For evil cometh not forth from the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
Eliphaz has just described the sudden ruin of foolish men, and Job's losses look like his list. Now he states a principle: hardship does not sprout up on its own like a weed.
The saying is true; the use Eliphaz makes of it is not. One writer traces his logic, then separates the principle from the accusation:
Eliphaz did not say so, but he implied that Job might be dangerously close to such a charge. He had watched foolish people suffer. So he reasoned that since Job was suffering like this, something must be badly wrong in Job. Job's harvest — everything he had gained — was eaten up (v.5). Why? Because, he says, affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground (v.6). In other words, trouble does not happen by chance. This is true, for there is no doubt that God is behind it.
If sorrow does not grow out of the soil, someone sends it. The opening chapters of Job show who acted first, and it was not Satan:
Job 5:6 says that affliction "does not come from the dust." Whatever the instruments may be, those who live in this world do not direct its course. Nor does even the enemy of our souls, in the first place. It was God who said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?" God saw that Job needed the sifting. The enemy himself was only an instrument in it.
Job's losses came through raiders, fire and wind. Faith traced them further back:
The agents of his sorrows were plain for all to see — the Sabeans, the Chaldeans, the fire, the whirlwind. But behind these lay the evil power of Satan, thrusting hard at him. And behind even this lay the chastening hand of God. Job's faith and patience showed in this: he did not look at the third cause, or even at the second. He looked straight through to God, and accepted everything as from His hand. It is just the same for us today. If we look at second or third causes when trouble sweeps in, it leaves us confused and often angry. If we bow beneath the hand of God we are greatly blessed.
He takes a true premise — trouble is sent — and adds a false one: that the amount of trouble measures the guilt. Tested against other lives in Scripture, the rule collapses:
Suppose Abraham, Jacob, or David had reasoned this way about their sufferings: then they were wicked, because they suffered! And in the New Testament, how could suffering that produces patience be something to glory in? How could "this light momentary affliction" prepare for us "an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison"? Eliphaz's own experience shows how little he knows of God's ways with His suffering people.
Eliphaz follows his principle with advice, and the advice is good in itself. What spoils it is the assumption hidden underneath:
It is always good to advise people to trust in God, for He never fails those who trust in Him... So, taken on its own, this counsel is good. But remember the assumption underneath it — that Job is suffering for his sins — and it can only irritate. It is as if he said: "Sin belongs to everyone, as trouble does to everyone, so humble yourself as a sinner before God, and He will lift you up." It is all the more subtle because it comes so close to the truth.
Freed from Eliphaz's misuse, the verse steadies anyone under trial. It ties God's control to His care:
So the trial throws us back on Him. Without Him not a sparrow falls to the ground, and by Him the very hairs of our head are all numbered. Affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. All of it is under the hand of the One who has made us His for glory. Meanwhile He puts our faith to the test in this present evil age, training us not only in patience but in endurance.
- Not from dust. Trouble never grows by itself out of the ground; it is sent, and behind every instrument stands God.
- Not from Satan first. In Job's story God raised the subject and set the limits; the enemy acted only as an instrument.
- Not from second causes. Raiders, fire and wind were visible; faith looked past them, took everything from God's hand, and was blessed in bowing to it.
- Not proof of guilt. Eliphaz turned a true principle into a false measure — a rule that would condemn Abraham, Jacob and David.
- Not without purpose. The same hand that sends the trial numbers the hairs of our head, training us in patience and endurance.
For man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards.
Eliphaz has just said that affliction does not come out of the dust. Now he states a proverb about human life. The proverb is true — but he uses it to hint that Job's ruin proves Job's guilt.
The words themselves are sound. The use Eliphaz makes of them is not.
Some of the things Eliphaz says in this chapter are perfectly true. For instance: "man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward," in this world of sin… But we can see that he brings these facts forward in a way that turned them against poor Job.
Behind his advice sits a fixed idea about who suffers.
He reasons from experience that suffering is the lot of the wicked. So Job must belong to that class. The advice he gives to Job is in full keeping with his dogmatic assertion.
Trouble does not grow up out of the ground by itself. So something — Someone — stands behind it.
"Affliction," it is said (Job 5:6), "does not come out of the dust." Whatever the instruments may be, the people who live in this world do not direct its course. Not even the enemy of our souls directs it, in the first place. It was God who said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?" God saw that Job needed the sifting. The enemy himself was only an instrument in it.
That leaves the sufferer with a choice about where to fix his eyes.
Man does not look beyond the circumstances that surround him. To stay in circumstances is unbelief; affliction does not spring out of the dust. Satan is behind the circumstances to set us on; but behind all that, God is there to break our wills.
The verse says trouble is universal, but not where it came from. One writer traces it back, and refuses to lay it at the Creator's door.
Man is very ready to blame the Creator for all such things. He forgets that God made man upright, and that God declared everything He had made, including man, very good. Sin has brought in the misery. Man became the willing servant of Satan, and so put himself into the hands of his enemy.
If anyone hopes that faith cancels the rule, the answer is blunt — and it comes with a compensation.
Trouble of one sort or another is the common lot of man… and it can hardly be contradicted. The child of God gets no special exemption in this matter. Indeed it would seem that he gets more of it. He faces opposition from the world, if not persecution. By its very nature, the child of this world never knows that opposition. With it, however, he gets the support of God, and in the end he will get a salvation equally divine.
The trouble a believer meets is of more than one kind.
Besides the afflictions of fallen humanity, there are afflictions that fall specially on the Christian. He may have to suffer for righteousness' sake, and for Christ's sake. Another kind of affliction comes to him directly from the hand of God, for his good.
Eliphaz draws a conclusion from his proverb: commit your cause to God. Taken by itself the advice is excellent; taken with his assumption about Job it stings.
"Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward," therefore let him commit his cause to God. It is always good to advise men to trust in God, for He never fails those who trust in Him… So, taken in itself, this counsel is good. But it rests on the idea that Job is suffering for his sins, and that can only irritate. It is as though he were saying: "Sin is common to all, as trouble is to all. So humble yourself as a sinner before God, and He will exalt you." The counsel is all the more subtle because it comes so near the truth.
The saying describes the present state of things, not the design or the destination.
Man was not made to experience only emptiness, sorrow and trouble. It is true now that "man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." But the Scriptures introduce us to the birthday of a new humanity. They lead us on to the new heavens and the new earth, and there they leave us.
- Cause. Trouble is not from the Creator: God made man upright, and sin brought the misery in.
- Common. Trouble is the common lot of everyone born, as sure as sparks flying up. Nobody can deny it.
- Controlled. Affliction does not come out of the dust; instruments and even the enemy act only under the hand of God.
- Counsel. "Commit your cause to God" is good advice. Eliphaz spoils it by assuming Job's suffering proves Job's sin.
- Compensation. Believers get no exemption, and often more trouble. They also get God's support now, and a divine salvation at the end in a new heavens and new earth.