Questions
John Fischer, the 1970's Jesus People musician and former editor of CCM magazine, compiled his editorials for the magazine into a few books, one of which is titled, True Believers Don’t Ask Why. (Notice the word “Don’t” is crossed out.) It is an excellent book on Jesus’ invitation to us to:
Ask, Seek, Knock.
Is it possible to ask too many questions? Is there ever a time we should just “take something by faith?”
I had someone arguing for a practice I did not find described in the Bible as they were presenting it. When I continued to protest I simply did not see it in the Bible, in his exasperation this brother said, “Well there are some things you just have to take by faith!”
My response was, “Faith in WHAT? In YOU? You are not a reliable enough source if you cannot show it to me in the Bible!”
The formula of Jesus is that we:
Ask, Seek, Knock.
He invites us to ask questions: and the reality is, there are some questions which will not be answered this side of glory: and THAT is something we have to come to peace with.
Deuteronomy 29:29 says: The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
The statement “The secret things” should be enough to let us know we are not going to understand it all; and that is ok!
The faith we possess is not faith that every question is going to be answered, but in the character of the One who hears us: and His character is not bothered or worried by your questions. In fact, the Bible is full of questions with a lot of them coming from God Himself!
There are 827 questions in the New Testament and Jesus is quoted as having asked 305 of them. Over 1/3 of the questions in the New Testament are asked by Jesus Himself. But what types of questions did He ask?
Here is a happy little factoid from Zach Zehnder about the questions Jesus asked:
Jesus asked curiosity questions.
Jesus asked open-ended questions.
Jesus asked challenging questions.
Jesus did not ask “when” questions. . . ever.
How many of the questions you are most desperate for an answer to have to do with “when” rather than “why” or “how?”
“When will I get married (or UN-married)?”
“When will this pain end?”
“When will my financial problems be solved?”
“When will Jesus return?” (Of course, many think they already have that one figured out!)
“When will. . .”
How many more answers might we receive if our questions were to be more along the lines of, “why has God allowed this in my life and how is this being used to make me more into the image of Christ?”
If Jesus told us to “Ask, Seek, Knock,” and if He asked more than 1/3 of all the questions in the New Testament, might He actually welcome our questions?
Asking questions has not always been met with the highest sense of appreciation. The three-year-olds repeated, “Why?” has been known to drive more than a few parents to distraction. Martin Luther was asked what God was doing before He created humanity. Luther’s response was telling: “He was cutting switches with which to flog inquisitive questioners.” Luther might not have been the biggest fan of questions.
The first question asked in the Bible is from Satan when he spoke to Eve impugning the goodness and intentions of God,
“Hath God said. . .” (Gen 3:1). This has led some to believe that questions are not from God: which is a nonsensical conclusion.
The Bible is filled with questions from God Himself, His very first question being found just a few verses later in Genesis 3:9 when He spoke to Adam and said, “Where are you?”. The next two statements from God to Adam were also questions: “Who told you that you were naked?” and “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Gen 3:11-12). No, God is not afraid of questions.
But let’s do be certain of this one, unchangeable fact: God never asks a question because of a lack of knowledge.
He asks questions to cause us to think. The good lawyer may never ask a question he does not already know the answer to, but it is impossible for Jesus to not already know.
It is interesting to note that God’s first question in the Old Testament is His searching for man: “Where are you?” while man’s first question in the New Testament is his searching for God: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matt 2:2).
Let’s consider more of the questions of God:
He rapid-fires four questions to Cain concerning his jealousy of Abel:
“Why are you angry, . . .?
“If you do well, will you not be accepted?
“Where is Abel your brother?”
“What have you done?” (Gen 4:6-10).
The first time God spoke in the book of Job, it is in the form of a question:
“From where have you come?” followed by another question: “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:7-8).
In fact, There are 330 questions in Job, 88 of which are in the 2 chapters when God is speaking, (Job 38-39).
And the first thing God says in chap 38 is a question: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2).
When Jesus invited Isaiah to, “Come now, let us reason together. . .” (Isaiah 1:18), He was inviting him to a reciprocal, question and answer form of conversation. The word, “reason” actually refers to the classical form of an “argument” when positions are presented (graciously and without yelling!) and responses are given.
Questions were asked and answers were presented. This is the type of engagement Jesus actually invites us into.
No, God is not afraid of your questions.
Have you ever considered the fact that the call of Isaiah in chapter 6 centered around a question? Certainly, there had been visions and revelations prior to chapter 6, but something happened in chapter 6 which gave a focused sense of purpose and calling to Isaiah.
With Jeremiah, there was no mistaking it! God called Jeremiah to be His prophet in very clear terms: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:1).
Similarly, God intruded Himself into the life of Ezekiel by revealing His word to him: “the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest,” (Ezek 1:3).
Over and over the prophets were called because, “The word of the Lord” was presented to them: Hosea 1:1, Joel 1:1, Jonah 1:1, Micah 1:1, Zephaniah 1:1, Haggai 1:1, Zechariah 1:1, Malachi 1:1.
But with Isaiah, it was different.
Isaiah’s friend and king, Uzziah, had died and Isaiah, while seeking God’s comfort, found himself in the very throne-room of God. The space was filled with God: there were angels standing, flying and shouting, the very foundations of heaven shook at the voice of God and Isaiah was overwhelmed! Imagine that!!
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;” (Isaiah 6:5).
