but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
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.
A true saying used as a weapon
The words themselves are sound. The use Eliphaz makes of them is not.
F. B. HoleSome 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.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe 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 sprout from the ground
Trouble does not grow up out of the ground by itself. So something — Someone — stands behind it.
J. N. Darby"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.
The Christian's FriendMan 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.
Where the sparks came from
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.
Morrish Bible DictionaryMan 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.
No exemption for the believer
If anyone hopes that faith cancels the rule, the answer is blunt — and it comes with a compensation.
F. B. HoleTrouble 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.
Morrish Bible DictionaryBesides 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.
Good counsel, wrong diagnosis
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.
Samuel Ridout"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.
Not what man was made for
The saying describes the present state of things, not the design or the destination.
The Christian's FriendMan 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.
Summary
- 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.