlight the triumph of good.
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That makes a lot of sense. So how does that apply to Job?
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Well, the prologue of the Book of Job pulls back the curtain on
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the heavenly court so the reader can see what Job could not see.
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Job had no idea that conversation was happening.
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Not at all. Satan is standing before the
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Lord, and it becomes immediately apparent that Satan can only act
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within the strict, unyielding limitations set by God's
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sovereign command. Yeah, God says, behold, all that
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he has is in your hand, only against him.
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Do not stretch out your hand. Yes, Satan cannot take a single
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step past the boundary. God draws the Sabians.
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The wind and Satan are instruments.
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They are not sovereigns. Instruments, not sovereigns.
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That is a massive distinction. A master Craftsman can use a
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heavy hammer or a sharp saw to accomplish his goal, but the
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tools do not dictate the final outcome.
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The Craftsman does. God governs the secondary causes
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perfectly, utilizing the wicked choices of men and demons to
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accomplish His unthwartable intent without ever committing a
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sin Himself. Recognizing that God commands
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these secondary causes and that He holds the highest authority
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over when the lease on life expires leads us to a very
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sobering question. It does.
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On what legal basis does God execute this right to take life?
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If you are listening to this on your commute or while doing
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dishes, you might be wondering why God has this legal right to
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issue a death sentence. Yeah, it's a natural question to
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ask. If we look at the biblical
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theology of death, it becomes clear that death is not a
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biological accident. It is not just a random virus
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that somehow outsmarted the human immune system, and it is
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not just the natural wearing down of cellular structures.
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You know, it's much more formal than that.
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The Apostle Paul uses a very specific Greek term, katakrima
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in Romans chapter 5 verse 18. Yeah, that term describes a
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formal legal sentence. It is a judicial condemnation
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resulting directly from the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.
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Right when Adam rebelled, he acted as the representative for
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all of humanity. He did, and the resulting
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penalty was death. Death is a court rendering.
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So it's a legal reality. Yes, when a judge bangs the
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gavel in a courtroom and hands down a sentence, the officers of
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the court carry it out. In the same way, physical death
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is the execution of a righteous sentence handed down by the
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judge of the universe. And the historical markers
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provided in the text illustrate this judicial sentence with
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staggering clarity. We see God exercising this right
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on a massive scale throughout biblical history.
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Oh, absolutely. Consider the global flood in the
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days of Noah, right? That was not just a tragic
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natural disaster caused by a shifting climate or unfortunate
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atmospheric pressure. That was God acting as a
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righteous judge, deliberately blotting out human wickedness on
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a global scale because the thoughts of men's hearts were
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only evil continually. Yeah, and then you look at the
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Passover in Egypt. Exactly.
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The Lord did not just permit a random plague to wander
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aimlessly through the streets of the Egyptians.
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No, he made a graphic symbolic distinction by directly striking
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down the first born of Egypt. It demonstrated his total
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authority over life and his judgement against Pharaoh's
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rebellion. And later in the historical
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narratives, the text points to the Assyrian army surrounding
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Jerusalem in Second Kings. Oh, that story is.
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Intense 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were struck down in a
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single night by the Angel of the Lord.
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They woke up dead, to use the biblical phrasing.
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Yeah, the absolute take away from these historical realities
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is that the Lord is the executioner of his own holy
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decrees. He really is.
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Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 39 declares See now that I even I
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am He and there is no God beside me.
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I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal and there is
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none that can deliver out of my hand.
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God is exercising total uniqueness as the Almighty.
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He possesses the absolute, uncontested right to deliver the
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sentence of death whenever His holy wisdom dictates He does.
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But you know, this brings up a massive friction point and it is
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something anyone who has ever suffered will inevitably wrestle
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with. If death is a judicial sentence,
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but God is also a loving Father to His people, what is the
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divine goal behind allowing such agonizing loss to strike the
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faithful? The hardest question in the
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world. We know God does not afflict his
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children randomly. Let us look at Satan score
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accusation in the heavenly court when he is speaking to God about
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Job. Satan asks, Does Job fear God
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for nothing? That single question is the core
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of so much human religion. It really is, and it points to
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the first goal of bitter Providence.
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It exposes hidden idolatry in the human heart.
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It asks the brutal, piercing question, Do we actually love
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the giver, or do we just love the gifts?
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Right, because suffering acts like a stress test for the soul.
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Or stress test, Yeah. When you are healthy, wealthy
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and comfortable, you look perfectly fine on the outside.
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It is easy to sing praises when your bank account is full.
