Ten Searching Questions From God

Issues – June 2022 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Ten Searching Questions From God

Editor’s note: This article, slightly adapted for the magazine, is from ministry given before an audience in the Netherlands.

You will notice there is a question in the hymn we just sang, “O Blessed Savior, Is Thy Love” (see this month’s Worship column). Usually when a question is asked, an answer is expected. You see, If I asked you a question now, you would likely respond. This song asks, “What love with Thine can vie?” Put another way, “Who, O God, loves like You?”

The love of God is incomparable, but where does His love come from? God is its Source, and He concerns Himself with us who are believers. This is shown by the questions He asks.

I have ten questions for you, or rather 11. Actually, the Lord has them for you. God asks us all kinds of questions in His Word, and these questions need to be answered. Why does He ask them? Does He not know the answer? Certainly He knows the answers to all questions, but the purpose of these is that we may become aware of certain things about ourselves.

1. The Question To Adam
We read the first question in Genesis 3:9, where it says, “Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (NKJV). That seems easy enough to answer, because this question was intended for Adam and Eve. But that question also comes to you and me today. “Where are you?” A person might joke, “I’m in this meeting.” Yes, that’s right, and I am glad you are here!

But the question, of course, is asked of each one of us: “Where are you spiritually?” God is interested in where we are – on what timeline we are spiritually. The second word in this question is “are.” God is interested in our present situation, and He is interested in you and me as individuals. Can you imagine that? There are 17 million people in the Netherlands alone – around 8 billion in the world – and God is interested in you and in me! He asks, “Where are you?” Each of us must answer that question. Where am I? Am I walking with God?

The question can be asked this way: “Do I really know the Lord Jesus?” Can I ask this in a group of believers? I once experienced that someone spoke to a thousand people who had just sung the song by Horatio Spafford (1828–1888), “It Is Well With My Soul.” The one who was to speak that evening asked, “Who has not sung this song before?” No one raised a finger. At that the speaker said, “Then I am not going to preach the gospel tonight, because there is no need to.” After a long silence he said, “But perhaps it is necessary for that one person who did not dare to lift his finger. To him I want to address a word anyway.” That evening a young man came to faith, and then he called his father and said, “I have found the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I am so glad, boys and girls, that you are here. Young people, I think it’s fantastic and I really care. Why? It is because the Lord Jesus is glad for your presence. But I would like to ask, “Do you really know the Lord? How do you stand in your relation to Him?”

This is very important for those who have not yet accepted the Lord Jesus, but for us as believers it is also important. Brothers and sisters, where do we actually stand? It may be that we are asleep or routinely going our own way. We go to the meeting on Sunday morning and to the prayer meeting and the Bible study during the week. But danger lurks for me and for you, and the question is: “Where are you?”

The Lord is interested in me and in you. We basically don’t have to say anything at all, although He would like to hear an answer from us. He looks right through us; we cannot fool Him. “All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13). So the question comes to us very clearly. We can apply it to Adam and Eve – that is easy. But the Lord asks this question of me and of you, “Where do you stand in your spiritual life?”

Do we remember the moment when we came to know the Lord Jesus? Perhaps it happened in a gradual way. Fine, praise the Lord! But did we also grow in our life of faith, you and me, and all of us? We know how we can grow; many children know this chorus: “Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow.” It’s about listening to what God tells us in His Word and talking to Him in prayer, so that we learn to know Him more in our lives.

2. The Question To Cain
We find God’s second question in Genesis 4:9-10. There we read: “The LORD said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And He said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.’” We know what happened to Abel: he was murdered by his brother Cain (v.8). That is terrible! Sinful man, as pictured in Adam, has been alienated from God. But man is an evildoer as well, just as was Cain.

Now take this question from its immediate context and suppose the Lord is asking it of you, “Where is your brother, or your sister?” Joseph showed a very different attitude in Genesis 37:16, where it says, “I am seeking my brothers.” Do we do the same? Do we miss brothers and sisters with whom we used to be together? And do we then pay attention to the question that goes with it: “What have you done?” Take that question to heart, and apply it to yourself. Wouldn’t it be good to go over our individual histories, to confess what we have done wrong, and to ask the Lord for His forgiveness, help and guidance?

3. The Question To Hagar
We turn to the third question in Genesis 16:7-8. Although in a different context, these questions also come to us today from God’s Word, just as this question came personally to Hagar at that time. We read that “the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, ‘Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?’”

