The first game of hide 'n' seek didn't go so well.
Do you ask where people you can see are? Look at the person next to you. You can see them, right? You know exactly where they are. Do you feel any need to ask them where they are?
Why does God do it then? More than once, God, who is supposedly all knowing, asks a question he ought to know the answer to.
For example, in Job 1:7, he asks Satan,
And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?”
and Satan replies,
So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
That's a weird little exchange when you think about it. If God is omnipotent, he doesn't need to ask where Satan came from. I can't imagine why God would feel compelled to make small talk, especially with Satan.
Satan's reply is odd, too, assuming God was omnipotent and Satan knew God was omnipotent. (It's the sort of basic information you could expect Satan to be in possession of.) Think about my example. If the person sitting next to you asks you where you are, do you say," Right here where you can see me," or do you say, "What the hell are you asking me that for?" Satan just answers the question, exactly the way I would if my husband called my cell phone and asked me where I was.
Consider Adam and Eve, and the fact that God lost track of them in the Garden of Eden. That's right, omnipotent God couldn't find the only two humans on the planet. Humans lacking any technology or skills that would allow them to travel any farther or faster than, well, a human on foot can travel.
Genesis 3:8-9
8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
That's right, if God is looking for you, just hide behind a tree, and don't answer when he calls for you. Hey, if Adam had taken my advice, we wouldn't even be here. He and Eve could still be hiding behind trees while God attempts to trick them into playing Marco Polo.
Picture: The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise by Alexandre Cabanel
That scene in the book of Job is one of my favorites: God is hanging in his throne room, because, that's what he does, and Satan swings by to chat. God offers him a beer and Satan waves him off pointing at the already open bottle of wine in his hand (hoof?) and then they get to talking and decide, "Hey, let's go give Job a hard time." And, all snorts and giggles, they head off to deprive him of his possessions, inflict disease, etc.
ReplyDeleteKen, it is even better than that. God is sitting in his throne room bored and calls all the angels that work for him to him and Satan is one of those angels. Satan so obviously works for God in Job, but that is a Jewish idea not a Christian one.
ReplyDeleteI've said before that the whole story of the Bible works much better if God is powerful but not omnipotent; in particular, if God is still subject to certain rules. The scene in the Garden is an obvious example, but the idea of mortality (etc.) coming into the world because of the Eating Of The Apple makes much more sense if God is limited, and that's just What Happens if humans learn about good and evil. If God is truly omnipotent, he can avoid having His Creation tainted, punish Adam and Eve, and leave their descendents out of it (which strikes me as a lot more fair than what actually happens in the story).
ReplyDeleteSame with Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. You're going to tell me that an omnipotent being can't just, y'know, wave his hand and restore humanity from depravity to innocence?
The combination of Omnipotence and Omnibenevolence essentially requires some sort of Universalism.
I think a Christian's response to why is God asking thesequestions would be the category of "God is just f*cking with you."
ReplyDeleteJob is my favorite book of the Bible. I did a blues song concerning Job.
http://www.laughinginpurgatory.com/2010/08/god-blues.html
there's this GREAT webseries, called Mr.Diety, that has an on-going gag about God HATING omnscience and constantly "turning it off" and the "forgetting" to turn it back on...
ReplyDeletehighly recomend
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