Job 1:21 states . . . Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

Typically this verse is a sentiment commonly expressed at funerals.  God gives us a time in this world and then there is death that takes us away.

But, let me express this in a different facet.  Has little or no bearing on the verse or its usual connotations.

As I sat in church on Easter morning, which was today, I told God I present myself for His Words to be spoken into my life concerning this auspicious day.  He immediately says to me, I have something for you.  I don’t usually find Him giving me something so immediate.  Just the phrase “the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away;”.  In my heart I heard it more directly as “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away”.

So, you ask, what is this facet of the phrase that you heard?  Simple.  John 3:16 says it in a much quoted way, but here I heard something like this.

God gave us his Son.  This is the “giveth” part.  God gave us His Son that he may be sacrificed as a propitiation for the sins of the world.

In the act of crucifixion, the shedding of blood, death and resurrection, the sins of the world were taken away.  This is the “taketh” part of the phrase.  In the giving of His son, He took away our sin.  No more are we accountable to sin in acceptance of this “giving”.

So without going into a lot of detail, it’s simple to say that God “gave” in order to “take” away.  He gave His Son for our sin.

Hope this speaks to someone that needs it.

One thing I’ve found to possibly change the paradigm of popular thought.  When Jesus cried out from the cross “It is finished” I sensed the completion of redemption of mankind.  In that completion every name of all men and women was written in the Book of Life.  It stays there until a person fails to acknowledge this gift by the end of their life.  If a person willingly denies or dies without this acknowledgement then their name is blotted out of the Book of Life.  After all, it’s a gift.  God wrapped a gift for you at the cross.  That gift is life eternal.  It’s yours.  Why not “open” your gift by receiving it, opening it and accepting it.  The loss of the body at “death” is not the end of life, but a projection of one into an eternal state of life.

All you have now to do is acknowledge that God has you already.  The only way around that is to not acknowledge it.  Seems a bit senseless to not claim your gift from God who wants you to re-establish a relationship with Him that was lost in the first Adam and regained in the second Adam.  God wants relationship.  Just do it.  Simple, eh?

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