'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.' That is a step far
beyond the former. To bring in the thought of _the Lord_ makes a
world of difference.
The tendency is to look only at the second cause. In Job's case there
were two classes of agencies, men, Chaldeans and Sabeans, and natural
causes, fire and wind, but he did not stop with these.
The grand corrective of that tendency lies in the full theistic idea,
that God is the sole cause of all. The immanence of Deity in all
things and events is our refuge from the soul-crushing tyranny of the
reign of law.
That devout recognition of God in law is eminently to be made in
regard to death, as Job does in the text: 'The number of his months is
with Thee.' Death is not any more nor any less under His control than
all other human incidents are. It has no special sanctity, nor
abnormally close connection with His will, but it no more is exempt
from such connection than all the other events of life. The connection
is real. He opens the gate of the grave and no man shuts. He shuts,
and no man opens.
Job did not forget the Lord's gifts even while he was writhing under
the stroke of His withdrawings. Alas! that it should so often need
sorrow to bear into our hearts that we owe all to Him, but even then,
if not before, it is well to remember how much good we have received
of the Lord, and the remembrance should not be 'a sorrow's crown of
sorrow,' but a thankful one.
IV. The thankful resignation to God's loving administration of the
law.
The preceding words might be said with mere submission to an
irresistible power, but this last sentence climbs to the highest of
the true Christian idea. It recognises in loss and sorrow a reason for
praise.
Why?
Because we may be sure that all loss is for our good.
Because we may be sure that all loss is from a loving God. In loss of
dear ones, _our_ gain is in drawing nearer to God, in being
taught more to long for heaven. In our relation to them, a loftier
love, a hallowing of all the past. _Their_ gain is in their
entrance to heaven, and all the glory that they have reached.
This blessing of God for loss is not inconsistent with sorrow, but
anticipates the future when we shall know all and bless Him for all.