Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3025
“Thee LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:21.
[This title has been selected in order to call special attention to the fact that the Sermon is published exactly 15 years after the beloved preacher was “called Home” on January 31st, 1892. The subject is as singularly appropriate to the anniversary of that never-to-be-forgotten period as the Sermons which were issued at the time of Mr. Spurgeon’s death and funeral—Sermons No. 2242, (All Volume 38)—GOD’S WILL ABOUT THE FUTURE; No. 2243, HIS OWN FUNERAL SERMON; No. 2244, MEMBERS OF CHRIST and No. 2245, “LIVING, LOVING, LASTING UNION”.]
OR, as some read it, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” So that the text is not only concerning the past, but it may rightly be considered as relating also to the present. Some of the rarest pearls have been found in the deepest waters and some of the choicest utterances of Believers have come from them when God’s waves and billows have been made to roll over them. The fire consumes nothing but the dross and leaves the gold all the purer. In Job’s case, I may truly say with regard to his position before God, he had lost nothing by all his losses, for what could be purer and brighter gold than this which gleams before us from our text, revealing his triumphant patience, his complete resignation and his cheerful acquiescence in the Divine will? “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
There are two points to which I ask your earnest attention while we meditate upon this subject. The first is the exhortation drawn from the text—learn to see the Lord’s hand in everything—in giving and in taking. And, secondly—and this is a harder lesson—learn to bless the Lord’s name in everything—in giving and in taking.
I. First, LET US LEARN TO SEE THE LORD’S HAND IN EVERYTHING.
Our whole history seems to be divided, as our text divides itself, into a beholding of God’s hand in giving and then a beholding of it in taking.
We are then, first of all, to behold God’s hand as a giving hand. If we are Believers, all the comforts and mercies that we have are to be viewed by us as coming from the hands of our gracious Heavenly Father. Job confessed that the Lord had given him the camels, the sheep, the oxen and that the Lord had given him his seven sons and three daughters. Everything which he had ever possessed he looked upon as having been the gift of God. Job did not say, “I worked hard to obtain all that stock that I have now lost.” He did not complain, “I spent many weary days and many anxious nights in accumulating all those flocks and herds that have been stolen from me.” He did not ascribe any of his wealth either to his own wit, or to his own industry, but he said of it all—“The Lord gave it to me.” In his mind’s eye, he took an inventory of all that he once had and of all that he had lost—and he said of the whole, “It was all the Lord’s gift to me.”
Now, Beloved, whatever may be the possessions which you have at the present time. Whatever may be the number of those who are the comfort of your life—husband or wife, parents or children, kinsfolk of any sort—say of all of them, “The Lord gave them to me.” And, as a Christian, learn the wisdom of never ascribing any earthly comfort to any earthly source. The worldling may not always be able to say what Job said concerning his possessions. Some of what he has may not have been obtained honestly—the Lord did not give any of that to him. Some of what he has may turn out to be a curse rather than a blessing, but the Believer in Christ may say with the utmost truthfulness, with regard to all that he has, “It is all the gift of my loving and tender Heavenly Father.”
And, Brothers and Sisters, there is associated with this fact that all our possessions are God’s gifts, the remembrance that they are all undeserved gifts. They are gifts in the fullest sense of the word—the gifts of God’s Grace. They are not given to us because we have merited them, for we have never deserved even the least of all the mercies which the Lord has so bountifully bestowed upon us. We may say of the whole river of His favor which continually flows side by side with us as we journey along the pathway of our pilgrimage, that there is not a drop of it which comes to us of debt or by law, but all comes through the free gift of God’s Grace! All that we have, over and above what would have been our portion in the pit of Hell, is the gift of God’s mercy towards us. It is of the Lord’s mercy and because His compassions fail not, that we are not consumed. Every Believer can truly say with Job, “‘The Lord gave,’ yes, the Lord gave even to me, an unworthy one who sat as a beggar at His gate and received from His own hand countless tokens of His Infinite loving kindness.”