Was Job Wrong?

When Job received news that all his property had been destroyed and all his children had been killed, he went into mourning and exclaimed:

Job 1:21 ESV 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.”

So, according to Job, who took Job’s property and children away from him? The Lord himself!

However, some argue that when Job said, “The LORD has taken,” he was wrong and was not speaking the truth about God. They insist that these words of Job are merely his mistaken opinion of God.

Although it is true that some things written in the Bible are the mistaken opinions of people and not biblical truth, this is always made clear by the context. However, that is not the case with these words of Job, as it is made clear in the very next verse:

Job 1:22 ESV In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Notice that unlike the words of Job in verse 21, these words in verse 22 are part of the biblical narrative. Thus, these words do not reflect the subjective opinion of Job, but the objective perspective of God. The Hebrew word for “sin” here is the verb ḥāṭāʾ, which means “to make a mistake; to miss the mark”. In case anyone thinks that these words of Job were merely his mistaken opinions, God-inspired Scripture clarifies that he did not make a mistake; he did not miss the mark, but was actually spot-on accurate in his assessment of the situation!

Later on, after a second wave of afflictions from Satan, Job’s wife rebuked him for holding on to his integrity with God, telling him, “Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) How did Job respond to her?

Job 2:10 ESV But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

The answer to Job’s rhetorical question implies that both good and evil come from God, and that it would be foolish to think that we should only receive good from God and not evil. Again, the God-inspired scriptural narrative tells us: “In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.”

At the conclusion of the Book of Job, it is explicitly stated that it was God himself who had caused all these bad things to happen to Job:

Job 42:11 ESV Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

But was it not Satan and not God who caused all these bad things to happen to Job? Since that is the case, then should it not be Satan who “has taken”, and not the Lord? However, when we read the account of what took place in the heavenly court session at the beginning of the Book of Job, we learn a crucial detail:

Job 1:9–12 ESV Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? ₁₀ Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ₁₁ But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” ₁₂ And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Notice how God was in complete control over what happened to Job. Satan had to obtain permission from God before he could do anything to Job. God had the authority to decide whether and to what extent Satan could afflict Job. If God had disallowed Satan from doing something to Job, Satan would not have been able to do it at all. Therefore, by making a conscious decision to allow Satan to do what he did, God was ultimately responsible for Job’s losses.

Ironically, Christians have no problems naming Satan as the cause of Job’s losses, even though according to the biblical text itself, it was the Sabeans, a fire, the Chaldeans, and a great wind which actually destroyed Job’s property and killed his children (Job 1:13–19). Likewise, although Satan was a more direct cause of Job’s losses, God was the ultimate indirect cause. Therefore, biblically speaking, Job could rightfully say, “The LORD has taken.”