If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
Job ends his long reply with a dare: let anyone who thinks his account of the wicked is false stand up and prove it. He has just described evil men who escape the punishment they deserve, so his dare asks whether this life alone shows how God deals with evil.
The verse as a closing challenge
Job has described the career of evil men. Then, instead of softening, he throws the burden of proof back on his accusers.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe describes the paths of the wicked again, and yet they seem to escape the punishment they so well deserve in this life. They even have security. And Job is still haunted by the thought that these facts are evidence that God is favourable to them. Death surely comes to them — "yet a little while and they are gone" — but what comes after death he does not mention. Then he boldly stands up and says, "If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?" What a claim — that everything he said is completely true!
True facts, ruinous conclusion
Job stands on safe ground when he states the facts. The danger lies in the step he takes from them.
Samuel RidoutIt is a solemn conclusion. Not that Job has misstated facts — indeed, no one can dispute them — but his deductions are dreadful. He follows his logic to the very brink of the cliff: that God deals unfairly. If so, He is not God. What a triumph that conclusion would be for the malicious enemy who stirred all this up, and who said that if Job's prosperity were taken away he would curse God to His face! Job has not done that, and Satan is defeated.
The challenge no one answers
Job's closing dare puts his friends to the test. The reply that comes back is telling.
Leslie M. GrantHowever, Job's friends were not thinking about eternity either. As for Job's arguments about how well the wicked do, he challenges his friends to prove him a liar (v.25). Certainly they could not do that, and Bildad's reply does not even try.
Why the books look unbalanced
Job was not blind to how the wicked end. The question is how far he was willing to look.
Leslie M. GrantAt least Job recognised that the wicked are lifted high only for a little while. Then they are brought low and taken away, "like all others" — that is, they only share the same end as others who were not wicked. If we look at this life only, then certainly everything is out of balance and frustrating. But all God's accounts are not settled on this side of the grave.
A riddle that waits for Christ
Commentators differ over how to read Job's opening question in this chapter. One gives his own reading, and says the problem runs far past Job.
William KellyI have given the reading that best satisfies my own mind. It separates two things: the times are not hidden from Shaddai, the Almighty; yet those who know Him do not see His days of retribution. It would not be strange in people who do not know Him. It is the riddle of the psalms and the prophets, and must remain so until Christ solves it.
The danger of being comfortable
Job's unanswered challenge exposes something about the men who could not answer it. Their calm certainty came from never turning their own argument on themselves.
William KellyBut then comes another very important thing. Unless we judge ourselves — unless self-judgment goes on day by day — we grow hard. We lose the freshness of the truth. We lose its power in our souls. So we may grow very self-satisfied, because we know that we believe. That is just where Job's friends were. They were quite comfortable; there was nothing wrong with them; they were all right — but Job, he must be very bad! That was their complete misjudgment. Now Job faces this question: how is it, if the times are so bad, that the day of reckoning does not come? We do not see it. It is coming; it awaits the only One who can perfectly deal with evil.
Summary
- Facts — no one can dispute Job's picture of the wicked: evil men escape in this life the punishment they deserve.
- Inference — the danger is not his facts but his conclusion. It runs to the edge of saying God is unfair. If that were true, He would not be God.
- Silence — no one takes up the dare. Bildad's reply does not even try, and the argument on that level is over.
- Delay — God does not settle all His accounts on this side of the grave. Measured by this life alone, everything looks out of balance.
- Judge — the day of reckoning is coming. It waits for the only One who can deal with evil perfectly. Daily self-judgment keeps us from the friends' comfortable misjudgment.