November 01, 2010
I. Questions Asked by God, Questions 1-5
I will question you, and you shall answer Me: Job 40:7
When God asks us questions He is not giving us an intellectual quiz. God is not trying to see how smart we are or how well we can study or cram for an exam. His questions are usually short, simple, and direct. God asks us questions, not to test our IQ, but to test our hearts, to have us examine our ways, and to bring change to our lives.
Here are 5 questions asked by God. Even though God asked these questions to others, we can all think about how we would answer these questions if God directed them to us.
1. The Lord called out to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9
God asked this question to Adam, not because God did not know where Adam was hiding, but because He wanted Adam to face his disobedience. God was asking Adam, “Where are you in your relationship to me?” That is the question God wants every person to answer. Are we hiding or are we walking in the light?
2. The Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And [the Lord] said, What have you done? Genesis 4:9-10
God’s questions to Cain have to do with the area of personal responsibility. Today, it is common for people to blame everything that is wrong with them on someone else. If people have problems at work they blame it on the boss; if they have problems at home, they blame it on their parents or siblings; if they have problems at school they blame it on their teachers or classmates. God’s question to Cain was not, “What did Abel do to you?” but, “what did you do to Abel?”
3. The Lord asked Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I really bear a child when I am so old? Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord? Genesis 18:13-14
This was a question that addressed the area of doubt to the promise God gave about Sarah giving birth in her old age. God answers His own question with a question by telling Abraham that there is no reason to doubt His promises because nothing is too hard or marvelous for the Lord to do. For the believer in Christ, the attitude of the heart toward God’s promises should not be, “This promise is too good to be true,” but rather, “This promise is too good not to be true.”
4.And the Lord said to Moses, “What is that in your hand?” Exodus 4:2
By asking this question, God is pointing us, not to the great things we think we possess, but to the reality of our own emptiness and our inability to carry out His plan for our lives through the things we possess. God’s question pointed Moses to a dead stick he held in his hand, a stick with no life in it. From the moment God asked this question to Moses, Moses knew that if anything was going to happen to redeem God’s people, God’s power would have to do it and not his own abilities or efforts.
5. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. Exodus 14:15
This question drew Moses away from his prayers of pleading and into action. Sometimes God needs to move us from the place of bended knees to the place of moving feet. It is a good thing for us to call upon the Lord and wait upon the Lord, but when God says “Go” it is time to move out and put into action what He has told us to do.