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It sure is. But when comfort is violently
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stripped away, that stress test lays bare the true condition of
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your dependence on God. Are the bones of your faith
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solid, resting entirely on who God is?
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Or are they fractured by idolatry, resting only on what
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God could do for you? That is heavy, and the sources
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outlined 4 specific goals of this bitter Providence,
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expanding on that spiritual stress test you just mentioned.
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Yeah, the first goal is bending the stiff neck of human pride.
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We are so proud. We are naturally incredibly
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arrogant creatures. We build our little kingdoms.
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We manage our schedules and we think we are the masters of our
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fate. Until disaster strikes.
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Right when disaster strikes, it decisively teaches us that we
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are creatures, not sovereigns. It violently shatters the
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illusion of control, forcing us to our knees and humility.
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Which leads to the second goal, loosening our grip on the world.
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Yeah, because good things like a loving family, robust physical
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health and a successful career can very easily become rival
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loves in our hearts. We start to worship the creation
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rather than the creator. We do, and bitter Providence
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burns away those rival loves. It is a painful fire, but it
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purifies our affections so that our worship becomes focused
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solely on the Creator. And the third goal is
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strengthening perseverance. Right, because of faith that has
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never been tested, is entirely unseasoned.
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It is theoretical. It's just head knowledge at
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that. Point exactly.
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Affliction trains the believer to live on the promises of God
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rather than relying on sight, favorable circumstances, or
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emotional highs. You learn to trust in the dark
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what God told you in the light. I love that phrase.
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Trust in the dark, what God told you in the light.
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And the fourth goal is fatherly discipline.
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Yeah, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the Lord
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disciplines the one he loves. He wounds in order to heal.
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He empties us of our self-reliance so that he can
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fill us with himself. None of this suffering is
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arbitrary and it is never vindictive when it comes to his
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children. It is precisely measured,
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governed and purposeful. We see God's purposes somewhat
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veiled in Job's story though. I mean, we get glimpses of it,
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but Job himself did not have the full picture while he was
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sitting in the ashes. No, he was completely in the
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dark regarding the Heavenly court.
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So we have to ask, where in human history do we see this
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massive collision of bitter pain and divine goodness most
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clearly? At the cross, Job gives us a
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shatter, but Christ is the substance.
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Job was a righteous man, certainly, but he was still a
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fallen human being who eventually needed correction and
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humbling from God out of the whirlwind.
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Christ is the perfect sinless sufferer who surpasses Job in
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every conceivable way. He does.
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Christ was totally innocent. He had absolutely no hidden
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idolatry. He did not need any impurities
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burned away, yet he endured the absolute darkest, most agonizing
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Providence imaginable. He experienced a loss that makes
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Job's suffering pale in comparison because Christ
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endured the unfiltered wrath of God.
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And the cross of Christ is a supreme vindication of
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everything we're discussing today.
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Yes, it is. If you want proof that God can
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govern evil to produce magnificent good, look at the
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intersection of human wickedness and divine decree in the New
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Testament. Let's look at the book of Acts,
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specifically chapter 2, verse 23 and chapter 4, verses 27 and 28,
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because it lays this out with astonishing clarity.
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It does think about the individuals involved in the
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crucifixion pilot acted out of political cowardice.
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Herod acted out of mockery. The Roman soldiers acted with
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brutal, sadistic cruelty. And the mob in Jerusalem acted
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with profound sorry, with intense, unrestrained hatred.
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Yeah. Yeah, they were all completely
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morally responsible for their violence.
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Yet the text and Acts insist that they did only what God's
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hand and God's plan had predestined to take place.
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Let that sink in. The worst evil ever committed in
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the history of the universe, the murder of the sinless Son of
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God, was the exact mechanism chosen by God for the greatest
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good ever given, which is the salvation of His people.
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It is mind blowing. The cross proves definitively
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that severe, agonizing Providence does not mean God is
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absent, it does not mean He is weak, and it does not mean He is
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unjust. He is actively working His
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massive redemptive plan even through the darkest hours of
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human history. And because Christ absorbed the
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wrath and that specific katakrema, the legal
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condemnation of death we talked about earlier, the entire nature
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of suffering changes completely for the believer.
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This is the turning point. Suffering is no longer a
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punishment from a condemning judge.
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Right for the person who has trusted in Christ.
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The gavel has already dropped and the penalty was paid on the
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cross. Therefore, every bitter
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Providence, every ounce of grief, every terrible medical
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diagnosis now comes to the believer through nail pierced
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hands. Yeah, it changes everything.
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It is governed entirely by a father who secures A
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premillennial hope for his people.
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And let us define that term simply.
