Insight for Living

Narrator (Male): Today on Insight for Living from Chuck Swindoll.

Chuck Swindoll: We have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. We've brought nothing, we take nothing. In the meantime, we borrow everything.

Narrator (Male): We brought nothing into this world and we'll take nothing out. Everything in between, it's on loan. Our home, our career, our savings, even our children, all of it is borrowed.

Narrator (Male): Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues his biographical series called Job, a man of heroic endurance. In this study, Chuck brings us to one of the most searingly honest moments in all of scripture. A man who lost everything in a single afternoon and somehow found his way to worship. To prepare our hearts and minds, Chuck begins with prayer.

Chuck Swindoll: Blessed be your name when you give, our Father. Blessed be your name when you take. Blessed be your name at the birth of our children. Blessed be your name at their death.

Chuck Swindoll: Blessed be your name when they serve you. Blessed be your name when they fight with you. Blessed be your name when our home is full of nice things. Blessed be your name when we don't even have a home.

Chuck Swindoll: Blessed be your name when the car is new. Blessed be your name when the car is old. Blessed be your name when the church is growing. Blessed be your name when the growth stops.

Chuck Swindoll: Blessed be your name when we're getting along. Blessed be your name when we can't get along. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Chuck Swindoll: You are to be most blessed. No one else gives like you give. No one else has the right to take as you have that right. Because you have given, we today are able to give. And we glory in your name because we can.

Chuck Swindoll: And for those who can't, we glory in your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In the name of the Lord we give and we pray.

Chuck Swindoll: And God's people said,

Congregation: Amen.

Narrator (Male): You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into today's topic, be sure to purchase a copy of our searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer.

Narrator (Male): Beginning in Job chapter 1, Chuck titled his message Reeling and Recovering from Devastating News.

Chuck Swindoll: The beginning of verse 13, now it happened. Stop. All the scene between God and Satan is invisible as I've said, not known by Job.

Chuck Swindoll: We know from what we read later that the kids have all gone to Job Jr's home for a little feast time together, all ten of them, having fun as only grown family members can have, if they're still talking together. And this family is, they're eating and they're feasting and they're having one great time and the father, being the good father that he is, not super pious but genuinely concerned, the father goes to prayer.

Chuck Swindoll: Perhaps one of the kids will somehow hurt the relationship that she has or he has with the Lord. And so Job turns to prayer and is on his knees in his bedchamber. At the same time, if you were to look out Job's window, you would see the oxen plowing the field, preparing for the next crop.

Chuck Swindoll: All of the field hands are at work, working with animals they know by name. Sons and daughters are having one great time, telling family stories and laughing over recent events. And if you listen closely through the door, you could hear the prayers of a good father as he remembers one child after another by name. Dads do that.

Chuck Swindoll: Suddenly there's a knock at the door, and Job normally is not interrupted by any of the servants, but this messenger has something worth interrupting to say. And after that, Job's life will never be the same again. Ever.

Chuck Swindoll: It's like the phone call you would get in the middle of the night. It's like the rap at the door. It's like the visit from someone who is an official from the government. And the messenger bursts in without being told it's okay, and he says to Job, the oxen, the oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were feeding beside them, and those people from Sheba, they attacked! We've talked about the possibility of them coming. They've attacked! And they took those animals, all of those animals, and they've cut the servants to ribbon! While he was still speaking, another one came on the scene.

Chuck Swindoll: And he said, there was this bolt of lightning. It was like fire from heaven that came down and it consumed all of the sheep and all of the field hands who take care of the sheep. And I'm the only one left. And another pushes him aside and says, Job, you wouldn't believe it, but three raids from the Chaldeans have hit that area where we had the camels, and they have taken all the camels away, and they have killed every one of the servants, and I alone am left. And Job is not even able to get up off his knees, at least thinking, I've got my kids. And there's one more that says, Job! Job, the sons, and no! No! No, no, no!

