Having noted some of the questions recorded in the Bible that various people have asked God, I thought it would be interesting to think about some of the questions we are told God asked humans.
In Genesis 3:9, God asks “Where are you?” When this question was first asked, the humans were hiding from God, one another, and self. This question from God is a good one for me to entertain. I imagine that it is for you as well. Haven’t we all tried to hide parts of ourselves from God at times?
“Where are you” in your relationship with God? Is it open and honest? Are there things you are right now attempting to hide by avoiding them in your thoughts and prayers? Are there thoughts, actions, or intentions that cause you to avoid thinking about God when you are entertaining them?
“Where are you” in your relationship with the other humans in your life? Are these relationships open, honest, and authentic, or are you attempting to hide who you really are?
“Where are you” in your relationship with yourself? Are you willing to look at yourself as honestly and directly as you know how, or are there lots of things you would rather not think about or face about who you are, how you are acting, or what you are really wishing for?
When God asks “Where are you?” it is never a threat. It is God saying, “I see the distance. Will you come closer? I like being closer to you.”
it is interesting that God would ask a question at all if He is omniscient. if He knows all, a question must be to get the recipient of the question to look inward to discover where he/she is in their development and growth. to that end we should welcome His inquiries no matter how uncomfortable we feel about them. Bruce Lee, the martial artist said that the hardest thing is to know oneself and honestly express oneself. I think this is true. also, it is beyond foolish to hide anything from God since He sees into the farthest reaches of our being. once you develop a sense of God’s presence, “prayer times” seem unnecessary to the point that one can converse with God at all times in every place. once you know He is “around” all the time, it reduces the thought of hiding anything. why would you?
Allen. Good to hear from you. Its been a long time! Blessings.
Many of God’s questions do point to God using this as a way of getting us to face ourselves. And, I certainly agree that we all find that difficult to do at times. Not sure that I agree with you about prayer though. I think a lot of communication is about relationship, not about learning new facts. That is certainly true in our relating to one another since most of our conversations are not really about new information, but various ways of relating to one another. I think the same is true in taking the time to talk with God about what God is doing or about what I am doing. It is part of keeping the relationship more intimate not so much about informing God about anything God doesn’t know. My take on omniscience (more a philosophical idea than a Biblical one) is that God “knows everything” that God wants to know and everything that can be known at any given time. That includes planning for all of the possible choices that have not yet been made. No reason that God always (versus sometimes) has to know which choice will be made until it is really made since God can know all of the possible outcomes and be prepared for them.