“The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”
This is a biblical verse regularly misunderstood by brothers and sisters in the Faith. Many of us interpret it to mean that once the Lord has blessed someone, then the person cannot have a problem with the object of His blessing: FALSE! In fact, there is only one attitude that guarantees the Christian to remain free from sorrow; we will justify our point by looking at the cases of Adam whom God blessed by giving Eve as a wife, on that of Abraham whom God blessed by giving Isaac as a son, on that of the Shunammite woman whom God blessed with a son. Then we will extend our analysis with the case of Job; before concluding.
Eve
God the Creator, with unlimited Wisdom and Love after creating Adam, saw that he needed help. No animal creature having the profile, God then, from a rib taken from Adam, created Eve. Adam was the head of Eve and had very clear responsibilities towards her, but first and foremost towards God Himself. We are not going to dwell too much on it, let us simply say that Adam had to watch over the spiritual condition of his wife, but above all that his faith, his own communion with God, did not fail. , do not sink. Unfortunately he failed in both missions. Firstly he did not ensure the firmness of his wife, since she let herself be seduced, she ended up believing in the evil one; but worse, Adam himself, who knew full well that the old serpent was lying, gave in to temptation. (The Bible tells us that Adam was not deceived. [1 Timothy 2:14]) However he chose to follow his wife. A likely explanation is that he knew that his wife's disobedience would result in them being separated from each other by God; but rather than favoring his communion with God and trusting Him for the future, he chose to remain “united” to his wife, even if in decline, even if it meant being separated from God. The worst thing here is that when God rebuked him, instead of recognizing his crime he accused God of being at the origin of this, of having given him a woman who was going to become a trap for him... NO! Eve was indeed a blessing to him, but this blessing did not exempt him from his duty to watch over her soul, and over his own soul.
Abraham
This is a comforting case, Abraham had received from God the promise that he would have a son. God fulfilled his promise by giving him Isaac. But the Bible subsequently makes us understand that God asked him to offer his son as a sacrifice. Was God evil, or was he playing with Isaac's feelings? Certainly not, but he had realized that Abraham's heart had become excessively attached to his son to the point of threatening his throne. He therefore forced Abraham to make a choice: he must sacrifice the gift out of love for the Giver, or prefer the gift and henceforth ignore the Giver. If God was so proud of Abraham's obedience, it is because he knew that it was not easy for him. But in His goodness and as He always does, God allowed Abraham to recover his son by a figure of resurrection (Hebrews 11:19). God resurrects every gift he gives us and that we give to him by “crucifying” it. In other words, whenever God blesses us with wife/husband, children, work, house, ... It will always be our responsibility to separate ourselves in a certain sense from these blessings by consecrating them to God, dedicating them to Him, so that He alone decides everything about them, so that our relationship to each of these blessings is totally submitted to Him; then at this moment and only at this moment, these blessings will not be followed by any sorrow; but if we argue that these blessings are ours and that we only have to enjoy them as we wish, then the evil one will use our relationship with these blessings, as he uses everything that is not in the hands of God, as he did with Adam's attachment to his wife, to destroy us miserably. Let us always have the Courage, the Faith, the Justice and the Wisdom to place each of his blessings, our relationship to each of them, into the hands of God.
The Shunammite (2 Kings 4 v8-37)
Here is a case reminiscent of Adam's. Elisha had benefited on several occasions from the hospitality of a woman from Shunem, who ended up having an upper room set up for him which she had equipped (bed, table, stool, candlestick) so that he could stay there each time he was passing through the locality. This mark of attention did not leave Elisha indifferent who wanted to bless her, and under the inspiration of Gehazi his servant who informed him that the woman had no children and that her husband was old; he blessed her by prophesying that in a year, at the same time, she would embrace a son. In his faithfulness God fulfills this prophecy. However, years later, in his early childhood, the child died. She (the Shunammite having lost her child) went to complain to Elisha, in Carmel where he resided. And these are the words she said: “Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?” Which reminds us of the infamous remark made by Adam “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, …” (Genesis 3:12) My brothers and sisters, please let us be careful not to condemn God when misfortune occurs after his blessing; even though it would not be our fault. God could allow it to further manifest His Glory, to bring us closer to Him. This was perhaps the case for this woman since God glorified himself by resurrecting her son. The miraculously conceived son was resurrected, which reminds us of the case of Abraham. However, this ultimate possibility that we are talking about here, the fact that God could sovereignly take away a gift from us without our having sinned, but just to glorify himself, is more evident in the story of Job.
Job
The Word of God clearly tells us that this man was righteous, nothing suggests to us that he elevated his love for his wife or his children above his love for God. On the contrary, when his wife suggested the worst to him; he reprimanded her properly, telling her that she spoke as one of the foolish women. (Job 2: 9-10) Job lost his possessions, his children, and even his health, but he stood firm through the height of the ordeal. It was indeed an opportunity for him to adore God, to glorify God in spirit and in truth, by testifying through his fidelity, his refusal to condemn God, who, beyond the circumstances, must always be recognized as Just. It was an act of worship and faith, but beyond that, the greatest benefit Job gained from this ordeal was his deeper knowledge of the Lord; the revelation of the Glory of the Sovereignty of the Creator God. He then made an extraordinary proclamation: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” (Job 42:5)
God has always been perfect and generous in his blessings and cannot under any circumstances bear responsibility for any misfortune that occurs. Even if we experience pain, a trial for which we have no responsibility ourselves, then let us trust in God, we will never regret it; but please, my brothers, let us refrain from accusing God, nor even those whom he would have used to bless us. Otherwise it would be BAD!
Thank you Eternal God for being through Christ our Strength, for teaching us to make good use of your material gifts, for teaching us to let ourselves be guided by you in our relationships with relational gifts (spouse, children, friends, and even brothers in Christ). O in all things, in all circumstances, May You be the only Master, the only Conductor, the only Chief Decision-maker in each of our lives, and in an uninterrupted manner! To your Glory and that of Christ our Lord!
Amen!
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