May the Name of the Lord be Praised

I have been reading a little bit of Job lately, and let me tell you - this dude's reaction to loss was amazing. I had always heard of Job's story, but never actually read it, so I decided to do a little bit of that, and what I found was amazing. It certainly cut deeper than the song based on it.

This guy is described as a blameless man, righteous before God. If you read further in the book, he even claims this himself! Yet he is not prideful, he says even in his innocence he is shamed. In Job 19:20 Job says, "Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty." God is so incredibly holy, we can't even fathom it. Even in our innocence we pale in comparison!

In any case, he was described as righteous for good reason. He was comitted to praising God in every circumstance. In an extremely short time he found out that all of his children were dead, all but 4 servants were killed, all his flocks and camels were burned up or stolen, and all of his oxen and donkeys were killed. Perhaps that doesn't hit home for you with the donkeys and camels and such. Look at it this way - you go to work only to find that you have been laid off, go to the bank to discover that your account has been frozen, and come home to a completely burned down house in which all your family was caught inside. This is how Job responds to such a situation:

"At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised'" (Job 1:9).

I don't even know how to respond to that. What more need be said?!