"Why?" . . . It's A Great QuestionExodus 15:1-27James R. Davis
Have you ever noticed that the first question that a three-year-old begins to ask is "Why?" And it seems as though we spend the rest of our lives asking "Why?" "Why did you do that?" Why are you here?" "Why am I here?" "Why does this work this way?" "Why should I do it?" "Why can't I do things differently?" "Why am I the way I am?" And it is quite obvious that our favorite is "O Lord, why is this happening to me?" But the amazing thing is that only a little thought reveals that "Why?" is really not a bad question at all. It is really the foundational question upon which all social and physical sciences are built. Every new discovery raises the question "Why?" The question "Why?" seeks deeper knowledge and understanding. A child asks, "Why is this red?" She is told that if you mix orange and yellow you get red. She retorts "Why?" Try to imagine where humanity would be if the question wasn't asked. All progress would come to a screeching halt.
The curiosity behind the desire to know "Why?" keeps us in a constant pursuit. It never allows us to arrive and sit still. Conway Twitty was a great country singing star. I remember an interview that a reporter had with his wife shortly after his death. They were asking all sorts of questions. But one particular question centered on what made him such a great singer. His wife answered that question by telling about a conversation she had with Conway. On one occasion she ask him, "Conway, what is the greatest song that you have ever recorded?" He replied, "I hope that I haven't recorded it yet!"
God has programmed us to ask "Why?" The most dangerous thing in our spiritual lives is to stop asking and seeking. For it is at this juncture in life that we stop seeking God. I used to think that God despised the "Why?" Of course the reason I thought that God despised the "Why?" was because I always found them hard to answer for others and myself. But God loves it. It is then that he truly knows that you are seeking him. Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8) Jesus in essence is saying, "Keep on asking, Why?" God loves it. As a matter of fact, God created us to ask "Why?"
One of the wisest men who ever lived spent his life asking "Why?" God gave him the wisdom needed to ask all the right questions and to find the relevant answers. He traveled down all the major roads of life asking "Why?" He became so wise that kings and queens traveled from all over the world desiring to sit at his feet and learn of his wisdom. Yet, when he came to the end of each road he pursued, he proclaimed, "All is vanity and vexation of the spirit!" The redeeming thing about his life was that when he came to the end of the road of life he proclaimed, "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14) He would have never reached this final answer if he had of never ask "Why?" Hopefully by the grace of God, this one statement reveals that all of Solomon's questioning was worthwhile. And if not to him, hopefully they will help us. At least Solomon gives us the answers to the "Whys?" he has already ask.
Seeking to Understand "Why?" Seeks A Reason
The Israelites ask, "Why is this happening to us?" God said, "It is happening because I want to give you directions and demonstrate to you my healing power. For I am the Lord who heals you." God had showed them his winning power. They sang the songs of victory. They are redeemed. They are experiencing deliverance. They had passed through the waters to salvation. Now that the victory celebration is over they need healing power for living. So God leads them to the bitter waters. They cry out "Why?" and Moses cuts a tree up and cast it into the water and the water is healed. And God says, "I can do that for all your bitter experiences in life. I can even do that for you when you experience nothing but bitterness at road's end. Want you please let me be your healing power?"
Most of us only want a road map in life to lead us to victory. We just want to be told how to get from point A to point B. I like road maps myself. With only a few exceptions I have always been good at reading a map. And of course the times that I have failed to read one correctly, it has always been the map's fault or my wife's fault. But maps tell me where I am and how to go to my destination. I have a definite starting point and a definite destination. It is not hard to follow a map's direction. But maps don't help me deal with the obstacles along the way and they don't tell me what to do I do when I get to my destination?
God doesn't want to just give me a map. Anyone can follow a few simple directions to receive salvation. But now what do I do, now that I have gone the distance? Now that I have reached my destination I need more than directions, I need a guide! A guide will help you discover where you are and the reason you are there. A guide can prepare you for your trip. A guide can tell us what we need for our trip. A guide can teach us how to travel light. A guide can direct us around all the roadblocks. A guide can instruct you on how to enjoy your journey and what to do when you reach your destination. It takes a guide to tell you why you only take half the clothes and twice the money when you go on vacation. Road maps don't tell you things like that.
God says to Israel, "Listen to me. I want to be your guide. I will lead you around the pitfalls that consumed the Egyptians. I will not only lead you to your destination victoriously, I will also help you find healing on your journey."
It was at Marah that they learned God's decree and God's law that guides to healing. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you." Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water." (Exodus 15:22-27)
It is no small wonder that from Marah God guided the Israelites Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. God led them to a place of healing.
Seeking to Understanding "Why?" Builds Trust
"The Lord leads the people to a strange place - the wilderness. The wilderness is an intimating place. Food and water are scarce. The prospects for the survival of an entire nation don't seem promising. Yet the Lord leads them into the wilderness. Egypt was safe. It was hard, but it was safe. The wilderness isn't safe - which is why the Lord leads them there. He wants to take them to an unsafe place to show them that he himself is the only safe place. He wants to show them that he can be trusted to provide for them, and he wants to teach them to trust him. What better school than the wilderness, where provisions are scarce and the opportunity for trust is optimal?" 1
God gave Israel two important things at Marah. He gave them his decree and his law. He gave them both commands and promises because you can't have one without the other. Both lead us to the realization of the healing power of God. God's decree is his law, which included his commands. Intertwined into this decree was a promise: "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, For I am the LORD, who heals you." (Exodus 15:25-26)
But God's commands and promises are to no avail if we fail to trust him. And it is hard to trust when there has never been anyone you could trust. As we travel the time and distance over the Old and New Testament we learn that God's promises are immutable. That is, we can depend upon them. He will do what he says! God will do it!
