Is This Your Final Answer?

I’m fascinated by the questions God asks in Scripture . . . while waiting for an answer.

The first divine inquiry takes place in the Genesis garden, Eden.  The dust-man and his bride have “been exposed” (you know the story) and Father God simply asks, “where are you?”

Of course He knew.  You don’t honestly think the Creator of the universe misplaced His children, do you?  He asked, so they could know . . .Where. They. Were.

 

Have you been in a place where God asked you  . . . to find yourself?  I have, often.

At times my answer has been. “I’m over here, behind my sin” or, “I might ask You the same, Lord.  Where were You when darkness fell over my life. Where’d You go when it all fell apart?”

He never moves.  We know where He is.  As near as our breath.

There was another question, however, before the where are you.  The one Eve had no business trying to answer.

“Did God really say?” the serpent asked. Crafty.

It so gets in the way of God’s question, don’t you think?

The shifty one plants the seed of doubt in the garden.

Like Eve, we answer the where are you with fruit on our face, something like . . . “I was just admiring your trees and the friendliest snake stopped by to chat, and look what happened!  I just thought You meant . . . .”

Hmmm, a misunderstanding.

It’s interesting, not once did Satan ask her to eat the forbidden.  He just made her doubt God and herself.  Is he still up to that?

Hiding behind the lies and doubts will never bring us to the place where we can realize who and where we are.

Although we can never truly know the mind of God, we see He asked the question because He wanted His children to answer and confess their transgression.

Two profound questions, asked in the beginning of time by two very different inquisitors, Did God really say?   . . . and, Where are you? 

It helps me understand my condition so much better than asking “why’d you do that?”

My prayer for me . . . and for you . . . when asked where we are, our final answer will be, “Right here, Father, standing before you clothed . . .  in righteousness, because of your redeeming Son.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden.  

Genesis 3:8