Consider Job. Here is a man who experienced a dark night beyond telling. Job had great wealth, many friends, and many children. God had beautifully blessed him. And what happened?
God took it all away.
Job’s dark night occurred suddenly without warning. An angel didn’t send him an email saying, “Get ready, there’s a big one coming!” God didn’t throw a Facebook snowball at him saying, “Look out, Job, you’re going to lose everything in one day.” No, there was no fax, email, or superpoke announcement.
It came without warning. In one day, Job lost his cattle, his crops, and his children. It appears that God went on vacation. This was Job’s dark night. God was silent, but He wasn’t absent. The Lord was present throughout the ordeal, from beginning to end. In fact, He was actually behind it—allowing it.
Job’s drama was being played out on a double stage. Aside from the earthly events, there were things happening in the heavenly realm of which Job was completely unaware. Job was experiencing his evening, his darkness.
Let me remind you: The evening always has within it the promise of the morning. The night always has within it the promise of the day to come. When you go through the dark night, as a church or as an individual, remember that the morning is gestating, growing, and it will eventually appear.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5 NKJV).
Job endured his evening. He was bombarded on every point to lose his faith in God—by pressure from his friends and his own wife. Yet Job maintained his integrity. His words are revealing: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.”
Yet after the evening—after the night—Job experienced his morning. God restored everything Job had lost and more. Job received double what was taken away (Job 42:10; James 5:11). He received more children. He received more wealth, more cattle, and more crops.
Not only that, but Job lived for 140 more years, and God blessed him during each one of those years.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I read that account, I think to myself: But what about those kids that are buried in Job’s backyard?
I have to believe that the Lord eased the pain and softened the memory somehow, and Job lived a peaceful, satisfied man the rest of his days. For comfort and peace are contained within the blessing of God.
Again: You and I have a God who takes away so that He may establish. And what He establishes is always better than what He took away.
From Revise Us Again by Frank Viola, author
Frank Viola Author 