Should We Ask God Tough Questions, Or Not? (Isaiah 45:9-25) Series

I'd like to start today by reading the first five verses of our passage, using the NET translation. As I read, just try to think about one thing: Is it okay to challenge God, or to ask God questions about what He's doing?

Isaiah 45:9-13 (NET):

9 One who argues with his Creator is in grave danger,[a]

one who is like a mere[b] shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter,[c]

“What in the world[d] are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!”[e]

10 Danger awaits one who says[f] to his father,

“What in the world[g] are you fathering?”

and to his mother,

“What in the world are you bringing forth?”[h]

11 This is what the LORD says,

the Holy One of Israel,[i] the one who formed him,

concerning things to come:[j]

“How dare you question me[k] about my children!

How dare you tell me what to do with[l] the work of my own hands!

12 I made the earth;

I created the people who live[m] on it.

It was me—my hands[n] stretched out the sky.[o]

I give orders to all the heavenly lights.[p]

13 It is me—I stir him up and commission him;[q]

I will make all his ways level.

He will rebuild my city;

he will send my exiled people home,

but not for a price or a bribe,”

says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

One of the biggest differences among Christians, that probably spans across every denominational or ethnic, or any other line, has to do with how Christians think they can talk to God. Some people-- let's call them Group #1-- feel very free to ask questions of God, to challenge Him when things don't go their way, to call on God to fulfill his half of the covenant. Other people, Group #2, have a very strong sense that God is God, and that we are not. They would never ask tough questions of God, or challenge him, or call on God to do something He should already have been doing. And when they hear Group #1 praying, they shift a little away from them, for fear of lightning.

My starting place for prayer, I think, is the psalms. In the psalms, the psalmists feel free to say pretty much anything to God. They don't tell God what they think He wants to hear. They tell him what He needs to hear. And they call on God to be faithful, to keep his promises, to rise up and act. [And particularly, I've found John Goldingay's three volume commentary on the psalms to be an incredible resource, in helping me become very free in how I talk to God].

The other thing my understanding of prayer is rooted in, is the book of Job. Through the whole book of Job, Job asks tough questions of God. He insists on a face-to-face meeting, and an explanation for what happened to him. The friends keep telling him, "Bad things happen to bad people." And Job insists that he's a righteous person, that he's done nothing wrong, and that God ought to show up, and explain himself.

Evangelicals tend to know the verse near the end of Job, which is probably slightly translated, where Job repents "concerning" (not "on") dust and ashes. They somehow get the idea that Job was in the wrong, and that Job repents of his misguided words.

But let's turn to Job 42:7:

(7) And then, after Yahweh spoke these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite,

"My nose has become hot against you and against your two friends,

because you haven't spoken to me what's right, as my servant Job [has],

(8) and so then, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams,

and go to my servant Job,

that you may offer a burnt offering for yourself,

while Job my servant will pray for/concerning you.

Unless his face I lift up, I will act toward you according to your folly, [Hebrew uncertain?]

because you haven't spoken to me what's right, as my servant Job [has].

That last sentence in verse 8 is confusing, and I'm not quite sure what it means, but God very clearly says that Job spoke "to" ("to," not "about") God rightly, and that Job's friends didn't.

And when I read Job, how did Job speak to God? Job is super brave. There have been times I've challenged on God to fulfill his promises and commitments, and there's a part of me that wants to shrivel up, and get scared, at how brave my words sound. But I tell myself that God is a tough God, who has thick skin (so to speak), who can handle his people when they come to him with protests, and complaints, and challenges, and questions. If Job could talk to God the way he did, then so can I.