Should We Obey Without Question?

Today we have an idea that it is righteous not to question the will of God. It is taught as a virtue to obey God without understanding, and without knowing for yourself what is actually right. We cite sources such as Abraham when he obeyed God at his command to murder his son. We cite Job when he stayed committed to God though everything was taken from him. I was at church singing with the congregation a few months ago, we were singing a hymn and it said this, "teach me never to reason why, but to follow Jesus." When I sang that verse both my dad and I looked at each other in shock and and slight horror and just shook our heads. I sang that hymn as a child never even thinking twice. I believed it was good to trust God no matter what not realizing that the Bible says something very very different. 

The major theme throughout all the Bible is not actually believing and trusting God no matter what, the major theme found in the Bible is actually questioning, demanding of God an answer. One of the most startling of these examples come from the father of obedience himself, Abraham, "Shall not the judge of all the Earth, do what is right?" Gen 18:25 at first glance this doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but on actual examination it becomes a shocking revelation of the human/divine interaction. Abraham isn't just questioning God, Abraham is in fact accusing God of being amoral. Abraham is holding God to a standard, he does not just stand back and say, "well God must have a good reason for what He is doing, so who am I to question Him, God is doing it so it must be right." No, Abraham holds God to a set standard of ethical morality, human morality in fact. 

I often hear it said that we are human, God is not, so we cannot understand the workings of God. Abraham did not think this way, neither did David. They understood that if God's dealings with humanity cannot be understood in human terms than He was not a God to be worshiped. God deals with humanity in Human terms. Why do you think God required animal sacrifices in the Old Testament? If you go back to Abraham and his offering of his son, you see something very interesting. The sacrifice of Isaac was not a test of the absolute faith of Abraham, it was an experience designed to set a president for all time. If you look at the history of Israel, it is filled with a constant returning to human sacrifice. Over and over again for hundreds and hundreds of years, Gods "holy" people kept on going back to human sacrifice. There was 1 story however, past down from generation to generation, that proved God did not require human sacrifice, the story of Abraham and Isaac. Though all the other Gods of Abraham's time required human sacrifice in order to save humanity, the God of Abraham did not. Human sacrifice was not acceptable before the God of Israel.  This was the main purpose of the sacrificial story, it had almost nothing to do with the faith of Abraham. In fact, Abraham's blind faith betrays something about his understanding of God. He believed God to be capable of such an atrocity. He thought God was like the God's of other nations. He was wrong, and his "faithfulness" to God was wrong as well. We praise him for it, but it was wrong. 

The Bible is continually progressive. Truth is not stagnant, and the Bible builds on itself as men add to the understanding of truth. Sacrificing humans became sacrificing animals, became sacrificing yourself as a living sacrifice to a God. Slavery was common and not condemned, then rules were developed about slavery, and as the Bible progressed there became more and more rules concerning how you can treat a slave, until today we now believe that slavery is evil and should not be engaged in at all. Women were essentially property, then rules and laws were developed to protect women, these rules continued to develop until the New Testament when they were recognized as being a jewel of creation to be cared for, respected, and loved. And now today we have carried that truth in the trajectory of the bible where women have equal rights in all aspects of life, including now ordination in some places (can I get an amen! amen and  amen!).

Truth requires questioning God. You will never grow in your understanding of God unless you question everything. As Luther said in his own trial, "unless I am convinced by the word of God AND sound reason, I cannot and will not recant." Currently I am in professional school taking a doctorate in Dentistry and a masters in bioethics. As you climb the rings of the ladder of education you encounter more and more the need for critical thinking, questioning, logic and sound reason. One of my bioethics teachers, Dr. David Larson stated this, "Always think for yourself, but never think alone." As a questioner of ideas, of Biblical thought, God, theology, science, religion, philosophy and logic, you join a community of thinkers who shaped the world. You join people like Abraham, David, Isaiah, Paul, Martin Luther and even Jesus. Blindly following where God leads is not righteousness, but foolishness. God desires that you know, understand, and believe.