Specifically, I’m filling in my own name now: “Albert, where have you come from, and where are you going?” Well, I come from a Christian family. It was all lived out before me, but I had to learn that I needed the Lord Jesus in a personal way. I really had to learn that I needed Him as my Savior and Lord. I had to repent to God and accept the Lord Jesus. The Bible says very clearly what we were as sinners, namely “children of wrath … dead in trespasses … without Christ … having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:3,5,12). That is from where I was coming.

But now, since I know the Lord Jesus Christ, it is precious to know He has said that He went to prepare a place for me in His Father’s house, where there are many mansions (Jn. 14:2). Then He said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (v.3). That is our final destination: to be with the Lord Jesus in the Father’s house.

He has opened the way, for He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (v.6). He is, as it says in Hebrews, “the Author of our eternal salvation” (5:9). The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who has accomplished everything, and He is the Way to the Father. To be with Christ is our glorious goal. “We shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2) – the One who has accomplished everything that was necessary for us to be saved from the eternal judgment of God. We will see Him – the One who once hung on the cross for us, in our place, as our Substitute.

“Where have you come from?” “Where are you going?” God is still asking these questions. I think we know intellectually – in our minds – that the Lord Jesus will return. We could name the chapters and verses in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15. We may be able to quote them as well. That’s fine; but the questions for me and for you are: “Is this a living reality in our hearts? Are we living in the hope that the Lord Jesus is coming back soon?” I trust for all of us that this will be so, that we have such a relationship with the Lord Jesus that we really long for Him, to be with Him. We want to see the One who, on the cross of Calvary, has accomplished everything for us. If so, we are on the right path.

4. The Question To Abraham
The next question is found in Genesis 18. This is about the fact that God promised Abraham a son, which was impossible from a human point of view. It says in verse 14, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Well, what do we say to this? Interestingly, no one answered that question in Genesis 18. For the Lord, nothing is impossible (consider Lk. 1:37; Jer. 32:17,27).

I hope that from your heart you too will answer in the affirmative, “Lord, for You nothing is too hard.” I don’t know you very well, but behind every face, so to speak, is its own story. Some sit here with concerns, with difficulties, with sorrows. And then comes the question, “Would anything be too hard for God?” We may say, “Lord, for You nothing is too hard; You can make the impossible come true.”

I think of Mark 9. The story there is about someone who was deaf and dumb. The Lord came down from a mountain after some of the disciples had already tried to heal this individual. Then the father came to Christ and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit … So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not” (vv.17-18). Then to the man, the Lord spoke just four words, “Bring him to Me” (v.19).

Young people, parents, when we face impossible situations, difficult things, the Lord says something very simple, “Bring it to Me.” We may do that, for who loves us as He does? He listens to what is in our hearts. When we bring a so-called impossible situation to Him, He is there and He listens. That is how our Lord is. Who loves like Him? “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,” He has said, “and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28). Impossible situations are God’s possibilities. Is anything too amazing for the Lord? Sometimes we may stand before Him very embarrassed. It is not about you or me, but what God does.

Let me tell you a true story from some years ago. There were 5,000 Bibles in a harbor where we lived at the time, and the only way it seemed we would get them was to pay a bribe. We had prayed about it, saying, “Lord, You know.” When we went to the customs office we saw a lot of people standing around. The president of the country had fired the minister of finance, who was in charge of granting duty exemptions. The minister of defense had been placed in this post, and he went through the offices and asked for accountability from the officials as to why certain things were left undone. The official whom we had visited several times for these Bibles, and who had told us in his effort to get a bribe, “You have to give us some first, or you won’t get them,” now said, “We have been waiting for you for weeks with the letter about the import duty exemption.”

Brothers and sisters, this is how the Lord works! Is anything too miraculous for Him? Absolutely not! With Him, all things are possible. Let us hold on to this. The Lord still performs miracles today. We have a God of miracles. Let us believe it.

5. The Question To Moses
For the next question we turn to Exodus. There it says, “Then Moses answered and said, ‘But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, “The LORD has not appeared to you.”’ So the LORD said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ He said, ‘A rod’” (4:1-2).

