Questioning God
Recently I was reading a book by Paul Schuster and he brought to my attention some great questions that I have also been considering. The big “why?” questions. Is it ok to turn to our heavenly Father and ask why? Why did you allow this to happen? Why is there evil in this world? Why did this person have to die? Why God??!
These age-old questions have been asked millions of times by people over the millennia. The Psalms are full of “why” questions asked of God. For example, the Psalmist in Psalm 10 writes, “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” Habakkuk asks some of these questions in Chap 1:2-3, “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “violence!” but you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” Even Jesus asked this question in Mark 15:34b where He asks God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
It is not blasphemy to ask God the “why” questions. If these biblical saints can ask God the tough questions, so can we! When life is confusing or tragedy strikes, we look for explanations to help make sense of the confusion and pain. God understands and does not discourage us from asking or turn away when we do. But He doesn’t necessarily always give us the answers we are looking for, does He?? Consider how God responded to Job’s questions about why he had to suffer so much. In Job 38 God responds to Job’s questions with phrases like, “Why do you talk so much when you know so little? Now get ready to face me! Can you answer the questions I ask? How did I lay the foundation of the Earth? Were you there?”. I don’t know about you, but if I received that kind of response from God I’d be terrified and then followed quickly by feelings of shame, sadness and hopefully eventual understanding. God is sovereign! He is in charge!
But what’s sometimes really behind the question in the first place? Sometimes it’s not to hear the answer God provides, or to understand the cause, but rather we are questioning the character and motives of God, whether consciously or not. While our “why” questions are often all about us, often His response is simply, “trust me”. We don’t like that answer, do we? Schuster writes, “We may not always understand His actions, but He wants to assure us of His motive – LOVE. God loves us! That we can be sure of even if we don’t understand all of the “whys” of life.”
So, can we ask God those tough questions? Of course we can! We just need to check our motives at the same time and ask for forgiveness if our motives are self-serving. If you read Psalm 10, notice how the Psalmist ends this Psalm in vs 14-18. This section starts with the word “but” signaling a shift in thinking out of his negativity. The Psalmist goes on to cite many of the positive attributes of God and that he will trust the Lord because of His past experiences with Him. May we do the same!