“You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised. | Deuteronomy 6:16–19
As we go through the book of Psalms, one of the things we should be developing is a freedom with how we approach God. As we see David and the other Psalmists yelling at, crying out, and questioning God, it gives us a much larger pool of emotions to draw from. God doesn’t want us to approach Him cautiously, He wants us to come honestly into His presence. Part of our honest approach is to challenge Him: to question what we don’t understand.
This is difficult for many because of verses like the one above that warn us not to put God to the test. Jesus even quotes this in Luke 4, when being tempted by Satan. If we look at how God responds to Job, we become even more hesitant. If God puts Job in his place for asking a simple question, we make sure we don’t make the same mistake. We see God’s answer as proof that He is unhappy with the question.
As I mentioned Sunday, God is not upset with Job, He is merely answering Job’s question. The heaviness with which He answers is not fury as much as it is passion; it is God describing Himself fully. Part of who God is serious and overwhelming and He can not appropriately make Himself known without this. It is this part of God that leads Job to comfort, and to declare:
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you | Job 42:5
Job challenged God; God answered Him. Job was encouraged and built up through knowing God in a more complete way. The process of questioning God and hearing His answers are part of the process of growing as a Christian; the answers that God has given to us are revealed in His Word.
This is important because I have had a number of people claim that the church is not a place that you can ask questions, or that Christians like to make statements rather than listen to challenges. On one hand I agree: the church must always push back against the very human reflex to be defensive. We must always be open to challenges and questions, just like the God we serve. As a reflection of that same God, we must be able to declare what He has declared. We must not be afraid of the answers that have been given.
As Christians, our job is not to have all of the answers, as much as, to point to God as the answer. Sometimes this means sharing answers that He has revealed; other times this means admitting that you do not know (showing your trust in God for those things you are unsure of). In both cases, it is to help people humbly approach God to hear His answer.
If they reject His answer, and many will, you can be sure that it had nothing to do with not allowing questions; they simply did not like His answer. This is where the disconnect comes, not in whether or not God’s answer is valid, but in whether or not people are willing to see Him. God will answer every question, the question is: will we accept His answer? Job did, and He was revived.