since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to receive communications from Heaven, conscious
that he can expect no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more just, more pure,
than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and
presumption of man! How great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very foundation
of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We
stand but upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon than others but still it is the
earth that stays us up, and will shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering
distemper, which consumes like a moth, be sent to destroy him, he cannot resist it. Shall such a
creature pretend to blame the appointments of God? Look upon man in his death. Life is short, and
in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength, learning, not only cannot secure them from death,
but these things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or power, continue after them.
Shall a weak, sinful, dying creature, pretend to be more just than God, and more pure than his
Maker? No: instead of quarrelling with his afflictions, let him wonder that he is out of hell. Can a
man be cleansed without his Maker? Will God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from guilt? or
will he do so without their having an interest in the righteousness and gracious help of their promised
Redeemer, when angels, once ministering spirits before his throne, receive the just recompence of
their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming impunity of men for a short time, though living without
God in the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen angels, and is continually overtaking
them. Yet careless sinners note it so little, that they expect not the change, nor are wise to consider
their latter end.
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
Eliphaz urges that the sin of sinners in their (1–5)
ruin.
God is to be regarded in affliction. (6–16)
The happy end of God's correction. (17–27)Verses 1–5
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.