I love when God asks questions in the Bible. I love that humor and irony that lies in each question that The All-Knowing One asks. I think a lot of Christians are scared of questions. Some feel threatened by them. Others feel like questions show a lack of faith. Others equate questions to sinful rebellion. But I believe that healthy questions lead to knowledge. How can we have a faith that is truly ours if we don't discover it on our own? Now, I know that God does not ask questions because He has a lack of knowledge. I think He asks questions to get us asking and thinking.
When things are going crazy answers don't last very long but a question is worth a lot. The word question is derived from the Latin quaerere (to seek), which is the same root as the word quest. A Christ-like life is a continued quest, and good questions are useful guides. Studies show that the most useful questions are open-ended; they allow a fresh, unanticipated answer to reveal itself. These are the kind of questions children aren't afraid to ask. They seem naive at first. But think how different our lives would be if certain questions of wonder were never asked. Jon Collins of Stanford's Graduate School of Business has compiled the following list of questions of wonder:
Albert Einstein: What would a light wave look like to someone keeping pace with it?
Bill Bowerman (inventor of Nike shoes): What happens if I pour rubber into my waffle iron?
Fred Smith (founder of Federal Express): Why can't there be reliable overnight mail service?
Godfrey Hounsfield (inventor of the CAT scanner): Why can't we see in three dimensions what is inside a human body without cutting it open?
Masaru Ibuka (honorary chairman, Sony): Why don't we remove the recording function and speakers and put headphones in the recorder? (Result: the Sony Walkman.)
God asks a series of questions in Jer 23:23-24: Am I only a God nearby? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? Do not I fill heaven and earth?
On the surface we would answer no to all of these questions. So why does God ask? In the context he’s asking to humble false teachers. But for us today I think He asks to get us out of our boxes and to take Him out of our boxes. Many believers are guilty of practicing practical atheism or practical agnosticism. We have head knowledge of the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God, yet we deny that head knowledge by our actions. Problems come and we lean on our own understanding. Crisis arises and we attempt to defend ourselves. Hurt comes our way and we crawl into a shell of “woe is me”. God is asking us “Am I only a God nearby and not a God faraway. Am I that small of a God that I can’t handle 2 things at once? Is your problem that serious that the God who occupies every square inch of the universe can’t handle it? He transcends the laws of physics and he plays jump rope with the space time continuum. His thoughts and ways are light years above our own. How big is your God? Ask yourself these questions in light of His word and you’ll see just how great He is.
Many questions are deemed ridiculous at first.
Other shoe companies thought Bowerman's waffle shoe was a "really stupid idea."
Godfrey Hounsfield was told the CAT scan was "impractical."
Masaru Ibuka got comments like: "A recorder with no speaker and no recorder -- are you crazy?"
Fred Smith proposed the idea of Federal Express in a paper at Yale and got a C.
Sometimes God asks questions in the word that may seem silly to us. But I think its through those questions that real faith arises. Questions like “Is there anything too hard for God? If God be for me, who can be against me? What can separate me from the love of God? In struggle and hard times, sometimes a simple question can bring us back to the reality that God is in control, he is with us, and we can trust Him.
“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD
