Tag: affliction does not come from the dust

5.a. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long?

Job 7:19   How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?  If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?

Psalms 6:3    My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long?

Psalms 13:1-3    How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?  Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

Deuteronomy 31:17    Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?

Isaiah 59:2     but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Lamentations 5:20   Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?

My soul is troubled, why do you forget us, how long will you look away, how long will you hide your face, are all questions from man in their time of testing, trial, or discipline from God.  These times seem to make think and feel we are alone and this makes this time all the harder to bear.  They have a way of making us think we are forgotten and are bearing this burden by ourselves. These times can eat at our hearts and mind.  These times can be a breeding ground of Satan temped thoughts of all kinds.

It is easy to say to others that “God will never leave them” and “forsake them” and “He loves them”, but when these trials hit us it seems different and unfair.  The questions and doubts come.

What are we to do in times like these?   Seek God, pray, honor Him, learn reliance and trust in Jesus Christ.  These are all attributes of our ever-growing maturity in our Christian walk.  There is a special type of growth, trust, reliance, and obedience that comes through trials, testing, and discipline from God.  When we are stripped bare of our self-reliant power, strength, and worldly wisdom is when things of God become more real and alive.  This is where earthly things become distant and heavenly things become clearer.  We come out on the other side of these trials, testing, and discipline with more wisdom and understanding.  We come to a place in our hearts and minds where Jesus Christ is our all in all.  I wish each person could find this level of maturity without the testing, trials, and discipline but at the end of the day God’s plans are perfect, His ways are Holy, and His love for us is steadfast.  In this, we can count all of these as blessings and not burdens.

4.s. For affliction does not come from the earth

Job 5:1  “Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple. I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling. His children are far from safety; they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them. The hungry eat his harvest, and he takes it even out of thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth. For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.

Isaiah 45:7   I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Lamentations 3:38    Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

Matthew Henry;  Eliphaz here calls upon Job to answer his arguments. Were any of the saints or servants of God visited with such Divine judgments as Job, or did they ever behave like him under their sufferings? The term, saints, holy, or more strictly, consecrated ones, seems in all ages to have been applied to the people of God, through the Sacrifice slain in the covenant of their reconciliation. Eliphaz doubts not that the sin of sinners directly tends to their ruin. They kill themselves by some lust or other; therefore, no doubt, Job has done some foolish thing, by which he has brought himself into this condition. The allusion was plain to Job’s former prosperity, but there was no evidence of Job’s wickedness, and the application to him was unfair and severe.