Whys and wherefores
Reading Genesis chapter one has prompted some thought. Has it ever struck you as strange that Adam wasn’t ever asked ‘why’ by the Lord? Of course not, God already KNOWS everything, you might answer. Ah ha!, then why did God ask ‘where’? He already knew that Adam and Eve were hiding in the bushes. And why did he go on to ask ‘what’? since He already knew that (even before they had done the deed!). So why did God not ask ‘WHY’ . He could have said, demandingly ‘I’m God and I told you NOT to eat of that tree, explain yourself WHY did you eat of it?’. He didn’t. He could have said, like an indulgent and bewildered parent, ‘didn’t I tell you not to eat of that tree? Why did you do it, I’m so HURT!’ He didn’t. So why didn’t God ask Adam to explain himself? Do you think he would have done a good job if he had? Maybe part of the reason is that the sin was black and white as it was. Giving Adam a chance to ‘explain himself’ would have been to enable Adam to make an attempt at justifying himself in his own mind – and God wouldn’t have him do that. Funny how once we try and ‘explain’ ourselves, we begin to persuade ourselves that we weren’t SO bad after all. Before we try and Whys and wherefores
Reading Genesis chapter one has prompted some thought. Has it ever struck you as strange that Adam wasn’t ever asked ‘why’ by the Lord? Of course not, God already KNOWS everything, you might answer. Ah ha!, then why did God ask ‘where’? He already knew that Adam and Eve were hiding in the bushes. And why did he go on to ask ‘what’? since He already knew that (even before they had done the deed!). So why did God not ask ‘WHY’ . He could have said, demandingly ‘I’m God and I told you NOT to eat of that tree, explain yourself WHY did you eat of it?’. He didn’t. He could have said, like an indulgent and bewildered parent, ‘didn’t I tell you not to eat of that tree? Why did you do it, I’m so HURT!’ He didn’t. So why didn’t God ask Adam to explain himself? Do you think he would have done a good job if he had? Maybe part of the reason is that the sin was black and white as it was. Giving Adam a chance to ‘explain himself’ would have been to enable Adam to make an attempt at justifying himself in his own mind – and God wouldn’t have him do that. Funny how once we try and ‘explain’ ourselves, we begin to persuade ourselves that we weren’t SO bad after all. Before we try and make our children explain ‘why did you ….’let us check firstly that it was actually a SIN (too easily we call a transgression against our, often arbitrary, wishes ‘sin’) as our children get older and exercise their powers of logic, they develop the ability to discern between our irrational requirements and things which are actually in the Bible – trying to convince them otherwise does no good. Lets be black and white about sin so that our children learn to be black and white about it when they are NOT under our watchful eye. This could possibly be one of the most valuable life-skills we ever taught them. Above all let us not help them develop the ability (so easily learnt, without any help from us) to make themselves just in their own minds by making excuses for their sins.make our children explain ‘why did you ….’let us check firstly that it was actually a SIN (too easily we call a transgression against our, often arbitrary, wishes ‘sin’) as our children get older and exercise their powers of logic, they develop the ability to discern between our irrational requirements and things which are actually in the Bible – trying to convince them otherwise does no good. Lets be black and white about sin so that our children learn to be black and white about it when they are NOT under our watchful eye. This could possibly be one of the most valuable life-skills we ever taught them. Above all let us not help them develop the ability (so easily learnt, without any help from us) to make themselves just in their own minds by making excuses for their sins.
Today in church I thought we had someone asking 'why' - but Joshua didn't give Achan an opportunity to justify himself - only to 'justify' God. He was unrepentant too - as far as we read. I'll keep my eyes peeled on this subject and see if I come up with any 'scriptural warrant' for asking children to explain themselves.