Over the past few months, as a result of working on a project with a coworker and friend, I have managed to read a lot about the subject of creativity, innovation, curiosity, and related subjects.  One thing that tends to come up over and over again is that these questions are viewed as being very high stakes matters that strike at the core of what it means to be human.  For example, evolutionists will seek to examine the origins of creativity and how it is that human beings are the only creatures that are curious, that come to the world with questions, looking for answers, wondering how and why things exist and what it means to be ourselves or something or someone else.  A great many writers dealing with these subjects have very little good to say about religion, thinking of it as something that squashes curiosity, despite the fact that the scientific method came about as a way for religious people to better understand God’s creation.

It is this which gives us a clue as to why the stakes are so high when it comes to creativity and curiosity and related matters.  They strike at the core of what it means to be human and what legacy we inherit from our Creator.  Normally we tend to think that we are the ones with the questions.  We ask God why we suffer when we have various trials in our lives, or we pepper Him with questions about the nature of evil.  Children come to us with a barrage of questions seeking to better understand the world and to recognize whether it is safe to bring their questions to use, whether we will take those questions both kindly and seriously.  When we meet new people, we may be full of questions about what they do and where they come from and other matters that strike our interest.  When we are looking for work or going out on dates, there are a lot of questions as people wish to see if we are a good fit for a business or romantic relationship.  And so on it goes, we live our lives and if we have a curiosity in others, we will ask questions as a way of showing that there are stakes, that answers and the truth mean something.

But God comes at us with questions as well.  In Genesis 3:8-13 we see God hit Adam and Eve with a series of questions after they have eaten of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil:  “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”  So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”  Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”  And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  Here we see God asking questions, with a variety of intents, and rather than owning up to their rebellion against God, they try to dodge the questions and shift the blame elsewhere.  We see this same response when God asks Cain about his attitude after God had rejected his offering in Genesis 4:6-7:  “So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.””  And again we see it when God asks Cain about Abel later in Genesis 4:9-10:  “Then 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.””  Here God as well has questions that indicate a desire for confession, and Cain simply cannot give the right answers to these questions or recognize the high stakes of what is meant.  In the case of both Adam & Eve and Cain, the failure to handle God’s questions led to exile.

Not all of the recipients of God’s questions have fared so badly though.  Job was hit with a barrage of questions by God in Job 38:1-7, for example:  ““Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.  “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell Me, if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements?  Surely you know!  Or who stretched the line upon it?  To what were its foundations fastened?  Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”  Nor does that end the questions that God has for Job, if you read the next few chapters of the book.  Quite unlike Adam & Eve and Cain, Job’s answers to God that demonstrate his humility and his acceptance of the authority of God as creator and Lord of the Universe demonstrate his decent and honorable character and lead him to be justified in the eyes of God.  God is big enough for our questions, but he has questions for us too, and though we may relish dishing out difficult questions, we may not relish receiving them back quite as much as we want to ask them.

Nor is this habit of asking pointed questions limited to the Hebrew scriptures.  When Jesus walked the earth, He was quite willing to ask questions of others that were difficult to answer.  For example, let us see how Christ framed a testy interaction with the Pharisees in Matthew 22:15-22:  “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.  And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.  Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?  Show Me the tax money.”  So they brought Him a denarius.  And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”  They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”  And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.”  Here we see that Jesus recognized the hypocritical nature of the Pharisees’ initial flattery to him as they sought to lead Him into a trap, and then asked them to point out whose image was on the money before delivering a response that pointed out the obligations of tax paying (especially in currency with Caesar’s own image) as well as obeying God’s laws and giving God His due.

What lessons can we learn from this as it regards questions?  We may find the questions and curiosity of children to be annoying, and we may dislike dealing with people who ask us too many questions.  Curiosity demonstrates a desire to understand, and we may not appreciate it when others seek to understand us or wish, however unconsciously, to expose the extent of our ignorance.  As someone who is widely thought to be intelligent, I have tended to be asked a lot of questions.  Whether I am being asked questions by small children about why I am not married nor have any children of my own yet or about the origin of the term restaurant [1], or whether I am peppered with surprise questions from the lectern about some random biblical or ancient history trivia, questions are something that other people have for me.  I have plenty of questions for others as well.  How we deal with these questions tells us a lot about ourselves.  Do we view questions as a threat to our position or as an impertinence, or do we view them as an opportunity to think and ponder about things that may never have come to our attention before?  We had better be used to handling questions well, as we can expect plenty of opportunities to receive them throughout life and in God’s judgment as well.  Let us be prepared.