This is a great post by a friend of mine. There is no point in reinventing the wheel so enjoy.
No matter what you believe about God, almost all of us have heard the phrase, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away” at some point throughout our lives. This phrase is most commonly used at a funeral or burial service, alluding to the idea that God is both the giver and taker of life.
While no sensible Christian would object to the first part of this statement (“the Lord gives”), is God really the one who is responsible for taking lives?
In order to answer this question, we must first go to the source from where this phrase originates, which is found in what most Bible scholars agree to be the oldest book of the Bible: The Book of Job. In verses 20-21 of Chapter 1, it reads, “Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
The context surrounding this verse is the catastrophic aftermath of a conversation between God and Satan, in which all of Job’s children, servants and livestock are tragically killed all at once. The apparent assumption here made by Job is that God is the one responsible for this tragedy – those who were “taken away”.
Unlike us as readers, Job wasn’t privy to the back-story behind his terrible circumstances, not knowing that it was actually Satan who was the cause.
“But wait a minute,” I can hear you say, “didn’t God agree to let Satan do this to Job? Didn’t God allow it? And if so, isn’t God at least partly responsible?”
Let’s look at the verse in question. Job 1:12 says, “And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath [is] in thy power…”
In order to interpret this correctly, we have to remember the condition of mankind at this point in time. God initially gave all authority over the earth to Adam and Eve, which they eventually yielded to Satan when they believed his lie and ate from the forbidden tree. Since Jesus had not yet been sent to redeem mankind from sin and death at this point, Satan – “the god of this world” [II Cor. 4:4] – had authority over the earth. So when God said to Satan, “Behold, all that he hath is in thy power,” He was simply acknowledging Satan’s authority and access to Job. After all, what was Job’s response to the situation?
“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” [Job 3:25]
Here we see Satan’s inroad to Job: Fear.
Now, what about a New Covenant believer? What is our position with Satan? After his resurrection, Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” [Matt. 28:18] Further, Paul stated in Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
We have power over sin and death through Jesus!
So then, why would God co-labor with man so diligently for 4,000 years in order to bring about the plan of salvation through the sacrifice of his son Jesus in order for us to have victory over sin and death – if He was, in fact, the author of death? The same point can be made about sickness, poverty, fear, depression, or anything else that was brought into the world through sin, which Jesus himself atoned for on the cross.
I find it peculiar that, out of all of the statements that Job makes in this book from his own limited perspective, many Christians have honed in on this one statement and have made an entire doctrine out of it. “God’s got your number.”
I was at a Bible study recently where we were praying for the local family of an 8-year-old boy who had fallen over dead while playing outside one day. The mood in the room was very somber; one of the women, while sobbing, prayed something like this: “Lord, we don’t know why you would take an innocent little 8-year-old boy like that…”
I believe this is one of the biggest lies that the enemy has tricked us into believing. There’s even a popular worship song today that ignorantly quotes Job, and sings of God, “You give and take away”.
Sorry, Matt Redman – you’re a nice guy and I like many of your songs – but, NO HE DOESN’T!
The fact is that death was never God’s idea. Have we so easily forgotten that WE are the ones who brought death into this world? Jesus makes this very clear: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.” [John 10:10]
“Sure,” some of you are thinking, “but what about Hebrews 9:27, where it says that it is appointed unto man once to die? Doesn’t that mean that God picks and chooses a time for each of us to die?”
NO! In this scripture, Paul is simply acknowledging that all of us will die at some point in our earthly bodies, as this part of our being has not yet been redeemed.
Essentially, there are only two conditions under which we will die: willingly, or due to a lack of knowledge. A willing death can either be a martyr (such as Peter) or one who is simply old in years and is ready to ”give up the ghost” to go be with the Lord. I honestly believe that anyone who dies without meeting these conditions – whether it be by sickness, murder, or some sort of “accident” – has died before their time, lacking revelation of their victory over Satan, their adversary.
But this is hard for many people to deal with. It seems “easier” for them to blame God for someone’s death rather than to humble themselves and come to grips with their own ignorance. What a heretical cop-out!
Here’s the fallout from believing this lie:
James 1:5-8 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all [men] liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man [is] unstable in all his ways.”
If you hold to the idea that God “has your number” and will decide when you die, or that He was responsible for “taking” a loved one from you, why would you be able to trust Him with anything else? God has already given us all of the promises and provision that we could ever want or need in this life. But if we’re double minded about His true nature and character – if we don’t trust Him – we are unstable and will not be positioned to receive anything from Him.
God, forgive us for believing this lie about You. For those of you reading this, I pray that this liberates you to assure your heart and to know that God loves you, has come to give you life, and is for you – not against you!
[Note: Inevitably, some of you are already referencing examples in the Old Testament where God did directly take the lives of people, such as Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood, etc. While I’m not going to take the time to fully explain this here, I don’t believe that this contradicts anything that I have stated, as God was still operating in mercy towards man throughout these instances. Remember, from the time of the fall of man until the birth of Jesus, God was co-laboring with man in order to bring about His plan for salvation through his Son. When God destroyed a group of people in the Old Testament, it was done as a last resort and only for the sake of preserving His plan of redemption. In the days of Noah, for example, men’s hearts were constantly bent towards evil and they had no hope of being redeemed. Had God continued to allow evil to spread, there wouldn’t have been a virgin left for Jesus to have been born through, and humanity would be utterly hopeless!]
