"Where Art Thou?”

Have you noticed that many times we are asked questions, and we wonder why we are being asked such a question because the answer seems so obvious.

Illus: Listen to these foolish questions and their answers -

Q. A lawyer said to a man on the witness stand, “What happened then?”

A. “He told me, ‘I have to kill you because you can identify me.’”

Q. “Did he kill you?”

Q. A lawyer said, “Was it you or your brother that was killed in the war?”

Q. She had three children, right?

A. Yes.

Q. How many were boys?

A. None.

Q. Were there any girls?

Q. A lawyer asked, “Were you alone or by yourself?”

Q. I show you Exhibit 3 and ask you if you recognize that picture?

A. That's me.

Q. Were you present when that picture was taken?

Q. You say that the stairs went down to the basement?

A. Yes.

Q. And these stairs, did they go up also?

Q. Do you know how far pregnant you are now?

A. I'll be three months on March 12th.

Q. Apparently then, the date of conception was around January 12th?

A. Yes.

Q. What were you doing at that time?

Q. A lawyer asked, “Was that the same nose you broke as a child?”

Q. Mrs. Jones, do you believe you are emotionally stable?

A. I used to be.

Q. How many times have you committed suicide?

Q. A lawyer said, “You don't know what it was, and you don't know what it looked like, but can you describe it?”

Q. Have you lived in this town all your life?

A. Not yet.

Q. Do you recall approximately the time that you examined that body of Mr. Huntington at St. Mary's Hospital?

A. It was in the evening. The autopsy started about 5:30 P.M.

Q. And Mr. Huntington was dead at the time, is that correct?

A. No, you idiot, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was performing an autopsy on him!

So many times we are asked questions, and the answer seems so obvious we wonder why anyone would ask such a question.

School children and young people in college are asked questions to evaluate how much they know. Someone very wisely said, “We will always have prayer in school as long as we have tests!” But test are not only given to students, they are also given to immigrants who are entering this country.

Illus: (humor) We are told that they used to give immigrants a test when they came to America. The last question on the test was to use the words pink, green and yellow in a sentence.

A Mexican was asked to do this, and he responded to the question by saying, "When the phone goes 'GREEN GREEN GREEN' I PINK the telephone up and say 'YELLOW?'"

Notice, in our verse of scripture the question is asked of Adam, “…Where art thou?" Even though this is a simple question, this verse of scripture creates some problems for some people. For example, they say, “If Christ is omniscient (knows all things) why is He asking, ‘Where are thou?’”

The Lord does know everything. If you were to put all the questions in the world on one big test, the Lord would know the correct answer to every one of them. He is Omniscient, there is nothing He does not know or see.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT THAT GOD KNOWS ALL AND SEES ALL? God’s eyes are on us every day. He has to know everything if He is going to judge us fairly.

• If He did not know all the evil we have done, He could not judge us fairly. But he sees the evil that men and women do each day of their life.

But God has to know everything about us for another reason, for example-

• He can not reward us if He does not know the good we have done.

Illus: The Bible says that when Noah lived here on earth, he was surrounded by evil but God saw him dwelling there.

Look at Genesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” God is an Omniscient God, He knows everything about us that is to be known.

God asked Adam, “Where art thou?”. Some people fail to realize that questions are asked for two reasons:

• Sometimes it is a way of finding how much we know

• Sometimes the question is a method of teaching us something we need to know

In the case with the Lord asking Adam, “Where art thou?”, this was a teaching method to get Adam to examine where he was spiritually. God knew where He was, but He wanted Adam to examine his own life so that he might discover where he was.