“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 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.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”
– Job 1:20–22
I think these three verses are some of the most breathtaking, challenging, in a sense just overwhelming verses in all the Bible. To think about all that Job just experienced, specifically at the end of this chapter, with losing all of his children, I cannot fathom this. So some of you listening right now know the pain of losing a child and to hear in one day all your stuff is gone and every one of your kids. And even his wife, as we’ll see, is criticizing him. Job hears all of this, rises, tears his robe, shaves his head, falls on the ground, and does what? He worships.
Job 1:20–22 Teaches Us to Worship God
He worships. In that moment, he falls on the ground and worshiped, saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” And he didn’t charge God with wrong or sin. He blessed the name of God.
So I just want to pray for all of us, some of us who are through tragedy right now. I obviously don’t know all the details of what that might look like, but some of us are walking through these kinds of days, had this kind of day yesterday or today. And others of us are not, at least not to this level. And I just want to pray that God would give us this kind of faith if that day comes.
Praying for Trust in God
God, we pray together for this kind of response in the face of tragedy, for worship, God, for this kind of trust in you, this kind of humility before you, this kind of even gratitude before you, the way Job just thanks you for his kids and the time he had with them. He knew that was a gift from your hand and thanked you for it. God, we thank you for so many good things in our lives that we know we’re not guaranteed to have tomorrow.
And that list is so long, the number of good things in our lives that we’re not guaranteed to have tomorrow, but we say together today, “Thank you for them today.” And we pray for faith that if one of them or all of them are gone tomorrow, that we would bless your name, that we would trust you in the middle of that.
Job 1:20–22 Leads Us to Ask God to Guard Us from Sin
God, I do pray. I pray especially for those who were walking through this kind of Job-like moment right now. I pray that you would guard them from sin, that you would keep them from charging you with wrong, you would help them to bless your name and, God, that you would minister to them in every way they need. Help them in every way they need as they look to you in worship. God, we pray for Job 1:20–22 to mark all of our lives in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
