QUESTIONING GOD

God is described as all-seeing, eternal, and infinite. Of course, these are human descriptions of the deity. We mortals, by our nature, need to describe things. The problem is that descriptions set limits, whereas God is limitless. 

Can we question such an ethereal, celestial entity? Is that even possible? Do we have the right or the capacity?

Questioning God can be arguing with God, complaining about God, disagreeing with God, telling God a different opinion, or rebelling against God’s instructions. There are other manifestations. 

First, I want to cite examples of humans questioning God: 

Adam and Eve were told not to eat the fruit of one of the trees in the Garden. They did anyway. Both were expelled from the Garden. Eve and all women were given the labor of childbirth. This did not seem to be a reward.

Noah was informed about the coming deluge and told to build an ark. He gathered his toolbox and began hammering away. No evidence that he sought to change the decree that all these humans would drown in the flood. Most Torah commentators criticized his inaction.

Abraham, the first to recognize the existence of a monotheistic, omnipotent God, perceived the word of God, and followed the apparently explicit commands. 

He was told to leave his home; he left his home. 

He was told to sacrifice his son; he went to sacrifice Isaac. 

Through his wife Sara, Abraham was told to send his other wife, Hagar, and her son, Ishmael, into the desert; he sent them away. 

He was told to circumcise himself; the cutting began.

As he aged, Abraham did not have a son that would follow in his spiritual journey. Several times he complained to and reminded God that his heir had not yet been born. He was questioning God.  God finally complied. 

God told Abraham of the plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and everyone who lived there. The man immediately began an argument. Abraham lost the dispute because the residents of those cities were apparently too far gone to allow them to survive. Torah sages praise Abraham for this effort. 

This may have been the man’s finest moment. He had awakened to the possibility that God, albeit in perfect harmony, may not fully grasp the nature of mortal humans. Of course, Abraham did convince himself that God was correct. One lesson is that Abraham followed his instinctual as well as his spiritual intuition. And that is how it should be: alerting the world that one God overall created and interacted is a job for a person. A teacher who is like the students.  

To find a wife for his son Isaac, Abraham sent his trusted servant, Eliezer, to check out potential mates in Nachor. When Eliezer got to his destination, he literally told God what criteria he would use to choose his master’s mate. God acquiesced.  Rebecca performed the exact tasks defined and was chosen to be the wife of Isaac. Not coincidentally, Rebecca is the granddaughter of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Thus, at this pivotal moment, a man came up with a plan to do God’s work. It was beyond questioning.

When Jacob deceived his father to wrest the all-important blessing away from his brother Esau, he followed the precise directions from his mother. She knew how her son would complete the subterfuge and claim his birthright.  Arguably, his mother, Rebecca, had been inspired by God to intervene. Though he was fearful to deceive his father, he did not argue with his mother’s plan. Had he done so, that would have been arguing with (i.e.: questioning) God, indirectly.

Moses started arguing with God from the first encounter at the burning bush. “I can’t do this,” “I’m not capable.” “I get tongue-tied,” etc. God convinced him to follow his destiny, and he did.

After the incident of the Golden Calf, God wanted to destroy the Children of Israel and start over with Moses as the new patriarch. Moses vehemently disagreed. He explained all the difficulty this would entail in terms of God’s reputation. This was a powerful argument, and God shifted course. Moses not only questioned God’s plan, but the man won the argument.

As the children of Israel left Egypt and began their wanderings in the desert, they constantly complained. They grumbled and griped about the lack of water, no meat to eat, being trapped by the Egyptians in front of the Red Sea, and that Moses took too long to return from his trip up to Mt. Sinai. Fussing and whining may have been their single most frequent activity reported in the Torah. They complained to Moses, but he was a conduit to God. It was questioning God. 

Moses sent spies to check out the Promised Land. The report and the reactions were strongly questioning God’s judgement. The Land of Canaan, later to become the Land of Israel, was always the stated goal after liberation from slavery. But the spies brought back a negative evaluation on the feasibility of their conquering this land, and the people bought into the premise. As a result, they wandered in the desert for 40 years.

Moses’ leadership, sanctioned by God, was questioned by Korach and by Miriam. Both suffered serious consequences.

The point of questioning God is that sometimes it worked, and other times it brought punishment. But we do this because we are human. God wants us to be human, with the accompanying doubts and ruminations. God wants us to use our humanity to rise above our limitations. 

Based on these stories from the Torah, the above questions can be answered. Yes, we can and should question God. If we are going to move beyond the material concerns of life, we begin by exercising the intellect. We live in a world of contradictions. The Torah contradicts itself. To understand ourselves and our environment, we need to raise as many issues of discussion as we can imagine. No subject is off limits. Everything has underlying nuance, which we must explore. 

God speaks spiritually, not logically. Our brains are structured. A structured brain meeting a spiritual God is a formula to doubt and question. Put that together with our emotions, instincts, and spiritual inclinations, and there is a lot to analyze and pick through in the human quest for knowledge and direction. Questioning God is one of many paths of enquiry we are privileged to pursue. 

Sometimes the answers are clear cut and obvious to all. History teaches us that people of good faith can have diametrically opposed and valid opinions. The Talmud is a grand argument about the meaning of God’s words. It persists as an example of the propriety to question Torah, and, by extension, God. 

Being human, it is in our nature to disagree about subjects of debate. We even dispute whether some themes or topics are even eligible for review. 

I believe there is no topic for conversation that is prohibited or taboo. Our challenge is to mount our support sensibly and caringly in favor of or against whatever we encounter. Engaging in intellectual, philosophical, and religious quarrels distinguishes human beings from other creatures. It is part of our purpose to seek comprehension of our lives through interaction with God, each other, and the entirety of the physical universe.