For he addeth rebellion unto his sin, he clappeth his hands among us, and multiplieth his words against God.
Clappeth ... hands - in scorn (Job 27:23; Ezekiel 21:17).
Multiplieth ... words - (Job 11:2; Job 35:16). To his original 'sin,' to correct which trials have been sent, 'he adds rebellion' - i:e., words arraigning God's justice.
Remarks:
(1) We are not at random to take up every sentiment, by whomsoever propounded, but to try, by the touchstone of true wisdom and the Revelation of God, the statements of even good men, such as was Job (Job 34:2; Job 34:4). The spiritually wise have spiritual discernment, so as almost instinctively, for the most part, under the Spirit's guidance, to choose the good and reject the evil (Hebrews 5:14) which teachers may put before them. So Paul, like Elihu, appeals to the spiritual wisdom of his hearers to test his doctrine - "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say" (1 Corinthians 10:15).
(2) To justify ourselves is virtually to condemn God. "He who saith, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency" (Psalms 83:13-15), and "It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God," at one and the same time "offends against the generation of God's children," and makes common cause with God's enemies (Job 34:7-9).
(3) God, by the essential law of His nature, cannot do wrong. We should lay down this as a fixed principle, whatever appearances of injustice may now for a time be suffered in the present dispensation of the world. God's ways are even now right, and we are to believe them to be so, whether we see the grounds of His dealings or do not. The coming day of retribution will rectify all seeming anomalies, and show that His government has always throughout been perfectly righteous and just (Job 34:11).
(4) God is absolute proprietor of the world, as its Creator and Preserver: were He, then, to govern it unjustly, He would be injuring His own property-a supposition palpably absurd (Job 34:13). Moreover, His continual care for, and His love evinced in the preservation of His creatures, prove Him to be supremely unselfish, and therefore not by possibility unjust (Job 34:14-15).
(5) The fact that God governs the world, of itself proves He cannot be unjust: for if injustice were admitted, moral government of it would cease (Job 34:17; 2 Samuel 23:3). Moreover, His omniscience and His omnipotence enable Him to enforce justice by immediate execution of the penalty upon the violator of His just laws (Job 34:20-22). He has no need to go through man's tedious processes of judicial investigation: He sees and knows all things at once (Job 34:23-24),
(6) The grand end of God's dealings in afflicting us is, that we may humble ourselves under His mighty hand. Even the believer merits far worse than any trials which may befall him: so that he has no reason to complain of injustice being done him, however sorely he may be tried. Though sincere, and not a hypocritical formalist, he needs to be made to feel the evil of the common heritage of sin in which the godly also share. Chastisement makes him to realize this mortifying fact, as well as his own particular sins. Thus, with a chastened spirit, be learns to accept the punishment of sin, crying, 'I have borne chastisement, I will not offend anymore;' for it is not enough to be sorry for sin, we must "go and sin no more." Meekly, too, he prays to be taught in affliction that which he saw not before (Job 34:31-32): he is willing to know the worst of himself, and to think the best of God, who corrects him. Thus chastisement, having effected the gracious end designed, is at last removed; and the saint can look back and say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes" (Psalms 119:71).