If it is not so, who will prove me a liar
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
To grasp the meaning behind the challenge Job throws down to his friends, you have to recall their arguments to this point. In fact, in the last chapter, Eliphaz has made some extreme acquisitions toward Job. He accused Job of being a wicked man on this earth. That, to him and his two friends, validates God dealing with Job the way He has. The three friends believe in retributive theology; that God punishes evil deeds and rewards those who do good. This of course goes against what we read and observe any where throughout Scripture. We know Joseph was a good man and yet spent most of his young life in prison and was treated harshly by his brothers. We know that Noah was a righteous man and yet suffered daily at the rebuke of his neighbors. We know the prophet Jeremiah suffered for the messages he delivered for God. The friends of Job held to retributive theology (that God condemns the guilty and rewards the innocent) because they could not wrap their minds around the suffering of the innocent. Job, in chapter 24, lays out all the ills and evil the powerful do to the weak. He shows the oppression committed upon those who have done nothing. Oppression agains the poor committed simply because of their station in life of poverty. He is asking his three friends to prove him wrong, but in Job’s mind retribution theology, if true, is not working. In the next chapter, Job’s friend, Bildad, does not answer this question of Job. Nor can we answer the question today. Job is correct, the wicked thrive and prosper. Note another poet who said the same thing, here:
Psalms 73:1-3 (ESV)
A PSALM OF ASAPH.
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Asaph was as song writer for Israel. He, too, saw that the wicked prosper on this earth. Like Job he writes about how they seem to live without impunity in their lives, doing bad to those who have less. Yet, also like Job, Asaph will finally come to the real understanding about these wicked people, impunity and God’s divine retribution on the wicked:
Psalms 73:16-17 (ESV)
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
Asaph understood when he went into the house of God and started to see the world through God’s eyes. He quit looking at what was in front of him (the prosperity of the wicked) and started to look through the eyes of eternity. Asaph, like Job, will soon turn in pity to the wicked, as he understands the divine judgment to befall them. Job’s three friends have their theology horse before their practicing cart. They were observing what they see today. They must agree with Job, like today, that the wicked do prosper on this earth. But the end is not the same as the beginning or middle. In the end the wicked will be judged. These friends judged Job on the present, not the end. In the end Job is blessed. In the end they are rebuked. Let all this unfold and we will see that the righteous are finally rewarded and the wicked are eventually punished. Read the scripture and we won’t be able to prove Job’s conclusion wrong.
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