God: "I'm not so much into playing games...why are you so much into playing games?"
Man: "You are God."
God: "What gave it away?"
Man: "You answered my question with a question."
God: "I did?
Yep! I do that! Don't I?
See I did it again!"
God: "Step right up, here we go."
Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers. If I were to ask you, "what is the first sentence that pops into your mind when I say the word: psychiatrist?" Most would answer, "How does that make you feel?" Psychiatrists, counselors, teachers, and parents alike are infamous for responding to questions and complaints with different questions. Posing the right question in response to the questioner is not only the most effective teaching tool, it is an art form that can create a successful communicator. We ask questions, not because we do not know the answers, but because we desire the questioner to feed themselves the answers.
God is the inventor of this ingenious tool, and uses it over and over in Scripture. In Genesis 3, we find God walking into the garden for his daily time with Adam and Eve. Though God in his omniscience already knew what had transpired in the garden that day, He calls out, "Adam!? Where are you!?" Adam pauses, realizing the depth of this question. God did not just want to know his physical location, he wanted to know the location of his heart. With angst in his voice, Adam replies. "God, I'm afraid and I'm naked..." By God asking the right question, he causes us to expose our own nakedness and fear.
Job's friends had questioned, and spoke on behalf of God. Through the trials Job went through we find him demanding answers from God. While God could have easily answered Job's questions, God wanted Job to realize and establish God's greatness through Job's own thoughts. So, throughout chapters 38 and 39 He asks Job close to 50 different questions as if to say, "Job, when you can answer these questions, THEN you are fit to question me."
In the midst of our problems, with a childlike attitude we have each approached God with the question "WHY?" His answer, though not what we would prefer, has been to ask us a question in return. God says, "Step right up..." or as he told Job, "gird up your loins." In essence, God is telling us to get up and get ready because this next part is going to require some effort. For all of our questions, those of a spiritual, emotional, physical, or relational nature, God has said, "Is anything too hard for me?" We have realized our nakedness as sinners, and demanded God's answers. So, are we prepared for the questions he has in return?
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