The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away...

As a teenager at my alma mater Old Moshi Secondary in the late 1950s, I read through the ‘Holy Bible.’ This was the result of an altercation with my mathematics class master, one Verankira (****), who brooked no interruption when ‘regurgitating’ what he’d crammed overnight for the class!

He saw red — and I saw sheer gloom — when I interrupted him, seeking clarification on a point as he went through the motions of reproducing complex mathematical formulae on the blackboard. This short-circuited his recollection processes, upsetting him.

In due course of time and events, the matter reached the headmaster, JG Gray, who reached a Solomonic solution. We compromised I wouldn’t attend Verankira’s Maths class… Although this established me as a cantankerous young man, it also enabled me to spend all Maths class-time in the fully-equipped school library.

That was where, when and how — if I say so myself! — I came to ‘excel’ in English, History and Geography subjects.

I also had ample time to go through the Holy Scriptures in efforts to break the monotony associated with learning the History, Geography and Literature of countries other than my native Tanganyika and Africa.

For instance, I came to know more about the Popocatepetl volcanic mountain in Mexico (17,887ft OD), the French Revolution (1789) and the purported Father of English Literature, William Shakespeare (1564-1616)!

But, no matter… What matters here’s that, despite reading the St James version of the Holy Bible, I still don’t understand why otherwise knowledgeable folk twist parts of the Book to suit their wishes, so to speak.

Take, for instance, the popular rendition in death announcements to the general effect that ‘the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,’ associating that with human life, the soul.

In My Book of Things, this is incorrect. Those words were uttered by Job, “a man in the Land of Uz who was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil...” But, Job was not talking about life, soul – certainly not his own! He was basically talking about wealth: property and dependents! And, although the Lord God gave Job enormous wealth, HE (God) never took a single item of that wealth from him!

For this, go to St James Version of the Book of Job, Chapter 1: Lines 1-22... Satan wanted to drive a wedge between Job and his God, arguing that Job revered and obeyed God only because HE had given him enormous wealth. Take that wealth away, Shaitwani argued, and Job’ll turn away from you! Working in His mysterious ways, God told Satan to go ahead and deprive Job of his wealth. “All that he (Job) hath is in thy power; only upon himself (his life, soul) put not forth thine hand...” (Job 1:12). This Satan did, wiping out Job’s livestock, servants, offspring. However, this drove Job closer to God, firmly holding that the Lord gave the ‘wealth’ which was taken away – actually NOT by God, but by Satan!

The argumentation that God gives and TAKES life is usually advanced by people ranged against abortion, suicide and euthanasia (the mercy, painless killing of patients of incurable, painful illnesses) to show that taking life is usurping God’s role! Oh, I don’t know. Do you? Cheers!