GOD’S QUESTIONS.
It would appear that from the very beginning it was the manner of Jehovah to impress the thoughts of His heart upon the minds of men by asking them questions. Almost at every great crisis in the history of His ancient people some definite interrogation falls from His lips. What method is better calculated to make people think? It was also the manner of Jesus Christ-God manifest in the flesh. He began in the temple by "asking questions," and all through His ministry they were continually falling like coals of fire upon the heads of His unbelieving followers, and often with startling effect upon His own beloved disciples. Every question asked by God is intended to arrest the attention and direct the thoughts of the human mind to some definite purpose of His heart. So that behind every question there seems to be a revelation. The following questions, asked by God Himself, have been put into three sections, under different topics, and may be used as so many different readings.
I.-GOD’S QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO SIN.
I. "Adam, where art thou?" (Gen_3:9). An interrogation calculated to make him "consider his ways. " Why was he now troubled at the presence of God? (Job_23:15). Why does his heart condemn him? (1Jn_3:20).
II. "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" (Gen_3:11). How is it that your innocency as a "garment of glory and beauty" has suddenly dropped off and left you clothed only in your own shame? The hand of sin strips the soul naked of all comeliness in the sight of God.
III. "What is this that thou hast done?" (Gen_3:13). Something awful has been done, and thou hast done it. What is it? Think it all over again in the very presence of the Holy One, of Him who hath blessed you with every needful blessing. What a humbling experience this should be; but she attempts an excuse. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked."
IV. "Why art thou wroth?" (Gen_4:6). Is God unjust and partial in His dealings with men that you should be at enmity with Him in your heart? Why do you let your "countenance fall" instead of coming and reasoning together with the Lord? (Isa_1:18). He is no respecter of persons (Rom_2:11).
V. "How long wilt thou refuse to Humble thyself before Me?" (Exo_10:3). Dost thou not know that "before destruction the heart of man is haughty" (Pro_18:12). Refusing to humble thyself is to declare war with the Almighty.
VI. "How long will it be ere they believe Me?" (Num_14:11). As long as ye believe Him not, ye are companying with those who shall have their part in the lake of fire with all liars. In believing Him not ye make Him a liar. He has sworn that "them that believe not" shall not enter into His rest (Heb_3:18).
VII. "Who would set the briers and thorns against ME in battle?" (Isa_27:4). Your reasons and excuses for not believing His Word and obeying His will are just so many briers and thorns set up to oppose the progress of an unquenchable fire. "I would go through them," saith the Lord. "Who can stand before His indignation?" (Nah_1:6)
VIII. "Can any hide himself that I shall not see him?" (Jer_23:24). If I make my bed in Hell, Thou art there. The "thick clouds" that hide Him from thee cannot hide thee from Him (Job_22:13-14). "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Pro_15:3). All things are naked and bare before the "high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity."
IX. "Wilt thou condemn ME, that thou mayest be righteous?" (Job_40:8). We are condemning Him when we say that we have not sinned, and seek to establish our own righteousness. We treat Him as a liar when we believe not His Word. The life that is built on God-dishonouring principles is built on sand and doomed to sudden destruction (Mat_7:24-27).
II.-GOD’S QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO SALVATION.
I. "What aileth thee?" (Gen_21:17). How ready the Lord is to hear the voice of the needy, and to be touched with compassion at the cry of a desolate, penitent heart. What aileth thee?is the language of this Great Physician, who can well heal all the ailments of the human soul.
II. "To whom will ye liken ME?" (Isa_40:25). You cannot liken the Holy One to any created thing. O man, with all the multitude of your ailments, liken not God, the Fountain of Life, to the broken cisterns of earth, or His way to the deceitfulness of your own heart! Where will you get His like for mercifulness, mightiness, and readiness to save?
III. "To what purpose is your sacrifices unto Me?"
(Isa_1:11). Your gifts and your religious works are to no purpose as long as the heart is at enmity with God. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit (Psa_51:16-17). To obey the voice of His Word is better than sacrifice. A hearing ear is better to Him than the fat of rams (1Sa_15:22).
IV. "Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?" (Isa_55:2). Why go on with religious forms which bring no strength or satisfaction into the heart and life? Why do ye set your affections on those things which are perishing, and leave your own imperishable soul to face an eternal famine? Why do you labour to establish your own righteousness, when after you have done your very best you have gained nothing but "filthy rags?" (Isa_64:6).