The Lord can also ask us today, “What do you have available in your hand?” Moses had a shepherd’s staff in his hand and was being sent to Pharaoh, but Moses objected (Ex. 3). Then in the next chapter the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” You know why I think this is so beautiful? If you look in verse 20, it says, “Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.” The “rod of Moses” became “the rod of God.” Isn’t this wonderful?

Even with a seemingly insignificant thing, God can do miracles. Later we see how Moses used the rod to the glory of God as a tool in His service. What we have at our disposal we must surrender to the Lord, and He will work with it.

Want another example? We are all familiar with the story of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 (Jn. 6:5-13). There was a boy who had five barley loaves and two small fish. He went to the Lord Jesus, and do you know what he did? He gave them to the Lord Jesus. And with those five loaves of bread and those two little fish, the Lord worked. Was the crowd still hungry? No! They were all satisfied! Brothers and sisters, when what we have is made available to the Lord, He works with it.

I remember the story of a Christian lady in what was East Berlin, who testified of her Lord and Savior. This was in the days when there were still two separate countries: East Germany and West Germany. She spoke to her neighbor about the Lord, but the neighbor got terribly angry and started cursing. Later, that same neighbor became ill, and the Christian went to her with a pan of soup.

We might be asked, “What do you have in your hand?” It can be used by the Lord even if it is only a bowl of soup! What that Christian did gave rise to her testimony of being used and blessed by the Lord. Put what you have in your hand into the hand, or authority, of God, and He will use it for His glory. Even though we might think what we have is too small, nothing is impossible for Him. The Lord would like to use what is in your hand for His honor and His glory.

6. Another Question To Moses
We now turn to Exodus 14, which is about the crossing through the Red Sea. The Egyptians were going after the Israelites, and then God told Israel to go forward. Moses had encouraged the people by saying, “‘Do not be afraid … The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.’ And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea’” (vv.13-16).

My point is God’s question, “Why do you cry to Me?” Moses was praying, possibly loudly. But sometimes the Lord says, “Stop praying now, you must move on. I would like to see your obedience.” This is pretty clear, I think. It is also a simple lesson. When it becomes evident what we can and must do, the Lord wants us to go and perform what He asks. I must admit that I have my hands full with this myself. When the Lord tells me to do something, I may have plenty of objections – just like Moses had – but the Lord demands real obedience from all of us.

7. The Question To Joshua
We turn to the book of Joshua for the next question. Here we find a prayer from Joshua and the elders of Israel, after the defeat at Ai. The hearts of the people of Israel had melted with fear “and became like water” (Josh. 7:5). Then in verses 10-11 we find a command and a question from God: “So the LORD said to Joshua: ‘Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned.’” God was very clear in His declaration to Joshua.

I want to apply this freely. Joshua was praying, and he had to find out what had happened among the people. Sometimes the Lord also asks us to discern certain things so they can be put in order. Personally and as a community of believers, it is important that we pray about things that have happened in the past. But in doing so, the Lord may also ask us some questions: “Is there something to settle with our brothers and sisters?” “Have we, or I, acted wrongly?” I am not going to say much about this, but how nice it would be if believers could be restored, if hearts would be brought back together to the Lord! We need to pray about the matter first, but the Lord will make it clear to us what we have to do.

8. The Question To Solomon
I move on to the next question, this time asked of Solomon. It is written about this prince of peace: “And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places. Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask! What shall I give you?’” (1 Ki. 3:3-5).

What should the Lord give us? Solomon, who walked in the ways of his father David, was off to a good start. You could say that. With a thousand burnt offerings he had glorified God and sought His favor. God’s response was, “What shall I give you?” But Solomon did not ask for material things. Instead, he asked for something very special, as we read in the following verses: “And Solomon said: ‘You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?’” (vv.6-9).

From this we learn that Solomon was very humble as a young man. He said he was limited in what he could do and did not know how to go out or come in. Then he asked for a wise heart to be able to judge God’s people: “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart.” Isn’t this a good example for us of what we may ask from the Lord? Might we answer, “Cause me to pay attention to You, that I will listen to Your Word.” We can listen to many things in this world, including all kinds of so-called Christian voices. You can hear things from all sides, and people want to talk to you. But here we read: “Give to Your servant an understanding heart.”

