Job Was Already Worshipping As His Circumstances Changed
17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 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.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Historians are fairly certain that Job lived before Moses gave Israel the Ten Commandments. That means that we can be sure that Job’s reaction to his loss wasn’t motivated by some need to keep a law.
If you heard somebody knelt down and worshipped God when they lost their family, you might be a little suspicious. They might suddenly become a person of interest in these deaths. That’s not what is going on here.
Job was a righteous man. He was the most blessed and honorable man in the land. That is why God draws the devil’s attention to him!
Job had a regular lifestyle and practice of worshipping God.
So when the worst thing that could ever happen to a person happened to Job, he went into his default habits. That default habit was to worship.
This worship doesn’t involve any deliberate sacrifice on the part of Job, however. This is just straight-up loss.
The act of sacrifice comes in for Job at his opening acknowledgment that everything he has come from God, and everything he has is going back to God.
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”
This level of trust in God’s actions reverts Job to respond in worship to God. God is all he has at this point (except for his cranky wife that didn’t weather the grief so well).
Many people become Christians or renew their faith when they go through hard times. “When God is all you have, God is all you need.” Someone might say.
Even better, develop that dependence and regular worship pattern before everything collapses. Maybe not rip your clothes or shave your head, but try kneeling on the floor next to your bed. Proclaim to the Lord the truth that everything you have has come from Him and that you know you won’t keep it. Developing a habit of worshipping God no matter our circumstances isn’t foolish or tricking ourselves, it’s honesty. God is great and all that we are has come from Him.
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