Job's Story: Where's God's Protection?

My granddaughter, Sara—Sara without an H she would tell you—has a real heart for the Lord, for which her grandparents are very glad. This past summer, she and her dad were sitting in the floor of her room playing.

“Dad,” she asked, out of the clear blue sky, “do you feel God’s protection?”

A bit startled, my son replied, “Well, yes, Sara, I do.”

“I do too,” she said, and happily went back to playing.

Now that story makes a warm grandmother memory! I’m thankful Sara felt God’s protection. But in September of this year, Sara came down with Swine flu. She’s still recovering and under a doctor’s care 7 weeks later.

Where was God’s protection when that little undetectable virus entered Sara’s body? Will Sara ever question God’s protection? Do you? I certainly have. Where was God's protection when as a young bride of four months I was in a car accident that left me bedridden for six weeks? Or when my husband caught bacterial meningitis? The list goes on.

A Bible character named Job had every reason to feel safe and secure in God’s protection. He had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 donkeys and oxen, 7 sons, 3 daughters, and one nagging wife. Yet, in one day’s time he lost everything but his nagging wife. You may be familiar with his well-known response to his losses. In Job 1:21 he said:

“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
May the name of the Lord be praised.”

Now wait a minute. Job said God is both a giver and a taker. If we think about it from our prayer lives, we know God says yes and no. But can we really call God a taker?

Job’s nagging wife thought so. Soon after the deaths of Job’s children and the loss of his fortune, Job was afflicted with boils. Mrs. Job, in her despair, asked, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die.” Job reflected on her conclusion to “curse God and die” with a penetrating question of his own, one with which we should all wrestle. Job 2:10 asks, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.”

Do you find it hard to rest comfortably in the arms of God? Just when you think you’ve got him figured out, He turns in another direction? Is God a giver or a taker? Usually, we answer that question based on our life circumstances—at the moment. But we need a heavenly perspective. Only God knows what he’s doing through the events of our lives. Only He knows how to transform us into Christ-likeness and move us forward on the road to His house. His pace may seem too slow or so fast it makes our heads spin. But the choice isn’t ours to make.

“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

Job learned to accept God’s divine wisdom—but only after he’d verbally wrestled with God over his circumstances. In Job 38: 4 God asked Job a profound question: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Tell me if you understand.”

For the next 125 verses, God makes mincemeat of Job’s reasoning. In Job 40:1 God asks, “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?”

Job then responds, “I spoke once, but I have no answer.” Then in 42:2, Job says, “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted…Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”

“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” To do so is to tell God how our lives should transpire in order to please us. Sorry, but it's all about Him.