Daily Devotional | Worshiping in Tragedy

In 2009, a major news outlet published an article titled “Why Do We Believe That Catastrophes Come in Threes?” The author stated, “The persistence of this belief is difficult to explain since the case for it is so easily demolished.” The story of Job demolishes this illogical belief as well. Job’s catastrophes came in four waves.

After receiving permission from the Lord, Satan began to attack Job’s household and possessions (v. 12). Job received a string of bad news from a survivor of each event. First, the Sabeans killed his herdsmen with the sword and stole his oxen and donkeys. Next, lightning struck and killed all his sheep and the shepherds watching them. Then, the Chaldeans stole his camels and murdered more servants. Finally, a windstorm destroyed the house where Job’s children were feasting and killed them all. This last news was the worst of all. His children had been killed from what we might call “an act of God.”

Not having time to grieve between each of the four sequential messages, he finally mourned his loss. The narrator depicts four separate and sequential acts by Job. He got up. He tore his robe. He shaved his head. He fell to the ground in worship (v. 20). He acknowledged that everything he had came from God and that the Giver had the right to take back those gifts. Job’s response expresses praise, even in the midst of tragedy: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (v. 21).

It would have been easy for Job to become angry with the Lord for taking away his possessions and his children. However, the narrator allows us to see that just as Job was concerned that his children might have “sinned and cursed God in their hearts” (v. 5), Job hadn’t sinned against God in his (v. 22).

Go Deeper

Has God ever removed something or someone important in your life? Did you respond appropriately?

Pray with Us: Almighty God, we marvel at Job’s unshakable faith in the face of all his misfortunes! Give us strength to be able to say, like Job, “May the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:21), in both happy and hard times.

BY Eric W. Moore

Eric Moore is Professor and Chair of the Applied Theology Field at Moody Theological Seminary. Eric is graduate of Michigan State University, Dallas Theological Seminary, the University of Michigan, and Western Seminary. He is the author of Pastoring the Small Church and a contributor to the One Volume Seminary (Moody Publishers). He has pastored Tree of Life Bible Fellowship church for over two decades. Eric and his wife, Marilyn, live in southeast Michigan and have three children.