When God Asks the Question

Have you ever pondered the many questions God asks people in the pages of the Bible? I mean questions from God (Father) or questions from Jesus? And the questions angels ask?

Don Johnson, pastor of Montecito Covenant Church in Santa Barbara (tough location for that calling, ahem), has pored over the Bible finding those questions and pondering their answers and drawing up nothing less than a very special kind of spirituality book called God’s Questions to Us (Old Stone Publishing, Santa Barbara, 2014).

What is your favorite question in the Bible? Like “Where is your brother?” — God asks Cain (about Abel). Or when God asks himself, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”

Are God’s questions rhetorical? Why does God ask questions?

Here is Don’s story:

On a vacation years ago in France, I read straight through the Bible over a six-week period. Every morning I arose early, made coffee, lit a candle, and curled up with he Bible and a red pen. As I began in Genesis, I noticed a question from God to Adam and Eve: where are you? (Genesis 3:9) Was that really a question God needed to ask? Isn’t God all-seeing? Could these humans really hide from God? As I kept reading, I kept noticing more questions from God to humans: who told you that you were naked? What have you done? Why are you angry?

In the margin of my Bible I casually wrote “Q” in red ink beside each question and began to number them. As I kept reading the Bible, I discovered that God persistently and continually engages humans with questions. The questions did not stop in the Old Testament, but continued into the New Testament with Jesus. Jesus’ questions are profoundly intriguing: who do you say that I am
? Do you want to be well? What is your name?

By the end of that vacation, I had found over 500 questions from God or Jesus to humans…to us. Why so many questions? What do the questions mean? What does it mean that we have a God and a Savior who come to us with questions?

A good book to have on your desk next to your Bible — 0pen it up, find a question from God, and ponder Don’s ponderings and ponder away. God asks good questions — questions we might not ask! Make the book a devotional for a season.