The Architect’s Plan
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1)
The scripture is full of questions. If my reading is correct, this is the first one recorded. That makes it worthy of some consideration. Let’s take a look together since this question leads to several others in rather rapid succession.
First observe the nature of the question; it challenges the truthfulness of God. Until now, His relationship with Adam and Eve has gone unchallenged. They have enjoyed fellowship in His presence and their every need has been met.
It’s hard to imagine but, even in that setting, they wanted something more. To be sure, the serpent deceived Eve but there had to be something about her nature that made her vulnerable. Adam’s vulnerability surfaced as he chose to listen to Eve rather than heed God’s command.
The question serves to challenge God’s plan and order of things. Our first parents decided they wanted more and boy are we their children!
The next question comes from God and it is an interesting one, "Where are you?" This answer is for the benefit of Adam and Eve. God knows exactly where they are and why. Until now, the sound of God in the garden was a welcome one. One which they enjoyed.
Their new-found knowledge made them afraid of the very relationship that once satisfied them so completely. Adam’s confession of hiding is evidence enough that he knows he has broken that relationship and the next questions press the issue, "Who told you, you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree...?"
Adam confesses but blames Eve and God in the process. God questions Eve with, "What have you done?" How do you hear His voice here? Is He angry, disappointed, grieved, or what? Whatever it is, I don’t think He is surprised or caught off guard. The scripture tells us He worked out all the details before the foundation of the earth was laid so this isn’t news to Him.
We’ve talked about this before, but it was never God’s plan for them to know the difference between good and evil. He simply wanted them to obey Him and that would settle the matter. That plan was lost in the garden and the redemptive history that follows had a view to the restoration of mankind’s total dependence upon God. That’s the reason Paul could say that "all things are lawful."
Living in right relationship with God means that we live out the grace and love we have received and we don’t have to worry about the do’s and don’ts. They take care of themselves.
That brings us to the end of the questions in this opening barrage. However, if we didn’t know the story we would logically expect one more, perhaps the most interesting.
Doesn’t the progression of the dialogue leave you on the edge of your seat just waiting for God to ask the serpent a question or two? Boy, I’d love to hear them and the responses!
The rest of the scripture gives us clues but I’d sure like to see a confrontation right here. The reality is that the serpent is already defeated from God’s perspective, he hasn’t a leg to stand on (slight pun intended). There is no protest in the presence of the Almighty and he knows it.
"Questions, Questions" and the answers are revealing. What questions would God ask of us today? How do we answer? We find the only acceptable answer as we live in the presence of Christ.
The Carpenter’s Corner
"And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" (Luke 2:49)
In the life of Christ, this is the earliest recorded question He asked. Its implications are significant and worthy of much more time than we normally give them. I hope you’ll spend time on your own thinking about it.
The first Adam would have been a lot better off if he had maintained the same attitude as the Second. It is telling to contrast these events with those in the garden. God came "looking" for Adam and Eve. Joseph and Mary come looking for Jesus. Adam and Eve were hiding from God, Christ was busy with Kingdom business.
This is the only biblical record of Christ’s childhood and it leaves us with a lot of questions and a few speculations. How could Mary and Joseph lose Jesus? Sure there were huge crowds, but who would start home without making sure all the family was accounted for?
They were dedicated parents. As products of a national revival, they were diligent about their faith. They had stayed the full seven days for the feast paying careful attention to the ordinances of Israel. How is it they miss a "minor" detail like keeping up with their Son?
Their preoccupation with the events of the feast and their rush to return home caused them to make a lot of assumptions about where He was. They were wrong.
At the end of the first day, they began searching for Him and in desperation they return a days journey to Jerusalem. Did you notice that it was on the third day that they found Him? Do you think there might be some spiritual significance to that?
His question to them is considered by many commentators to be something of a gentle reproof: "Why were you worried about me? You should have known the Father was keeping Me!" The image is a lot like the disciples waking the sleeping Master in the storm. More than anyone else, Joseph and Mary knew who He was and yet they still did not understand that the Father would keep His anointed.
