God's Questions

Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" (John 8:10)

As I read again these words this morning I was reminded of similar words I had heard God speak to others. In fact, the more I thought about it the more I began to realize something quite significant here. One thing that I have learned over the past few years as God has been leading me into a better understanding of His truth is that the condition of my spirit and my relationship with Him is the real issue that He is most concerned about, far beyond the actions, the mistakes, the sins or the amount of factual truth I may have acquired intellectually.

I learned years ago that the people I grew up with and who trained me in religious beliefs had a number of serious misunderstandings when it came to knowing God and being saved. One of those was their insistence that God was very keen on obedience as relative to my behavior and that it was extremely important above all else to know the right doctrines from the Bible. Many of them believed that any notion of having an intimate relationship with God, if valid at all, would only come as a result of years of tireless effort of eliminating sin from my life so that God might finally approve of me and accept me into closer fellowship with Him some time in the future.

But this basic training for me, which millions of others suffer from all over the world who even come from very different cultures and religions, deformed my inner opinions and feelings about God so badly that about all I ended up with were a lot of fears about God (which was their primary intent to start with) with almost no capacity to actually love Him, even though I was supposed to do that somehow in spite of His demanding nature. Unquestioning obedience, the external variety particularly, was the main focus of my religious training along with a lot of memorization of proof texts to support predigested suppositions and systems of doctrine that others had already determined were what I was supposed to believe in order to be saved. But in all of this a personal relationship with a personal God at the heart level was totally ignored and I spent most of my life living in fear of Him. But this only resulted in stirring up rebellion in my heart against the tyranny which this picture of God represented to me.

That is one reason that this story was not dwelt on too much in my religious training. It was nice and it had its place for people who had fallen into sexual sin for inducing them to return to a life of obedience to God. But those around me seemed to be cautious about making too much of the kindness and compassion and instant forgiveness of Jesus and focused more on His ending words instructing this woman to go and quite sinning.

But thankfully over the past few decades God has been introducing Himself to my heart and mind and has been seriously challenging all these assumptions about Him and uprooting many of them. It has been a disturbing process, a painful process at times but a glorious one as the real truth about God's love and the way He feels toward sinners has become more clear to my heart. The fear has been slowly melting away over the years now, though there seems to still remain a lot of frozen areas left to conquer. But as I spend time meditating on His Word and listening carefully to insights and impressions and allow His Spirit to reveal more and more of the consistent realities of heaven to my mind, I become drawn to want to live constantly in this new dimension, this relationship of intimacy with a God who really is personally interested in drawing me into connection with His heart without condemnation.

As I ponder some of the interactions that are recorded in the Scriptures between heaven and humans, I realize that many if not all of them are relationship-based encounters and dialogs. God asks what seems to be silly questions given that He already knows all answers. But the reason He asks these kinds of questions is not to gain information for Himself like we do, but to offer us opportunities to enter into closer fellowship with Him, especially when our relationship has been broken or is seriously in trouble.

Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." (Genesis 3:9-10)

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? (Genesis 4:6)

He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where are you going?" And she said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai." (Genesis 16:8)

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?" He said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." (1 Kings 19:9-10)

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward." (Exodus 14:15)

Why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin. (Matthew 6:28)

He said to them, "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. (Matthew 8:26)

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, and walk'?" (Matthew 9:4-5)

Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more." (John 8:10-11)

And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:17)

But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?" (Matthew 22:18)

[Jesus] said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation." (Luke 22:46)

And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?" (Luke 24:38)

And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." (John 20:13)

Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads." (Acts 9:4-5 NKJV)

And when we had all gone down on the earth, a voice came to me, saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly? It is hard for you to go against the impulse which is driving you. (Acts 26:14 BBE)