God’s Questions Changes Everything
As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging…Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Luke 18:35,40-41 NIV
What kind of cheese is the moon made of? How did the man get in the moon? Why can’t grass be blue and the sky green? If you have or have had toddlers, you know the routine. According to Harvard child psychologist Paul Harris, children between the ages of 2 and 5 will ask roughly 40,000 questions. Research suggests an average of 100-300 questions per day, with the peak volume usually coming from four-year-olds. (data from A More Beautiful Question, Warren Berger)
When our son was in that age range, I would come home in the evening, and Connie would hand him to me and tell me she needed a quiet break. If you have children, grandchildren, or are around little ones, just know that the endless why, when, where, who, and how questions are normal. God wired these little brains to be inquisitive, information-gathering creatures. On the downside, adults find themselves unable to answer their questions 35% of the time.
As we grow older, we may not ask 300 questions every day, but questions remain an important part of our lives. We live in a world where questions shape our daily lives. We ask questions to get opinions, directions, information, or for a thousand other reasons. What do you want for dinner? Can you tell me how to get to Walmart? How long will the sermon last? Now the world of questions has expanded to asking Google, Siri, Alexa, and Bixby, among others, life’s poignant questions. Hey Google, how long does it take to boil an egg?
Scripture gives us the first recorded question. It is not a question seeking information or directions but one meant to deceive. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” (Gen 3:1) God had finished an unblemished creation, and mankind was given free range of the most incredible home. It was a perfect paradise until a question was asked to sow doubt, create envy, and stir longing for something they couldn’t be, namely God himself. The Bible tells us that “the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.” The great deceiver disguised himself as a serpent to sow doubt.
It was one question that sowed doubt and one response that changed the course of human history. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Deception was planted like a fragile seed until it gave root to the bitter fruit of sin.
The deception hung over the Garden of Eden like a heavy blanket. “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”
A question of deception had been asked, but now God uses a question to begin the process of healing and confrontation. A simple question, yet it would require a difficult answer: “Where are you?” I have no doubt that God, who had just finished creating the world, knew the surface-level answer to where they were physically. What God wanted to know, and what he still wants to know, is not where we are physically but where we are with Him. It was a question that stirred the soul, forced self-reflection, and opened the door to repentance, and it still does.
Fast-forward through the pages of history, and the same deceptive questions have been asked of people. They are the questions that arouse envy, lust, anger, revenge, and greed. The questions that leave us doubting God’s goodness and love.
It doesn’t take much of life space to get asked a question that plants seeds of doubt in our souls. Were you really the most qualified to get that promotion? Are you really entitled to that award? Did you really—you fill in the blank. At one time or another, most of us have had questions asked that belittled us, made us doubt our abilities, and cast suspicion on us.
The Great Deceiver has had lots of practice at planting these questions. A question of envy caused Cain to murder his brother. A question of lust caused David to commit adultery and eventually murder. A question of greed caused Judas to betray Jesus for a few coins. A question of fear caused Peter to deny his friend and mentor.
God has a way of asking questions that bring healing, life, and redemption, questions that prompt us to say, “Yes, God, I blew it; I need you.” When God asked Cain where Abel was, it wasn’t for information. God asked Jacob, “What is your name?” not for His knowledge, but to force Jacob to confront who he was and had been, and to surrender to Him what he could be. “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel.” (Gen 32:27,28)
God’s questions force us to look beyond the obvious answer to what lies deep within ourselves to the place only God can touch and restore. God used questions to compel Moses to look beyond his limitations, “Who gave human beings their mouths?” When Job was on the brink of despair, God asked questions to help him look beyond himself: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” When Peter thought he was beyond grace, Jesus used questions to begin his healing: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
God’s questions are never superficial, nor are answers always obvious. There is an obvious answer to a blind man: Do you want to see? Though Jesus cared that Bartimaeus could physically see, he was even more concerned that he could see spiritually. Today, how will you respond to Jesus when he asks you, “What do you want me to do for you?”
God is great!
