Taking Away to Establish

Have you ever experienced the pain, frustration, or confusion that comes with a significant loss in your life?

Maybe the loss of a friend, a job, an opportunity or a sphere of influence?

If you have, you’ll know how disorientating it can be and how many questions it can raise, but experiencing loss is a universal phenomenon that we all must endure from time to time.

Sometimes, the loss is just a natural consequence of living in an imperfect, broken world, but at other times, it is the direct result of God at work in one of His more surprising and less understood ways.

If you have recently experienced a significant loss or are going through one right now, I want to encourage you to consider that God may be at work in your situation in more ways than you realise.

In Hebrews 10:9, the writer to the Hebrews makes an important statement about God that provides us with essential insight into how He works:

“He takes away the first so that He may establish the second”.

In its immediate context, this statement refers to the two Covenants, Old and New. Here, the writer to the Hebrews says that for God to establish the New Covenant (salvation by grace through faith in Christ), the Old Covenant, with its system of sacrifice for sin, had to give way. The second could only be established by removing the first, so “He takes away the first to establish the second.”

Although the scripture is speaking specifically about the Covenants, the principle applies to many of God’s dealings with us. Consequently, throughout the course of our lives, God will often “take away in order to establish.”

Sometimes, He takes away the old to establish the new. Other times, He takes away the good to establish the great or the better to establish the best. On occasion, He may even take away the things that He has given us to establish something new, something better or something necessary. As a matter of principle, though, He takes away to establish.

The great Old Testament saint Job understood this truth and, in response to his trial and loss, said,

“The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord”. – Job 1:21

Job knew that God not only gives but also takes away, and when He does, He sometimes takes the things that make us comfortable, the things we assume we can’t do without, the things we have come to love and appreciate, and even the things that He Himself has given us in the first place.

Obviously, we are all quite open to the idea of God taking away the things we don’t want in our lives – like our sickness, disease, poverty, pain, suffering and annoying neighbours – but are we really open to the idea of God taking away the things we enjoy or the things that provide us with a sense of security and stability?

I want to suggest that many of us are not and that we must learn how to open our hearts to the necessary kingdom dynamic of taking away to establish.

The fact of the matter is that at any moment, God can choose to “take away” a source of income, a friendship, a personal asset, an open door of opportunity, a ministry position, a title, a significant relationship, or some other thing that provided you with a sense of security or significance and that can be very uncomfortable. When that happens, it is imperative that we bear two things in mind:

THE PURPOSE OF GOD REQUIRES IT

When God takes away, it is always “so that…” – in other words, it is always with reason.

Our God is a God of eternal purpose and never does anything without reason. Every action on His part serves some significant purpose, so we can rest assured that if God allows for removing something from our lives, it is with important reason. We may not always know or understand the reason, but we have to learn to trust the perfect judgement of God. His judgements are true and fair, and every act on His part can be considered appropriate and necessary. The action of taking away to establish is precisely that – a necessity.

Jesus reinforces this idea in John 16:7 when He says to His disciples,

“Nevertheless, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you”.

I’m almost certain that at this point, the disciples could not have possibly conceived how it would be for their benefit or to their advantage that Jesus leaves them. It was only with the advantage of hindsight that they could see that it was indeed the best thing for Him to be “removed” so that the age of the abiding Spirit could be “established”. At the time, it probably didn’t make a lot of sense, but in the greater scheme of things, the plan and purpose of God needed to be fulfilled.

Sometimes, God removes things from our lives because they have served their purpose and come to the end of their season. As the wisdom writer reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:1,

“To everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”

At other times, God may choose to remove something or someone from our lives, even if only for a season, for different reasons. These could include the need to remove distractions from our lives, reinforce our sense of dependency on Him, or protect us from harm. Whatever the reason, it is always tied to and governed by His will.

THE GRACE OF GOD ENABLES IT

Somebody once said that the will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you, and it is absolutely true. If the plan and purpose of God require the removal of something significant from your life, then know that there will be an equal measure of grace to enable you to bear it.

If, in your world right now, the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away (or is in the process of taking away), can I encourage you to let go and trust God? In both the giving and the taking, He is good, and whatever He has in store for you next will be both a necessity and an improvement.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.