Question about something I may have read

[Parobek82]

Hi All,

 I read the Bible on and off (I read it regularly, and then took a few months off after getting overloaded with work). I was very upset about something that happened over the summer and was reading the Bible for inspiration and help. I do not remember exactly what it is that I was reading at the time (maybe Ezekiel?). It sounded like "God giveth and God taketh away" where God blesses His people, but then can turn those blessings into afflictions. Where is this in the Bible, or did I misunderstand it? I know in the Book of Ezekiel it talks about sincere and insincere conversion and his dumbness- is this what it is referring to? I know in Job it mentions that as well in a small phrase. Does God turn blessings into afflictions? (I'm curious as when I pray for something, but it usually turns into an affliction later and sofar I am praying for something and it seems like it is going to be fulfilled, but I do not want it turning into an affliction later on).

Thanks,
Parobek82

 

[Aloysium]

usually it is the other way around: afflictions leading to blessings

Then there is Matthew 12:43-45

When an unclean spirit goes out of someone it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and cannot find one. Then it says, “I will return to the home I came from.” But on arrival, finding it unoccupied, swept and tidied, it then goes off and collects seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and set up house there, and so that person ends up worse off than before. That is what will happen to this wicked generation.

This sounds like a blessing leading to an affliction, brought on by the person himself

 

[revert_jen]

That would be Job 1:21. My understanding of the passage is a little different. I would say it means, “The Lord has given me all I have. He can take all of it away as well. I will still praise His name.”

–Jen

 

[Skye_Ariel]

I don’t think it means God takes it away I think it means He may allow it to be taken away. But God Himself doesn’t take it away, I feel that way based on this verse:

Proverbs 10:22

New International Version (©1984)

The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

New Living Translation (©2007)

The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

God doesn’t give and then take it away but if people change in a bad way God may allow what He blessed them with to be taken away by other people or other forces or events.

 

[cap76]

Hi All,

 I read the Bible on and off (I read it regularly, and then took a few months off after getting overloaded with work). I was very upset about something that happened over the summer and was reading the Bible for inspiration and help. I do not remember exactly what it is that I was reading at the time (maybe Ezekiel?). It sounded like "God giveth and God taketh away" where God blesses His people, but then can turn those blessings into afflictions. Where is this in the Bible, or did I misunderstand it? I know in the Book of Ezekiel it talks about sincere and insincere conversion and his dumbness- is this what it is referring to? I know in Job it mentions that as well in a small phrase. Does God turn blessings into afflictions? (I'm curious as when I pray for something, but it usually turns into an affliction later and sofar I am praying for something and it seems like it is going to be fulfilled, but I do not want it turning into an affliction later on).

Thanks,
Parobek82

If you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ, trusting in the promise of redemption through his blood, and striving to live to the praise of God’s glorious grace, then all of your afflictions will result in your eternal good.
*James 1.2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

1 Peter 1.6-7, “ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”*

Your faith is like gold and your trials are like the refiners fire. God will use them to burn away all the dross and fruitless waste from your soul.
Proverbs 17.3, “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts.”

I see you shining already from the trials you’ve experienced. You’re turning to God and to His Word for help, and this is a fruit of those past experiences. You are responding to such things in such a way that glorifies God’s work in you, and he has promised that “those who honor me, I will honor.”(1 Samuel 2.30)

Take courage then. God has an eternal purpose in afflicting you and it is a sweet one!
2 Corinthians 4.16-18, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

 

[detoutcoeur]

That would be Job 1:21. My understanding of the passage is a little different. I would say it means, “The Lord has given me all I have. He can take all of it away as well. I will still praise His name.”

–Jen

Yes, and it’s continued in Job 2:10, when he responds to his wife’s taunts by saying:
“You speak as foolish women do.* We accept good things from God; should we not accept evil?”**

• usccb.org/bible/job/2

St. Paul says the same in his Letter to the Thessalonians( I, 5:18):
**In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
**usccb.org/bible/1thessalonians/5/

and to the Ephesians ( 5:20):
20 giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. usccb.org/bible/eph/5:20