The word “Woe” is an interesting study in the book of Isaiah. In chapters 1-5, Isaiah is throwing the word around like there is no tomorrow! He is “woe-ing” everyone in sight. Eight times in the first five chapters Isaiah uses one of two Hebrew words to pronounce “woe” on someone. At that rate, with 66 chapters to write, there are going to be a lot of “woes!!” But, interestingly, chapters 7-66 have a total of only 12 “woes” handed out. Isaiah went from eight woes in five chapters to only 12 woes in 60 chapters. What happened? What “slowed the woe” for Isaiah?
I would submit it was that all important “woe” in chapter 6 when Isaiah shouted, “Woe is me!”
We have all experienced it: when we recognize our own failures, when we are confronted with our own sins, it causes us to be a lot more merciful toward those around us. “Then who are you suggesting wrote the book of Isaiah?!? Was it God or was it Isaiah?!?” And my answer to
that would be, . . . Yes.
Isaiah, as with the entirety of the Bible, is God’s Word, God revealed and God protected.
But God also moved through the personalities of those He spoke through.
Matthew, a Jew, wrote a gospel directed toward those he knew best: his fellow Israelites.
Luke, a gentile physician, wrote to his gentile comrades and explained more of Jewish culture than any of the other gospels.
John, tempered by age and persecution, had learned a humility which no longer begged for the throne next to Jesus. John had been so humbled, he did not even name himself in his own book.
Time with God influences how we present the truth of God’s Word, without ever once changing or reducing God’s Word.
As the prophet, as the preacher, as every single Christian, matures and becomes more Christ-like, it is totally expected that the presentation of God’s Word will mature as well. I wonder if there was a “Hee-haw” or two in the message from Balaam’s “donkey” which might not have been there had he continued to be used as a prophet.
Isaiah was not reluctant to pronounce the “woes” of chapters 7-66 because they absolutely came from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just as those in chapters 1-5 had. But friends, as the hearts of the prophets mature and change through the course of their service, we see a tempering of who they are as individuals.
Habakkuk was “in God’s face” in chapters 1 and 2, until he heard from God and chapter 3 revealed a calmer, more trusting, more at peace, prophet.
Jeremiah was so frustrated and, frankly, offended, at God he quit preaching for 17 years! (Chapter 20 chronicles his return to ministry after those years). After his return, Jeremiah was more at home with the contempt the Word of the Lord was going to bring down on his own head.
We are able to see this maturation with many of the prophets, Isaiah included.
Consider this out of Isaiah 6 and Isaiah’s call to ministry.
While grieving the loss of his friend, King Uzziah, Isaiah found himself immersed in the presence of God and confessesed not only his own sin and need, but also that of the people he lived among: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;” (Isaiah 6:5).
Immediately following his confession, cleansing and forgiveness were granted him by an angel touching to his lips a coal taken from the altar.
Then, after his conviction, after his confession, after his cleansing, he heard the heart of God: and he heard it in the form of a question: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isa 6:8). Isaiah immediately inserted himself into the conversation of the Godhead, presenting himself as the answer to the question: “Here I am! Send me” (Isa 6:8).
Friends, the call of God is not always through a burning bush or a visit from some angels. He does not always write a message in the sky or knock you off your horse with a thunderous voice from Heaven. Sometimes it is as unexpected as the meeting of two things in the same space:
1) our recognition of need, (ours or those around us)
2) a revelation of the heart of God concerning the matter.
Where Isaiah’s recognition of a need and the revelation of God’s heart concerning the matter intersect, that is the point at which Isaiah was called to ministry: not because God manipulated, cajoled or forced: but simply because Isaiah heard God’s heart concerning the need he had already been shown.
It was because of a simple question that Isaiah volunteered for ministry.
Of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, there are 2506 questions. That averages out to 1 question every 12.4 verses.
That is a very high “question to verse” ratio! Almost as frequent as the average 5 year old!
And, as we have already seen, God asks a surprisingly large number of those questions.
The first statement of Jesus in the gospels is in the form of a question: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:40).
The first statement of Jesus after His return from the wilderness of temptation is also a question. As Jesus walked past John’s baptismal, two of John’s disciples began to follow Him, to which Jesus said, “What areyou seeking?” (John 1:38).
When Jesus, having “set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem,” was passing through Jericho, there was a noisome blind man who, in spite of the demands of those around him to be quiet, refused to stop calling out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47). Jesus addressed the blind man with a simple question: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51).
If that doesn’t constitute a “Grand-Lotto” sized blank check I don’t know what does!
What would be your response? Fame? Riches? Power?
I like what James R. Edwards said concerning the blind man’s response: “He asks not to be superhuman, but simply human.”
It truly is “. . . the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out (Prov 25:2).
It is almost as if God is calling us to a divine version of “21 Questions. ”
Will we stick with Him as He says, “I spy with my little eye”?
Are you willing to pursue Him in a game of “Hide-and-seek?” If you are, He has promised, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer 29:13-14).
And don’t give up the search because, if His hiding place is better than you expected, He has promised to stick His toe out of whatever door He is behind when He said, “I will be found by you, declares the Lord” (Jer 29:14).
If your complaint is, as mine has been, “He isn’t answering my questions!!,” might I suggest it is not His ear that is the problem: instead, it might be our questions.
The questions of my youth are not the same questions I am consumed with today. I am no longer concerned about who the anti-christ is, and I have way more than 88 reasons to not need to identify when Jesus is going to return.
I find myself far more captivated by the questions Jesus asked a long time ago:
“Will ye also go away?” (John 6:67).
“Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matt 9:4).
“Have you understood all these things?” (Matt 13:51).
“. . . why did you doubt?” (Matt 14:31).
“But who do you say that I am?” (Matt 16:15).
“What do you want?” (Matt 20:21).
I wonder if Jesus is as anxious for us to answer His questions as we are for Him to answer ours.
- Robert Marshall