Chuck Swindoll: There was this tornado that swept through the wilderness and wooden carts were thrown into the air and the wheels were blown apart, and it came right over the house of your oldest son, and the house exploded and every one of the kids was killed. Job lost all ten in a freak storm directed by Satan. All of them.

Chuck Swindoll: And for the first time in 35, 40 years, Mr. and Mrs. Job are childless. I would plead with all of you who love the Bible, leave room for its emotion. It's full of it.

Chuck Swindoll: See there, in verse 20. I don't know how long. It could have been all the rest of the afternoon he lay there. He could have stumbled outside to look for himself in the distance to see the house now a shambles, holding the bodies of his children.

Chuck Swindoll: And I'll tell you, as painful as the words of the messengers were as he played them over in his mind, something even worse was the silence of God. Not one word of comfort from the heavenlies. You've been there, haven't you?

Chuck Swindoll: No one to answer why. No one to explain the reason for the ruin. Alexander White puts it so well. Job's sorrows came not in a single spy, but in battalions.

Chuck Swindoll: Before he could catch his breath from one, there was another, and from the other, there yet another. And maybe he lay on that ground till the dew fell. Then, I've read this two dozen times in the Hebrew. There are nine words in the Hebrew text of verse 20 which tells us what Job did.

Chuck Swindoll: Before it tells us in 21 what Job said, and of the nine words, five are verbs. The English version I use has 19 words, but still five verbs. When you read your Bible, not only catch the emotion and enter into that, pay attention to the verbs. They will move you through the action of the event. Let them say what they say. Job peeled himself off the ground. He arose.

Chuck Swindoll: The next verb tells us of a strange thing he tore his robe. The word for robe is a garment that fits over a loose tunic. Like a dress one would wear that goes down below the knees, called a tunic in biblical days. This was the seamless garment Jesus wore until they stripped him naked for the crucifixion and they gambled for that piece of garment, not wanting to tear it.

Chuck Swindoll: This is not the tunic, however. This is the robe that kept him warm at night. And he reached and not finding a seam but finding a part of the fabric, he ripped it. And in the ripping of the robe, he is announcing his horrible grief. The anguish, and it's used several times in the Old Testament for the expression of grief, the tearing of the robe.

Chuck Swindoll: And then we read the third verb. He shaved his head. The hair is always pictured in the scriptures as the glory of an individual, the worth. And the shaving of the head is the picture of the loss of glory, the unworthy moment in time.

Chuck Swindoll: And every artist picture that shows Job following this moment shows him bald. No hair. And this time he falls to the ground, not in a collapse of vacuous grief, but for another purpose.

Chuck Swindoll: Look at the last verb. Shachah. Shachah is a verb that means to fall prostrate in utter submission and worship. I dare say, most of you have never ever worshiped on your face on the ground.

Chuck Swindoll: The most ancient form of obeisance and submission to the Father. I suggest you try this sometime. Palms down, face down, knees and toes touching the ground, body fully extended, pouring out your heart in worship.

Chuck Swindoll: The only one cursing is Satan. He hated it! He hated it that Job would live through this and of all things worship a God who would allow this kind of thing to happen. There wouldn't be one in 20 million on this earth who would do that.

Chuck Swindoll: And he thought Job was one of the millions. But he didn't realize, as many who knew Todd Beamer in growing up years would have ever imagined he would have been that kind of man. The wicked spirits sit with their mouths wide open as it were, as they watch a man who follows all of his adversities with adoration, who follows all of his woes with worship. No blame, no bitterness, no cursing, no fist raised high to the heavens, saying, how dare you do this after I've walked with you all these years.

Chuck Swindoll: None of that. Instead, look at what he says. It is magnificent. This is one magnificent response.

Chuck Swindoll: Naked I came, as he looks back to his birth. Naked I will return, as he looks ahead to his death. Think of that. At birth, we all come naked. At death, we all leave naked. As we're prepared for burial.