V. "How shall I pardon thee for this?" (Jer_5:7). It is not possible for man to give any cogent reason why God should pardon sin apart from the "Blood of Christ. " When God does pardon He has always a good reason for it, but that reason is never found in our own worthiness, but in the worthiness of Him who died for us.
VI. "How shall I put thee among the children?"
(Jer_3:19). How can God put the "children of disobedience" among His own sons? Only by redeeming them from all iniquity and sending forth the spirit of His Son into their hearts so that they may truthfully cry, "Abba, Father" (Gal_4:4-6). The constraining motive on God’s part is love (1Jn_3:1).
VII. "Wilt thou not cry unto me, My Father?"
(Jer_3:4). If He has loved you so much as to give His Son up to the death for you, that you might have the right to take your place among His children, wilt thou not cry, "My Father" (Joh_1:12). Wilt thou not own Him as your Father? We are the children of God by faith (Gal_3:26).
VIII. "Is there anything too hard for ME? (Jer_32:27). Has He not power over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to as many as believe? (Joh_17:2). Is He not "able to save to the very uttermost" all that come. Is there anything in your heart, your life, or your circumstances that is too hard for Him? Things too hard for you are easy for God (Mat_19:26).
IX. "How shall I give thee up?" (Hos_11:8). Surely this is good proof of the willingness of God to keep a hold of His own. Are you afraid that you may not be able to hold on. Listen. "How shall I give thee up?" Your safety lies in His power to keep. "He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him. " This is a question that might melt the heart of any backslider.
III. -GOD’S QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO SERVICE.
I. "What seest thou?" (Jer_1:13). There are those who see no beauty in Jesus, no attractiveness in His Word. Dost thou see those things which are set before thee in the vision of the Gospel? Then thine eyes have been anointed with the holy eye-salve (Rev_3:18). "Set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee" (Eze_40:4).
II. "Where is thy brother?" (Gen_4:9). Andrew found his brother, and brought him to Jesus (Joh_1:41-42). Those who have seen the Lamb of God and believed on Him should seek, that others may see Him also. Are you so taken up with yourself that you forget that you have a brother?
III. "Who will go?" (Isa_6:8). Jesus Christ went forth to the place of shame and death, that God’s message of salvation might come to us through Him. Who will go for Him? There is no compulsion in the service of God but the compulsion of love. "Here am I, send me," for the love of Christ constraineth me.
IV. "Wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?" (Jos_7:10). There is a time to pray, and to humble thyself before God, but there is also a time to be up and doing (Exo_14:15). Sin must not only be confessed in ourselves, but must also be rebuked in others. We may lie on our face until we become a grief to our Lord and Master.
V. "What is that in thine hand?" (Exo_4:2). It is a good thing to have Something in hand that may bring glory to God. The thing itself may seem small and useless for this great end; but He can make it mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of Satan. Every lawful thing that’s in your hand may become a conquering weapon for God.
VI. "Cannot I do with you as this potter?"
(Jer_18:6). "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker" (Isa_45:9). If the potter can work wonders in a piece of clay, can not the Lord Almighty work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure? Ye are bought with a price, therefore it is surely lawful for Him to do what He will with His own (Mat_20:15). Yield yourselves unto God, lest ye become as marred vessels unto Him.
VII. "Is not My Word as a fire?" (Jer_23:29). Does it not make the heart to burn when it comes from the lips of love? (Luk_24:32). It is a divine light that needs but the oxygen of human faith to make it a burning flame in the soul. The Word of God is no carnal weapon; it is a tongue of fire unquenchable. The words of men are as thorns and briars in the presence of this holy flame (Joh_6:63).
VIII. "Can these bones live?" (Eze_37:3). Can God raise up out of these dead, dry, and severed bones, living, moving, mighty men? (Rom_4:17). How are the dead raised up? It is the Spirit that quickeneth. Faith prophesies, but God causes the breath to enter. "In Him was life" (Joh_1:4).
IX. "Who is blind… and deaf, as my messenger?" (Isa_42:19). As Saul was blinded by the "brightness of that light," so has all the Lord’s true servants been blinded to the perishing things of earth by the revelation of the glory of the things of Heaven. This one thing they do- they "glory in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ," and are blind to the glory and deaf to the voices of this world that had nothing for Him but a crown of thorns. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. " As the messengers of God, we must have the blindness and the deafness of those who don’t want to see or hear anything that would distract us in our soul-saving mission.
Autor: James Smith