For Solomon it was a real matter of the heart, and that is exactly what it is about. Brothers and sisters: Is our relationship with the Lord a matter of the heart rather than an outward routine? Do you see what I mean? I am not accusing anyone but am looking at my own heart. God wants our hearts to be really involved in what concerns the Lord Jesus. How beautiful is this prayer: “Give me then a discerning heart.”

9. The Question To Elijah
God addressed the next question to the prophet Elijah, in 1 Kings 19:9-10. Here it says of Elijah after his journey as far as Horeb, the mountain of God, that “there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ So he said, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.’”

Unlike previous days, Elijah was not so focused on God here. I am glad this story is in the Bible. Perhaps it is the same with us occasionally, when we are depressed and think that we are all alone. Elijah felt, “I alone am left.” But brothers and sisters, it is so very important that we do not ask ourselves in situations, “How do I feel?” Instead we need to ask, “What does the Lord think?” The Lord looks with very different eyes. We see this at the end of this story, where we read in verse 18: “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

The Lord knew all the details of Elijah’s situation. We need to know this for ourselves as well. I say this honestly for myself. We may think we know a matter exactly; we can think we are able to gauge everything rightly. But it is so important, even when it comes to a service for the Lord, that we ask, “This is how I look at it, Lord, but how do You see it?” or, “I look at a certain person this way, but how do You see that one?” His view of people and things is very different, and the Lord Jesus showed this fact often. In the story of the daughter of Jairus, someone came to him and said, “Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher” (Lk. 8:49). But what did the Lord say? “She is not dead, but sleeping” (v.52)! He sees things differently because He is above all things.

And so it is with Elijah. The LORD asked twice, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Ki. 19:9,13). He then revealed what He thought about the matter and gave Elijah another command, “Then the Lord said to him: ‘Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria’” (v.15). The LORD did not write off the prophet, or dismiss him from His service. That is what I find so encouraging. He knew exactly what Elijah had to go through, and He dealt with him in a wonderful way – in a way that cannot be matched. Who, O God, loves like You?

10. The Question To Jonah
I turn to another servant of the LORD for the final question, namely Jonah. We see in Jonah 4:1-4 that the prophet had a problem with God’s kindness toward the Ninevites. God then asked a question in a conversation with the prophet: “The LORD said, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’” (v.4). This question is repeated in verse 9: “Then God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’” Jonah answered in the affirmative, saying, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death.” The prophet Jonah considered that wonderful plant, large enough to shade him, to be far more important than all the people of Nineveh. The fact that the plant withered was what upset him.

Do you know what makes me happy in this story? It is that Jonah remained silent after a final question from God, in verses 10-11. “But the LORD said, ‘You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left – and much livestock?’” There was no more protest from Jonah. This man finally understood that he was wrong and should say nothing more.

The Lord has done this with me several times as well. I have been angry at times, and maybe you have too. But, brothers and sisters, He wants to bring us to the point where we become quiet and say in our hearts, “Amen, Lord, it is good!” It is not always easy to fully surrender a matter to the Lord.

God had asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?” That question may come to you or to me as well. Tell the Lord what is bothering you, like Jonah did. Yet, be assured that the Lord will bring you to the point of silence, sooner or later. The sooner we get used to the Lord’s will, the better it is. There is a beautiful text in the book of Job: “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you” (22:21).

An Additional Question
I am sure you will get yet another question from God Himself in due time. When you get that question, do not cause Him to have to say, “Why don’t you answer Me?” I have shared with you ten questions from God as recorded in Scripture. You may get from Him the eleventh today, tomorrow or sometime soon. It is the same for me; it will certainly happen. When we get that next question, let us answer it for His glory, for no one loves like He does!

By Albert Eysink

Human love insists on an object it believes to be worthy of it. But divine love affords no such character. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8 KJV). Man was unable to show any excellence capable of exciting, or stirring up, the love of One so far removed from him as his Almighty Creator. Nevertheless, the astonishing truth revealed in Scripture is that, though man is in a desperate state of irreconcilable hatred and antagonism to everything divine, God loves him in spite of all. God’s love has been manifested. Its display was perfect and sufficient, being in and by the person of the Only-begotten Son of God. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 Jn. 4:9). Christ laid down His life: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). Thus, blessed be His name, God has abounded above the thoughts as well as the sin and bitter enmity of His creatures, and given His Son both as the propitiation for our sins and as the incomparable witness of His incomparable love. —W. J. Hocking, The Incomparable Love Of God (adapted)