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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Job 5:6
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‘Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward .’ This statement is true – this is a world of trouble; ‘in the world you will have tribulation’, says Christ – but not quite in the way Eliphaz means it – he means that man makes his own trouble. Job’s trouble is all his own fault. If Eliphaz is not in trouble, it is because, unlike Job, he is good. Affliction does not come from nowhere. It does not just spring out of the ground. ‘Do you think dust of earth is plotting against you, Job? Don’t be foolish, it is God doing it. There must be a reason for it, and you, Job, are not ready to acknowledge that you are the cause.’ Eliphaz was, literarily speaking, a genius – but he was using it in a horrible way to torment Job.
Application
Of course, it is true that all trouble, all disease, all suffering is due to man’s sin, the fall. But it is not true to say that all difficulties are the direct result of what I am doing at the moment. Many troubles that come to believers are quite apart from God’s discipline. God allows them in order to train up patience, sensitivity, understanding: to prove his goodness and power. They are allowed to make us more prayerful, to show that we should never seek our all in this world. If I take my delight in this world, God may allow troubles to come to wean us from it. God may also call me to prove the Lord in some visible trial as some unbelieving soul looks on. In Eliphaz’ opinion, Job could not suffer and be a godly man.
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