Eight Foolish Questions
We humans have the tendency to try to justify ourselves when we are confronted with our mistakes or sins. In fact, we tend to retort with foolish questions to make ourselves more at ease. This was what the Israelites did. Let’s see what they had to say even when they were in the wrong and try to see where we are also at.
1. “How have you loved us?” (1:2)
When the LORD told them that He loved them, they retorted, “How have you loved us?” They did not want to recognise God’s love for them. It’s not that they did not know, they just did not want to accept it because accepting it would bring guilt upon them. And so, to justify themselves, they retorted with a foolish question, “how have you loved us?”
To doubt God’s love for us, to reject it and say “how have you loved us?” shows the hardness of their hearts. In how many ways have we also ignored God’s love for us?
2. “How have we despised your name?” (1:6)
Even when they despised the LORD, they still asked, “How have we despised your name?” They never accepted their sins and mistakes. What a foolish question.
What about us? Do we also ask the same thing without ever remembering our own mistakes?
3. “How have we polluted you?” (1:7)
The Israelites offered to the LORD polluted food and animals that are lame or sick. Yet they did not want to admit their wrongs and asked nonchalantly, “How have we polluted you?” The LORD was not pleased with them and said, “I have no pleasure in you… and I will not accept an offering from your hands” (1:10).
How have we polluted the LORD by giving unto Him all that we do not want and still ask Him how we have polluted Him?
4. Why (did the LORD not accept their offerings)?” (2:14)
They had become corrupt and turned away towards other gods. As such, the LORD refused to accept their offerings and look upon them with favour. Yet, they did not understand it and asked Him why He wouldn’t accept their offerings.
The LORD is a jealous God and is never happy with those who turn to others. God says, “I hate divorce” (2:16). But the Israelites tried to justify themselves by trying to put the ball into the LORD’s court by asking why.
Let us also ask ourselves, what have we come to love more than the LORD?
How have we wearied Him? …Where is the God of justice?” (2:17)
They refused to accept that all the bad things that has befallen them came because of their sins. They regarded themselves as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad.’ As such, they now have a crooked view of what was happening in the world. This let them to say, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them” (2:17) .
Yet, they asked, “How have we wearied Him? …Where is the God of Justice?” How similar this view is with the current worldview that many of us have today!
6. “How shall we return?” (3:7)
The LORD constantly invited them to return to Him so that He would also return to them. Even then, they asked, “How shall we return?” It’s as if they said, “How can we return to a place where we did not leave in the first place?” They never accepted that they had left the LORD. What a hard hearted people!
How many of us today are like them – refusing to acknowledge that we are lost and wandering away?
7. “How are we robbing you?” (3:8)
How can we rob God? God says they robbed Him. They did not understand and asked yet another foolish question, “How?” The LORD said, “In your tithes and offerings” (3:8). The Israelites knew it. They were simply asking the rhetorical question to please themselves and justify themselves. Leviticus 27:30-34, Numbers 18:21, Deuteronomy 12:5-6 and many others have clearly outlined how they should give their tithes and offerings to the LORD.
We also know what we ought to do today, but we have kept so many things from the LORD. They still amount to robbing the LORD.
8. “How have we spoken against you?” (3:13)
Though they speak harsh words against the LORD, they still ask, “How have we spoken against you?” They have become so inured to their habits and ways. They also said, “It is vain to serve God. What do we profit by keeping his command or by going about as mourners before the Lord of hosts? Now we count the arrogant happy; evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape” (3:14-15). They were so wrong!
But the LORD took note of all those who revere Him and wrote them in the book of remembrance. Even when they are suffering, the LORD will spare them (3:16-17).
May these questions help us to see through the collective numbness of Christians today. Let them help us to wake from our slumber and get up and move forward to the true path that our Lord Jesus Christ sets for us in these troubled times
