"Although affliction, cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward."
Job 5:6-7
In our text for today, Eliphaz is continuing his counsel to Job from the previous chapter (chapter 4). His speech has two basic ideas. God is holy, but His Creatures (men) are sinful (Job 4:12-21). And then a sideways swipe at Job, he is really the problem behind his problems, they are all his fault (Job 5:1-7). When you are going through times of trouble, I pray that you do not have this kind of friend/counselor in your life. Well, there are indeed times when our foolishness brings problems down on our own heads. This was not one of those times in Job’s life.
“Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust.”
Counsel from Eliphaz: Job, trouble does not just come from nowhere. Someone must have done something wrong because trouble does not just jump up from the dust of the ground. Hint: and Job, that someone must have been you!
“For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled” (Psalm 90:7).
Eliphaz’s idea: Job, God is judging you because of your sin.
“Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground.”
And Job, you ought to know that trouble does not just pop up like the weeds out of the ground. If there were no seed, there would be no wildflower. There is a reason that the plants are coming up in your garden. And so, there is a reason that you have all this trouble on your head. These are the seeds you have planted, and they are springing up to get you.
“They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus, judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field” (Hosea 10:4).
“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:15).
Both Hosea and Hebrews are good examples of how our sin can come back to trouble us. But this was not Job’s issue.
“Yet man is born unto trouble.”
Eliphaz moves on in his counsel from Job’s personal sin to the universal sin of all men.
Eliphaz’s thought:
“This is the imperfection of man, an imperfection which he shares indeed with all created beings, in the highest of whom to God’s eye there is limit and possible error. And this being so, murmuring can only aggravate his affliction by provoking the anger of God.”[1]
Job, watch out, or God will get you more…!
“As the sparks fly upward.”
“Troubles spring from man’s common sin by as necessary a law of natural consequences as sparks (Hebrew, “sons of coal”) fly upward” [2] (JFB).
Dear friends, as we understand from Scripture, there are times when our testing and trials do come from our own sin (natural consequences). But there are also times when God tests us, and we may not know the reason. Like Job, make sure that you keep trusting your Lord even when you do not understand the testing. Trust His caring hand. He loves you, and He wants the best for you and what is best for His Glory.
[1] Cambridge Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
[2] Jamison, Fausset, and Brown. Jamison-Fausset-Brown’s Commentary, the electronic version in eSword.