The wisdom and teaching that Jesus exhibited in the temple was available under Mary and Joseph’s own roof yet they were busy keeping traditions instead of listening to Him. One has to wonder about the discussions around the dinner table. Just what did Christ share with them? Whatever it was, we don’t have the record but we can be confident that Mary "kept all these things in her heart."
God’s first question to mankind is, "Where are you?" The first recorded question of mankind to God in the Flesh is essentially, "Where have you been?" Mary assumes it is her child’s responsibility to keep up with her rather than the other way around.
The first Adam was in hiding because he was derelict about the Father’s business. The Second Adam is being diligent about His calling. The real question is, "Who was lost?"
Jesus was where He was supposed to be. It was His parents who missed the boat. They are just beginning to learn the significance of the actions of Simeon and Anna earlier in this chapter.
Christ’s question cuts to the core issue of their struggle. What is His question to you today?
The Foreman’s Forum
"And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" (Acts 9:5a)
You’ll recognize the ninth chapter of Acts as the story of Paul’s conversion. It begins with Christ’s question to Paul, "Why are you persecuting me?" Paul is at a loss to understand what is happening.
He was the Jew’s Jew. He had it altogether. He had a heart for God and he was absolutely convinced that his every action assured his place among the elect. The question catches him totally off guard and he responds to the question with a question and that begins the story that upsets the world.
"Who are You, Lord?" What a great question to ask! Paul is awestruck with the experience but he’s not sure he’s ready to admit persecuting anyone. He wants to know who is on the other end of the call and the answer changes his life forever.
In his blindness, Paul received his greatest sight. The opening of his spiritual eyes was much more of a miracle than the restoration of his physical sight. His testimony throughout scripture only gives us glimpses into how he felt about his former life. He allowed tradition to so pervade his thinking that his actions denied the Messiah he sought.
Many folks today want to make God in their image. They have neatly drawn caricatures of Him and He is not allowed outside the mental lines they have drawn. God has a way of coloring outside the lines!
Of course, His coloring is precisely according to His design. The problem is that we see it so imperfectly. Because we do, it is foolish to suggest that we’ve got it tuned in while everyone else is still looking for the right channel. That’s a careless way to walk and hazardous to our faith.
Paul didn’t understand the scripture because he relied upon the teaching of men and tradition. Rather than think critically, he allowed himself to be caught up in what was popular. The great thinkers and teachers of the Jews couldn’t be wrong. Could they?
Besides, to disagree with them would earn their disfavor and mean a loss of standing among the respected and powerful leaders of his day. That would be foolish for one who was destined for success. He was on the ultimate career ladder and there was little doubt that he would have been a chief leader among the Jews.
It’s hard for one to have that kind of potential and then question the very foundation that makes it possible. Paul wasn’t willing to allow the scriptures to point him to Christ. He had a heart for God, but his ambition prevented him from seeing clearly what uneducated fishermen could understand.
It’s no different today. As we look around the religious world in general, and the Christian community specifically, we see the same thing. People have so vested themselves in certain traditions, teachings, or doctrinal understandings that they are maintained without question.
Paul should have been asking questions. So should we. Just because the majority of Christian leaders agree on a particular issue does not mean it is above question. Most would tell us to question them and search the scripture diligently ourselves and act upon what we believe it to teach.
Paul had that much to his credit. He lived out the faith he had in all good conscience. It grieved him to learn that his faith had been placed in the wrong things and the deliverance from that ignorance freed him to experience the joy and glory of the Lord like he never imagined.
Many a Christian today is trapped in tradition. Indeed, most of us are in one way or another. In some cases, tradition so grips God’s people that they persecute one another over their differences. Killings are rare in our day (not unheard of) but persecution takes many forms.
Like Paul, it is easy to acquire an attitude of spiritual superiority. Once we do, we communicate to others that they are second class citizens in the Kingdom, (if indeed we believe they are in it at all. We develop our checklist of who is and who is not a Christian.