Chuck Swindoll: We have nothing incoming. We have nothing when we depart. So everything we have in time is given. All we have is skin wrapped around bones and organs and muscles. That's all we have. And a soul for which we must give account before our God.

Chuck Swindoll: And Job's taking care of that. And he calls into perspective that which is right. Get it. The one who gave and has put everything on loan to me in time, has chosen and has every right to choose this manner, has chosen to take everything away.

Chuck Swindoll: I won't take anything with me anyway. Blessed be his name. For loaning it to me while I had it. Get that. Get it, affluent Americans as we are.

Chuck Swindoll: Get it when you walk through your house and see those wonderful belongings. Get it when you and I get behind the wheels of our cars and drive them on loan, on loan. Get it when the business falls and fails. It was on loan.

Chuck Swindoll: When the stocks rise and when the stocks fall, it's on loan. What did you bring to this scene? A naked body? And not too good-looking one at that. And what will you have when you leave? A naked body and I'll leave it at that. Just added a lot of wrinkles.

Chuck Swindoll: I've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul. You take nothing, because you brought nothing, which means you own nothing. What a grand revelation. Listen to me, you don't even own your children.

Chuck Swindoll: They're God's children on loan for you to take care of, rear, release, and pray for. This is a perfect moment to pause and look at one statement Paul makes in First Timothy 6, verse 7. Please. First Timothy 6.

Chuck Swindoll: And having looked at it, go back to Job 1:21 and put it in the margin of your Bible and memorize it this week. First Timothy 6:7. It will help you when the interest rate goes up. We have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.

Chuck Swindoll: If we have food and covering, with these, verse 8 adds, we shall be content. Put that not only in the margin of Job 1:21. Put that in another crease in your brain. We brought nothing, we take nothing. In the meantime, we borrow everything.

Chuck Swindoll: As a good friend of mine tried to teach me years ago, God owns it all. I know your name is on the title. I know. It won't be when you're gone.

Chuck Swindoll: I know you built that place and you're proud of it. That's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with having it nice. Nothing wrong with having things in it. Nothing wrong with driving a fine car. We've gone over this before. It's not about that. The problem comes when the car drives us. And the possessions own us.

Chuck Swindoll: They never owned Job. This is the curve that he threw back into the heavens, into the face of Satan. In your face, Lucifer! I never said my affections on them in the first place.

Chuck Swindoll: And I've understood from the get-go, when we had our first until we had our tenth, they're all God's. The one who gave it all and the one who had the right to take it all whenever he wanted it all was the same one deserving of all my praise. Blessed be his name.

Chuck Swindoll: And I love the benediction. Through all this, Job did not sin nor did he blame God. Get this lesson. Get it really clear. When you understand that everything you have is on loan, then you are better prepared to release it when the owner wants it back.

Chuck Swindoll: And the less time you will spend between utter, sheer, and understandable grief and worship. That is why, I believe, a memorial service at a funeral can be one of the most meaningful worship services of one's experience. Because we can't take it with us.

Chuck Swindoll: My good friend and one of my mentors in the early years of my ministry, Ray Stedman, tells a true story. He had traveled to a site for ministry through a week, had forgotten there was a very nice evening dinner. He was to attend and speak at. Therefore, he needed a nice suit that he had failed to bring with him.

Chuck Swindoll: He realized it toward the afternoon, when the hour was getting late. He was located near a funeral home. And he thought, maybe for a pretty quick moment, the funeral director would at least loan me a suit that would have gone on a cadaver. And he went over and he bargained with him and got the suit.

Chuck Swindoll: And he said that evening, Chuck, as I stood up to speak, I was addressing all the people and as was my common practice, I reached down to put my hand in my pocket. And I realized cadaver suits have no pockets. I read this past week, shrouds have no pockets.

Chuck Swindoll: We enter the world with fists clenched as little babies, but we always leave the world with hands open on our chests. Naked. Naked.

