Today's sermon was by a guest Pastor. Title: Questions from God. The reference scripture was Job 38, Genesis 3:8-10, 1 Kings 19:9, and Jonah 4:9
The quick summary of the sermon is: When humans ask questions we are looking for an answer. When we ask why, who, what, etc we are looking for an explanation of an unknown. God, however, is omnipotent, omni-present, and all-knowing. Why would He need to ask a question? He doesn't need an answer. When God asks a question, it is an invitation for self evaluation.
Genesis: God asks Adam, "Where are you?" I have to smirk at this point, thinking of God not knowing where Adam is, or what he has done, but God already knows. He's not searching for an answer and Adam knows this as shown by his response: And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." Adam had to evaluate himself and reported that back to God. " I am here in Sin with knowledge of Good and Evil"
1 Kings: God asks Elijah after he fled from Jezebel: "There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" God obviously knows what Elijah is doing there. He asks to invite Elijah to evaluate what he is doing and if what he is doing glorifies God. Beforehand, God burnt the offering drenched in water as a sign to the people of Israel that He is the one and only true God and then Elijah killed the Prophets of Baal. Jezebel swore vengeance on Elijah as retaliation and even after the miracle that God provided, Elijah still remained angry and afraid of her and ran He responds to God saying, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." Elijah was sent to glorify God and to show the people of Israel that God is Lord. Instead he denies God's will. What are you doing here? Are you running from the Path because it is hard, uncomfortable, or simply because it may seem undesirable?
Jonah: I'm honestly not sure about this reference yet. I will go over it with my Pastor so that I may understand it better. From what i understand, Jonah was angry because he had to go to Niniveh to preach when the people there didn't care. He left afterwards and sat out in the blistering sun and overnight a plant grew to give him shade and then it withered after being consumed by a worm. so God asks him "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" yeah I'll have to come back to this one later.
Job: I'm not exactly sure about this one either, but the gist is that Job was afflicted by Satan to test his devotion to God. After all of the suffering Satan caused him, he remained steadfast loyal to God, but after it was over, Job asked God, "Why?" and instead of answering, God poses 60 questions to Job that basically reminds him of all that God is and has done....yeah I'm not sure I understand this one either. I'll have to revisit it again with proper guidance.
Basically we need to ask ourselves these questions, Where are we, what have we done, what are we doing here? Are we glorifying God? are we submitting to His plan? More on this later. I need to study more.
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