God’s Question Book
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God’s Question Book

While many people describe the Bible as God’s Answer Book, I like to think of it as God’s Question Book. Which one you choose will make all the difference in the world.

I love mountains. Show me a picture and I will likely start falling in love with the mountain. From there, I might go in search of answers.. What is its height? Girth? Mass? How did it form? How have people experienced it throughout history? The more answers I find, the greater my love and  appreciation for the mountain will be.

Even better is to meet someone who has been to the mountain. I will happily listen with rapt attention while they regale me with their stories of being on the mountain. As they speak, I will begin to feel like I know the mountain. For many, that’s what the Bible is like.

This morning, I searched for books that describe the Bible as God’s answer book or instruction manual. I love their optimism (no sarcasm intended).

  • Rick Warren wrote God’s Answers to Life’s Difficult Questions (Living with Purpose) (2014). Amazon states, “Warren uses stories from scripture to teach us that the Bible is filled with examples of real people who faced the same dilemmas we’re facing today.”
  • An anonymous writer wrote God’s Answers for Your life. “For all of life’s struggles and uncertainties, God has the answer. This…edition…explores the breadth and width of the Christian’s walk with God, from first steps in Christ to growing and maturing in Him to ministering to others along the path. Life is never uncertain when God is at the helm.”
  • Honor Books sells various iterations of God’s Little Instruction Book: Inspirational Wisdom on How to Live a Happy and Fulfilled Life.
  • Boyd Baily writes God’s Instruction Manual For Life.

But nothing compares to actually visiting the mountain or walking the life of faith. When we embark on the journey ourselves, only then do we begin to realize how far short of reality the answers fell and how many questions we still have. 

Like climbing a mountain, when we read the Bible and try to live according to it, we end up with more questions than answers. The Bible is God’s Question Book.

Here are a few of the questions that the Bible asks:

  • Why is God so distant? Why doesn’t He show up in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)
  • Is God ‘s future judgment against the wicked sufficient? (Psalm 10:17-18)
  • If God can heal blindness, can’t He also prevent death? If so, why doesn’t He? (John 11:37)
  • What are we to do with God when He disrupts our religion? (John 11:47)

Each one of those questions and the thousands more like it found throughout the Bible are like pearls of great worth! They are the keys to experiencing the kingdom of God. Search for the pearls!

When we read the Bible in search of the questions that are hidden there, we often find that their questions give voice to our own. Like those ancient people, the initial answers do not satisfy the deeper questions and longings that we can’t even give voice to. The more we listen to the questions, the more we realize that our answers have not been as reliable as we thought. Only then do we go in search of a more solid foundation for our lives.

When Job and his friends had exhausted their answers, God began asking questions. “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2) While that seems like a conversation ending question, it is more accurately a conversation beginning question. Job likely pursued the answer to that question for the rest of his life. A life spent in pursuit of the answer to a question that is too big to answer – that’s living!

God’s Question Book – is full of such life-giving and inspiring questions – if only we will set our answers aside and pursue the questions.

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