Why?

Why?

Genesis 3: 8-13

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

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

 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

After the first couple broke the one commandment that God had given them, they hid, perhaps thinking that God would not see them. God enters the scene with a series of questions, all of which would be obvious to Him, an all-knowing deity. With His final question He asks, have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

His question resembles the question of a parent, frustrated with a child who has spilled a glass of milk for the umpteenth time, “WHAT DID YOU DO?” Clearly Mom or Dad knows what the child has done. What they really want to know is “why did you do that?” God knew the answer to His questions. Seems that what God wanted to know is why they had done what they did.

The couple had perfect living conditions, a great job, the best Boss and lived together in perfect harmony.

Why would you risk that by not obeying?

Did God not know why they did it? Hard to say. The question why hardly ever has a simple answer.

In this ministry, we are often asked why questions. Why would you leave your family and friends? Why would you move to another country? More recently, why would you resign the Area Director position?

Over the next few weeks this blog will consider its own series of questions:

Why we are anxious to return to Mexico?  What we will be doing once we get there? Where we will work and with whom?

We will be back with some answers.

Paul