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Premillennial hope refers to the bodily return of Christ to
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establish a physical Kingdom. It means our hope is not just
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floating on a cloud playing a harp.
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No, our hope is a physical resurrection.
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We will have new bodies on a restored earth.
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The cross guarantees that the pain you're experiencing right
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now is never wasted, and the story never, ever ends in the
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grave. The grave is just a temporary
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waiting room before the resurrection.
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That massive theological reality is what provides actual
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sustainable pastoral comfort for the people sitting in the pews.
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We cannot just leave this in the realm of high theology.
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We have to apply it to real people facing real world
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terrors. Yeah.
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How do you take the doctrine of divine sovereignty into a
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hospital? Room Well first, for the
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grieving believer, the text offers immense freedom.
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Notice what Job did when he heard the news.
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He tore his robe, he shaved his head, and he fell to the ground.
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The text grants explicit permission to weep.
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Stoicism is not a biblical virtue.
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Pretending that the pain does not hurt or pasting on a fake
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smile and saying God is good all the time while your heart is
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shattering is not what God demands.
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No grief is holy. Jesus himself wept at the tomb
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of Lazarus. But the direction of that grief
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is clear. Lamentation must never harden
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into accusation. Right.
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You can cry out to God in agony. You can express your confusion
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and your deep sorrow, but you cannot charge Him with a crime.
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You cannot point your finger at the heavens and say you wronged
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me. Then there is the direct
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application for the fearful. So many believers live in a
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state of constant, paralyzing anxiety about the future.
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Oh. Yes, the human imagination is a
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relentless machine, constantly churning out worst case
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scenarios about health, about finances, or about the safety of
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our children. We lie awake at night plotting
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out how we will survive a dozen different tragedies that have
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not even happened yet. But knowing that God governs the
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future with absolute, meticulous sovereignty acts as a strong
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tower. The path forward will not
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necessarily be easy. In fact, based on the lives of
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the apostles and the prophets, it might be incredibly painful.
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But it is a governed past. It is completely free from
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chaotic random chance. You are not at the mercy of a
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random universe or a turning wheel of fate.
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Every single step, every trial and every sorrow is filtered to
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the wise, loving fingers of the Almighty before it ever reaches
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you. We also have to address the
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prosperous, and this might be the most dangerous category of
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all. It really might be.
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There's a severe warning here for those who are currently
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experiencing a season of abundance.
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Prosperity dulls our dependence. When your bank account is full,
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your family is healthy, and your career is thriving, it is
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incredibly easy to forget that you were living on borrowed.
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Breath. We start to believe we actually
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own the house. We do.
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Believers must hold their families, their jobs, and their
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physical health with an open hand.
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You must recognize them as temporary stewardships, ready to
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release them back to the owner whenever he calls for them.
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If you clutch the gifts too tightly, if you wrap your entire
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identity around your children or your success, your hands will be
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crushed when God decides to repossess His property.
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You have to actively practice gratitude for the sweet
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Providence while simultaneously acknowledging that the Lord who
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gave has the absolute right to take away.
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So, synthesizing all of this, we are looking at God's absolute
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ownership of human life and a total rejection of modern
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entitlement. Yes, we recognize the reality of
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secondary causes, the wind, the diseases, the hostile actions of
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others, but we know they operate strictly under divine
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restriction. They cannot move a millimeter
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past what God ordains. And we hold fast to the final
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hope secured by Christ, who absorbed the bitter reality of
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death so that we would never have to face the wrath of the
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Judge. Our suffering is now fatherly
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discipline, designed to conform us to the image of Christ.
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I want to leave you, the listener, with a final
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consideration built directly upon the core tension of this
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source text. OK, let's hear it.
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If you can accept that God's absolute ownership extends over
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the darkest, most agonizing days of your life.
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The days you lose your job, the days you sit in a hospital room,
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the days you stand by a grave, how does that reality shift the
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way you view the perfectly ordinary, mundane hours of your
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Tuesday? Oh, that is a convicting
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thought. If you do not own your
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tragedies, you do not own your triumphs either.
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You do not own your free time. You do not own your hobbies,
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your weekend plans, or your talents.
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Consider what it means to yield the deed to your very breath
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today. Recognizing that every quiet
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moment, every cup of coffee, every conversation with a friend
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is a stewardship from the same sovereign hand changes
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everything. You are living on His time,
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sustained by His might for His glory.
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Remember the rented house? We do not hold the deed.
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We are just tenants trusting the perfect wisdom of the owner who
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deals with us not according to our sins, but according to His
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massive grace. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into the absolute sovereignty of God over life,
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death and everything in between. Until next time.