Where He Leads: Why Does God Ask Questions?

 

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”  Genesis 3:11

 When God came to meet with Adam and Eve in the Garden that evening, He knew what He would find. He was not surprised. Saddened maybe. Disappointed perhaps. But not surprised. And yet, when he calls them to Himself, He asks them two questions. What we need to realize is that these questions are not for God to understand the situation, but for us to.

 “Who told you that you were naked?” They had been naked from creation and had never known it. Nothing on earth wore clothing, so naked was the standard. In order to realize that they were naked, in order to feel the need to cover themselves, someone had to have pointed it out to them. They had to listen to someone other than God, and believe them over what God had already taught them. And in that lies the problem. They were given an alternative viewpoint from what their creator and friend had told them, and instead of siding with God, they turned against Him. It was the ultimate betrayal. God had given them everything. He had made them, breathed His own life into them, created a beautiful garden for them to live in and eat from, and blessed them with His own friendship. They literally had everything, but on the temptation that there could be more, they might be missing out on something, they let it go. In many ways, it’s like gambling. You could be holding $100,000 in your hand, but the dealer tells you that if you bet it all, you could make $1,000,000. The downside, of course, is that you could also lose it all, and that’s just what happened with Adam and Eve. They had everything they could ever need or want, and they lost it because they wanted more, and got less.

 “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” In our individualistic culture, our society hell-bent on freedom, we see commands as limiters. I think that this might come from our original parents. Adam and Eve were given one rule, one thing that they were not to do. Yes, God could have never put that tree in the Garden, but then they would never be given choice and their love relationship with God would be incomplete. There is something inside of us that wants to push the limits, break the barriers, do the thing we are told not to do. If you have 1,000 different buttons that do amazing things in front of you, and there is one red button with the words, “Do Not Push” posted above it, what is the one button we are going to want to push? It’s not a matter of if, but when. But instead of looking at our response to commands, lets consider why God gave them. He didn’t do it to be mean. He wasn’t wanting to keep good things from us or strand us in a meager existence. No, He is our good, good Father. He loves us and wants the absolute best for us, and that means not doing or having some things. He knows that wealth might draw us away from relationship with Him, from trusting in Him for provision, and there is no amount of wealth that is better than God. He knows that fame might distract us from the path of blessing He has led us along. He knows, and we don’t. All we see is the shiny thing we don’t have, and that instantly makes it attractive. If only we could realize the incredible beauty we already hold, the shiny thing would be revealed for the cheap trinket it truly is.

Here’s the Thing: God didn’t ask these questions of Adam and Eve because He needed to learn the answers from them, but because they did. When I was a little girl, my Mom always wanted to make sure I understood what I had done wrong before I received my punishment. I wonder if she patterned her parenting after this incident? They may think they are already in misery, they have already receive their just reward for disobeying God, but their punishment is about to come. Next time, we’ll learn all about it – their punishment and ours.