Chuck Swindoll: And in the interlude, Lord God, blessed be your name for loaning me all that you've loaned me. Through all this, Job did not sin. Isn't that wonderful? Nor did he blame God.

Chuck Swindoll: Why blame God? As Francis Anderson has written, God has given him a rehearsal for death. All things belong to God, absolutely. To be given as gift, not claim, to be taken back without wrong. There is no talk of human rights.

Chuck Swindoll: The Lord is the sovereign owner of all, and Job rejoices in this wonderful fact. When perspective returned, he put his arm around his grieving precious wife, held her close and whispered, God gave. For some unrevealed reason, he chose to take back.

Chuck Swindoll: This entire message could have been delivered in three words. And some of you are thinking, why didn't you do that? You can help finish the sentence. You'll know the third word.

Chuck Swindoll: Hold everything loosely. Say it again.

Audience: Hold everything loosely.

Chuck Swindoll: Let's bow our heads. If you've never met the Lord Jesus Christ, he's a master, he's the master worth following and is available. Is available to you. A relationship with him will give you a perspective like Job's.

Chuck Swindoll: Todd Beamer had that relationship. His wife who survives him tells their story of Todd's salvation and her confidence that God brought along Todd for such a moment as that. What perspective.

Chuck Swindoll: I invite you to visit the cross and to look up and see a man who is God, who held everything loosely, even his own life. And at the age of 33, paid the supreme penalty for sins, not his sins, but ours. And invites you to come to him like a little child. I urge you to do that today.

Chuck Swindoll: And then you will say with fellow Christians, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name, Lord, for having loaned me what you have, these precious children I tuck in bed at night, or I walk to the altar and give in marriage, or I put my arms around, loving them and their children. I bless your name.

Chuck Swindoll: Because you gave them, and I will bless you if you choose to take them. They were never mine to begin with. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And we shall bless your name forever and ever. Our great God.

Chuck Swindoll: Even if we don't understand, even if we cannot ever explain, you need no defending. We need to worship you. Blessed be your name for what you have given and for your sovereign right to take. Blessed be your name. In the name of Jesus we pray.

Chuck Swindoll: Everyone said,

Congregation: Amen.

Narrator (Male): Blessed be your name when you give and blessed be your name when you take away. That's not a prayer that comes naturally. It's a prayer that's forged in the furnace of surrender.

Narrator (Male): If today's message has stirred your heart, we invite you to visit our website where we have great resources that will walk you deeper into this transformative series. For instance, did you realize that Chuck wrote a full-length book about Job's life? In his book, he not only tells the story of Job in fascinating detail, he also guides us through the fog of confusion, anger, blame, and that gnawing silence we often feel amid suffering. And more importantly, Chuck reminds us we don't have to understand why we suffer. We only need to trust that God is in control.

Narrator (Male): To order a copy of Chuck's biography on Job, go to insight.org/offer. In addition to Chuck's book on Job, there's an interactive Bible study workbook for this 22-part teaching series. It's part of our Searching the Scriptures studies and this one is titled Job, a man of heroic endurance. Plus you can purchase all of the audio messages on CD or MP3.

Narrator (Male): Well, summertime is the perfect time to give your children some soul-feeding entertainment. In that spirit, I'll point you to a brand new resource for kids. The Overcomers is the first ever Paws and Tales novel. The Paws and Tales audio series has shaped young hearts for years and now this book carries that same mission into a whole new format. The Overcomers contains 300 pages of adventure, imagination, and gospel-rooted storytelling, designed for the 10 to 12-year-old reader who's ready for something with real substance.

Narrator (Male): The characters in this novel are ones your kids already love, set in a world they already know. And the story they're about to discover may be the one they remember best. To purchase The Overcomers novel right now, call 800-772-8888, or go online to pawsandtales.org.

Narrator (Male): I'm Bill Myers. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues this study on the life of Job. Monday, on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Reeling and Recovering from Devastating News, was copyrighted in 2002, 2004, 2025 and 2026. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.