Resignation or Praise

And he said, “Naked I came out from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.  The LORD has given and the LORD has taken away.  May the LORD’s name be blessed.”  Job 1:21 Robert Alter

Naked – “You can’t take it with you.”  We all know that is absolutely true.  We came into the world with nothing.  We will leave with nothing.  In that sense, birth and death are the same.  Entry and exit—and everything else is just “in-between” diversions.  The reality of the end, the utter and completely empty end—is what psychologist Irvin Yalom calls “death anxiety,” and it’s for good reason that he postulates death anxiety is the mother of all religions.  In this context, religion, all religion, is a human way to make us feel that it isn’t over when it’s over.  Whether we go on to another iteration of the same treadmill, or find our way to heavenly bliss, or are absorbed into the great nothingness, or arrive at a new beginning, all the religious solutions would be completely unnecessary if there were no inevitable end.

But since there is an inevitable end, how we deal with that reality demonstrates something fundamental about who we are.  We could react with a sense of great loss, grief, and agony:

So typical is this human expression that we can hardly relate to Job’s resignation.  At least that’s what we immediately think.  Job is resigned to his fate.  If only we could muster up such stoic disengagement when death comes knocking.

But perhaps Job isn’t capitulating, perhaps he is conceding.  Could it be that Job is worshipping?  We think of worship as something uplifting, perhaps even joyful.  But isn’t worship acknowledging the sovereignty of the Creator, magnifying Him in whatever circumstances we find ourselves?  Isn’t worship that much more powerful when it comes in the midst of trial or suffering?  Wasn’t Yeshua worshipping when he extolled the power of the Father on the cross?

Here is a man I encountered on the subway steps in China.

If you were this man, could you worship?  Could you say with Job, “I came with nothing.  I leave with nothing.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Look at his existence.  Begging to survive.  Ravaged by some unknown disaster.  And what makes you think this couldn’t be your fate?  Would worship still fall from your lips?  Would you recognize the sovereignty of God if you sat where he sits?

What is worship to you?  Songs, lifted hands, clapping audiences, or meditation, calm repose, a certain spiritual sensitivity?  Or can you worship with Job when everything but the last breath is gone?

Topical Index:  worship, naked, death, Job 1:21