If someone doesn’t meet what we understand to be biblical criteria, we dismiss them as brethren and, at best, see them as a target of evangelism. It matters not how much they confess Christ as Lord and Savior, if they don’t use our formula, they are none of His. We discount the grace and love in their lives as well as the other fruits of the Spirit we witness in them.
Paul was convinced that those first followers of Christ were heretics and he had no problem laboring to purge the world of their influence. What a shock it must have been to learn that his trusted friends were the imposters and usurpers.
May God heal us of the attitude of a sectarian spirit and, in His presence, open our eyes to see the glory of His Kingdom as we share fellowship with all who believe.
The Carpenter’s Toolbox
"Then he came there to a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’" (I Kings 19:9)
I hate pulling things out of context so please take the time to read 1 Kings 18-19 to refresh your memory of the surrounding events. Briefly, this verse follows the story of Elijah’s challenge to the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. They lose big time and he has them executed.
The victory is short-lived as Jezebel demands his life and he tucks his tail and heads for the hills. He plops down under a juniper tree and prays to die saying, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."
How’s that for one who has just witnessed the awesome power of God?
When God comes to Him on the mountain, the question is penetrating, "What are you doing here?" How do you read the emphasis in that query?
Emphasizing "what" or "doing" would frame the question as a challenge of his action. On the other hand, stressing "you" would be to infer amazement that one who has been a witness to such power would be cowering in a cave. And finally, accenting the "here" would challenge the location.
To speculate about which it might have been is of little consequence and I rather suspect it may well have included some of all the above. God is confronting the fear that has caused Elijah to run from the battle before making a clean sweep of it.
The implication is that Elijah, of all people, shouldn’t be holed up in a cave when the battle is the Lord’s. God gives him the plan to deal with his enemies and at the same time reveals that Elijah is not alone; there are 7,000 who have not bowed their knees to Baal.
Has God ever challenged you about where you are? Have you had an Elijah-like victory only to find yourself shortly in a situation which pales by comparison and yet leaves you feeling undone?
I suspect we all have. What a confidence we have that even when we falter, God is faithful! If you went back and read the story, you noticed that even as Elijah was running, the angel of the Lord came and ministered to him.
Elijah wasn’t the only prophet to run away from perceived threats, but this incident lets us see his humanity. He’s one of the "big guns" and to see him hightail it let’s us know that even those we perceive as being strong, have their moments.
His experience is one that calls us to look at our lives, right now, and ask "What am I doing here?"
The evaluation begins by understanding who we are in Christ. If we forget that, our perspective on everything else will be lost. Amen? AMEN!
With our position firmly established our "location" becomes important. As we orient our spiritual map, does it agree with our position in Christ? If not, we should consider what is adversely influencing our spiritual compass.
When our perspective is properly aligned with our position, it then becomes possible to find direction for the "what" aspect of our lives. So often we get it backwards. We think that in the doing we will arrive at a proper perspective. It just doesn’t seem to work that way. Faith is about being, not doing. It finds expression in doing, but doing never generates faith.
Doing may reinforce faith as God proves Himself again and again, but whatever good it may accomplish it is of little spiritual benefit unless it is born of faith.
Elijah hid because of fear and we are amazed that one who had seen the power of God made manifest in such an awesome way could ever doubt His omnipotence. Yet, at the same time, we have the testimony of the resurrection of Christ from the dead and we still hide, doubting that God can sustain us in the face of certain danger.
God has given us all that we need. Our running must stop and victorious living in Christ must begin.
The Apprentice’s Journal
I love to ask questions. The reason I do is because I have so many! I used to have all the answers. Now I have questions. Funny how God will turn things around on you when you are filled with pride, arrogance, and self-confidence.
As a young person, I read the Bible for facts: who, what, when, where, why, how. Now that is an important part of Bible study, but if you never get beyond that you will miss a great deal.
My study of Greek in college had one really positive effect. It made me realize the importance of doing word studies. It was not so much that translations attempt to mislead us but more that our presuppositions about the meaning of a word causes us to miss the intent.
