Job 1:20 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.”
Most of you will be familiar with the verses before these. Job lost so much of what mattered to him, probably the most. And his response is, “Worship!” “Surrender!” “Open hands before the LORD!” He understood that nothing was his own, no matter how important to him. His worship was not done, and the worst circumstances were still ahead of him. After losing almost everything, He would be struck down physically with excruciating pain, sores, and misery. When most folks would have become angry with God, he turns and says, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive bad?” For many of us, the answer to that question would be, “God had better not take (fill in the blank).” “If God gives me (name the disease), I’m done with Him.”
When life hits us hard, a loved one is taken, or our financial security is jeopardized, many get angry with God. Worship does not even play into the paradigm of any pernicious circumstances. Surrender becomes a foreign concept purposely not understood during such a time as crucial as loss. Job didn’t even have all the knowledge we hold of God’s Sovereignty, yet he worshiped. We’ve allowed our knowledge to puff us up because many of us sound more like Job’s bloviating wife, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” We may not go that far, but it can be the thoughts we wrestle against.
Corrie ten Boom says, “Hold everything in your hands lightly. Otherwise, it hurts when God pries your fingers open.” I love that so much. If you read Corrie’s book, “The Hiding Place.” You will read how she lived a life of “Worship” during a season of decay, deleteriousness, and death. Worship is not meant to speak of singing songs during an hour-and-a-half service. The surrender lived out by Job and Corrie is of lives fully given to the care of God. The circumstances were of no avail. For them both, the Lord could give and take away, but the Lord would continue to be the King of their lives. In all this, “(they) did not sin with (their) lips.” They were true worshippers, not conditional servants.
True worshippers don’t simply hold up their hands but hold all things they have in open hands. Submitted worshippers understand that God owns EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE in their lives. While He has given them the privilege of using and taking care of things, loving and living with people, they are all His. God’s desire is not to torment or torture anyone with loss, but loss is a part of the life we lead on earth. There is no “fair” or “right” time to lose anything or anyone. God’s glory is at stake, too, so He is not some callous Ruler looking down to terrorize us with pain and hardship. Satan accused Job of being loyal to God because of all the good stuff he was given. Stuff God protected, not letting Satan touch. “A hedge” is what Satan called it. Sadly, “We sometimes prove Satan’s philosophy, correct?” As soon as our circumstances go awry, we get angry with God, accusing Him of evil. James says, “(God) cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt with evil.” His work is never to tempt us to sin but to push us into His arms in worship. Saying, "All to Jesus, I surrender."
The first commandment says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Our lives are infested with “other gods before…” the One True God. Our marriages, our children, our jobs, our race, our gender, our possessions, our… on and on. When God touches it, because we’ve held with onus, our strained and tightly pulled opened fingers reach our hearts, broken by the act of God being LORD, and we are wrecked in place of offering worship. Just sit among other Christians, and you’ll hear the stories of those who challenge God’s choice of taking someone or something they care about. It can be immaturity. It can be they are being sanctified in this area and are learning. I always pray they will bow in worship, surrendering their mourning and loss to God before they become hardened with accusations towards His Sovereignty.
When Jesus met the woman at the well, he identified her security/idol. A woman most would identify as a “loose lady,” but Jesus saw a woman who, when she understood worship, would submit her life and her idols to the Messiah. While this woman’s story doesn’t seem as dire as Job’s, believing Jesus would cost her everything. Worship would demand a change. She was looking to be “loved,” “protected,” “secure,” or “satisfied” in the men she went from one by one. She had gone through five men and was with her sixth when meeting Jesus. He’d be her seventh and would become, through worship, her true love, security, and salvation once she understood that Jesus, alone, could satisfy her thirst. While God did not take away, if she were to become a true worshiper, she would need to give up the ones she depended on for her security. The Lord was ready to give her Himself.
When we become worshipers, we submit to Him and willingly give up or release to Him those things that do not honor Him. Jesus explained to the Samaritan women, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The outcome of her story is that she understood the benefits of true worship at the cost of what she had to let go of to receive it. In this historical setting, she’d run into town to explain to others the One she met that, with open hands, she’d receive and let go of all others. Even a woman running into town with such news would seem unscrupulous; she may pay even more of a price to worship Jesus in this way. As a woman, this was not modest in a culture where men led and women’s words were considered worthless. Her reputation was already in peril; she was out at the hottest time to get water, which was not a common time of day to draw water. She acted in a way that disregarded opinions for the opportunity to share with others that she found the One to Whom True Worship was to be freely given. She opened her hands to him. He would become the one to Whom she gave everything. He was the Messiah. Worship demands our open hands for Him to take away, but also for us to give up.
“Worshipping God in Spirit.” Whether she understood this or not, she responded as if she had completely understood what he was declaring. She understood that he was the one who could give her life satisfaction in the sense that truly mattered before God. She could leave the need for all these men behind her. Worshiping God in truth comes with the understanding that God is Sovereign and everything else is an idol. Anything we hold and say, “God, you cannot touch this or that,” is so far from understanding true worship.
Job, Corrie, and the Samaritan woman shared one thing: they understood “the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away,” and no matter which he chose, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job began life with everything a person could wish for, and after losing almost all of it, he worshipped. Corrie lived through the horrors of the Holocaust, one of the worst epics in history. She watched as human beings died horrible deaths, including her sister. She worshipped. The Samaritan woman put her hope in the wrong place. She did this ignorantly, I believe. When given the chance to put her hope in the Living Water, without hesitation or shame, she worshipped. At the same time, we don’t read that she stopped running from man to man. We can be sure that she let Jesus fulfill her thirst in her worship. God never leaves a person to continue in sin. There is always a way of escape.
Can you say this about the hardest circumstances you’ve faced? Do you identify yourself as a true worshipper? Do you hold all God has placed in your life with open hands? Each story I shared had a different nuance to how their lives were identified with worship. No matter the story, these three were submitted in such a way that whatever revealed their hands open to God was the gift that proved them true worshippers. Each submitted to God above all the people they loved or the things they had in their lives. How might God find you with open hands and prove you a true worshipper? Perhaps He will need to pry your fingers open, and you will be found wanting? We can prepare now and come to Him in worship with open hands. We don’t need to fear what trials may come our way. “Perfect love cast out all fear.” Knowing God’s love and care for His people, loss is not meant to destroy us; that is why we are warned that trials happen. We are told not to be surprised by them. Job had none of that information. No matter what circumstances come our way, with a heart of worship and open hands, we can say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
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