I began the discipline of questioning myself as I questioned the text before me. Word by word I ask, "What does it mean?" Even words that we think we know can come across entirely different in the context of scripture. It became important to me to not only understand the words but the thought they were intended to convey.
I most often study from the New American Standard Bible because it is generally considered to be the most literal translation. Like all translations, it has its problems. Just literally translating words may or may not communicate the meaning of a passage.
Asking questions is the only way I know to let the text begin to speak for itself. More appropriately I should say that as we are diligent in our study, the Holy Spirit will quicken our minds to understand what was not clear before.
I stand in awe when I go back to passages I previously spent a great deal of time studying. Though I return to them convinced I gleaned every last thought and idea that could be extracted from them, so often my eyes are opened to see what I missed before. What a treasure we have in God’s word!
When Sharon and I started dating, she frequently asked questions about lots of things. I felt it was my duty to have an answer, even if I had to make something up. She was naive and gullible in those days and I could always come up with something that sounded reasonable.
She was sure I was smart until she started sharing some of my answers with others who knew the right answer! My insecurity caused me to act in a way that was not helpful to either of us or our relationship.
There is a word for wanting to appear to be something that you are not and it is an uncomfortable one: hypocrite. In spite of what I knew about myself, I wanted to project the image that I was more.
I wish I could say that experience early in life completely cured me of that tendency, but at least now I can admit to it. It doesn’t make me happy that many others suffer from the affliction, but it is some consolation to know I’m not alone. Whatever I may appear to be, believe me, I am less save in the blood of Christ.
Questions have a way of bringing us to the heart of the matter. We should not avoid them, but relish them. How sad it is to find folks who respond to questions of their closely held beliefs by ignoring them. It is a treacherous path to tread.
If someone asked, "Did you know the right front wheel was about to come off your car?" they would stop, get out, discover the condition and correct it in a heartbeat. Yet when challenged on things of far greater importance, they decide it isn’t worth the trouble and choose to continue holding their conviction without even considering the challenge.
Questions can make us uncomfortable because they take us places we haven’t been before, or perhaps we’ve glimpsed those places and decided not to go and therefore dodge the questions which lead there.
In either case, we choose temporary comfort rather than lasting contentment. In his children’s book, The Broken Promise, Ravi Zacharias tells the story of a brother and sister. She has a collection of her favorite candy and he has a prized jar of marbles. In time, they each start to want the other’s collection and finally agree to an exchange.
The night before the exchange the young boy, wanting the best of both worlds, decided to hide some of his favorite marbles in his room and keep them. The ploy seemed to work well until he went to bed that night and began wondering if his sister had given him all the candy.
The story ends on a happy note of honesty and reconciliation but it expresses how the exchange of long-term well-being for temporary satisfaction is fraught with problems.
When the desire of our hearts is to be pleasing to the Father, it is never in our best interest to sidestep questions which keep us honest in that relationship. It is disingenuous at best to ask God for wisdom and then reject those He brings into our lives to challenge and teach us.
I love questions! I don’t mean just the questions and the mental exercise it takes to work through them. I love the fruit of the exercise.
Sometimes, I end up where I began, my views unchanged. Other times, I just have to put things on the back burner for awhile and wait for God to give me more light. Still, there are other times that those questions open a door to a perspective I’d never imagined was there before. I especially love those times.
If you are not welcoming hard questions in your life, I encourage you to send out an invitation! Ask God to bring people into your life who will lovingly help you grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Become sensitive to the times God is opening the doors to those relationships and receive them with thanksgiving.
God has blessed my life with many individuals from a variety of backgrounds who are anxious to grow together. I hope that is your experience for it is one that seasons life with great richness.
When we were children we didn’t hesitate to ask questions. As adults, we should not forfeit the great reward that can be ours when we find the courage to ask the ones that haunt us. Let us not be so self-assured of our answers that we set them in stone lest we have to chip them out later and discard them.
We should be living boldly in the understanding we have, but we should always be ready to re-examine and correct. Start asking questions. If you don’t have any, I’ll be glad to send a few of mine to get you started!