Seeking to Understanding "Why?" Makes Healing Possible
We spend so much time trying to provide for all the contingencies that we overlook the needed direction and healing that is needed for the moment. A man said that he carried a Swiss army knife in his right pocket for thirty years. They are so big! It is a tool for every emergency: saw, leather punch, nail clippers, drills and screwdrivers of all kinds. He carried it for years and only used it once. He was in a motel in Billings, Montana?
He had booked into a hotel, and a shower wasn't working well. The problem was a loose Phillips-head screw. He said he had the answer for that! He pulled out his army knife, got his Phillips-head screwdriver, tightened the screw, and took his shower. It was a bit of over kill? He carried that bulky Swiss army knife for thirty years to fix one screw. He could have just as easily called maintenance on the phone and asked for a screwdriver.
This fellow was like most of us who have spent too much time traveling with a Swiss army knife and a raincoat and a parachute and band-aids and aspirin and all the things we might need -- most of them unnecessary.2
God is a guide that can be trusted. God has all the contingencies covered. He can help us when we get to where we are going. All we need is to concern ourselves with his direction for the moment. If we receive the direction for the moment we will be led to a place of healing. But if we spend all of our time collecting, protecting, barricading and trying to ward off all of life's dangers . . . with health plans, financial plans and portfolios, with security systems, guard dogs and watchdogs we will lose sight of God's directions for the moment and we will not find healing.
It is only when we trust God that spiritual healing and blessing is possible. Israel had exited from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea. They had shouted, sang and danced about their salvation, victory and redemption from Egypt, which God had provided. But immediately following this experience they wander in the barren country for three days looking for water. It was when the celebration was over that they needed direction for healing.
Once I visited a member of the church who was in the hospital. He was in a semi-private room. His roommate had played in the super bowl. He had on his Super Bowl ring. He was in the hospital because of the difficulty with his joints and muscles that had been so damaged during the years he played football. I was only in the room briefly. While I was there a rehab specialist came in the room and began working with the Super Bowl player. She was trying to get him to see if he could raise his arm after an operation. He was having much difficulty. I thought "Winning is only a momentary experience!" It is when the floodlights go out, the celebration is over and life resumes that we need direction and healing for our lives.
A great deal of attention is being given these days to how to celebrate our salvation, victory and redemption in Christ as we worship. But how much attention is being given to giving people directions for living and healing after the victory celebration is over. How much attention is given to binding up the wounds and healing the brokenhearted? Perhaps, if we did this, we would have more celebrating with us.
Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.Seeking to Understand "Why?" Gives Direction
Spending our time preparing for all the possible but improbable contingencies is a very good way to lose our sense of direction. We may end up like a college professor who told of an experience that he had when he was in college. He and two other college buddies were attending a college on the East Coast and California was their home. Every holiday he and his two buddies would drive non-stop coast-to-coast. As one would drive the other two would sleep.
Once when they were on their trip out west the driver woke him up in the middle of the night and said, "Your turn." So he jumped into the driver's seat, pulled out of the gas station, and started driving. He had been driving for two hours when suddenly he realized the sun was rising directly before him. He began thinking, "Aren't we driving west? Why then is the sun rising in my face?" He was puzzled . . . and with good reason. They were headed in the wrong direction!3
It doesn't matter how much purpose and determination you have, if you are going in the wrong direction at the moment you will end up with the sun in your face.
Fortunately, God's directions are a means to turn us around and get us headed in the right direction. They will help us change our paths that we might find healing. You may be traveling with all the purpose and determination you can muster. Or you may be wandering aimlessly through life. You may be just blindly following your own appetites. You may be just wandering from hill to hill like a sheep in search of greener grass and end up lost and in danger. We don't intend to get lost. We use a little pot here and a few prescription drugs there, indulge in a little illicit sex, cut some corners in business, and before you know it we're along way from God. None of it may be intentional. Stuff just happens. But at that moment we find ourselves in need of direction and healing. 4 But the moment that we stop and ask, "Why am I here?" we can rest assured that God is waiting to give us direction that will lead us to a place of healing.
Conclusion:
Victory and spiritual healing are not dependent on how much you know. A man told of a story of his nineteen-year-old son who had taken a year off from schooling between high school and college. He worked as a laborer in Florida. At the end of the year he bought him a racing bike with his tax refund. He took it home and told his family that he was going to enter an all-Florida professional bike race the next day in Fort Myers. His father told him, "You're crazy! What do you know about racing? You just bought the bike!"
He said, "I know Pop, but it'll be good experience." So the next morning off he went. Later that night, he returned home with a first place trophy. His dad ask, "What happened, didn't anyone else show up?"
His son said, "Oh, no! It was a big turnout."
His dad was puzzled and asked, "Well son how did you happen to win?"
"Well," he explained, "I knew I didn't know what I was doing. So I just started out pedaling as fast as I could, and nobody ever passed me." 5
So it is with God. To find healing with God is not dependent upon how much you know. The Hebrews knew nothing, that is their reason for asking, "Why?" They were still trying to figure out this God who was leading. The question is, Are you willing to trust God enough to enter the race? Are you willing to listen to his directions? Will you trust him for the moment? Are you willing to trust him for guidance? Will you follow him and trust him to take care of all the contingencies? Will you trust him to bind up your wounds and mend your broken heart?
God has actually taken care of all our contingencies through Jesus Christ. You can trust God because he has already provided what you need through what Christ has done on the cross. All you have to do is accept his provisions through his Son.
Footnotes.
1. Scott Grant, The Sweet Word, Scott Grant Library, Discovery Publishing, PBC, http://www.pbc.org/
2. This illustrative material is adapted from Bruce Larson's sermon, On The Road Again: The Journey of Life, The Library of Distinctive Sermons, Vol. 2, Questar Publishers, 1996, pg. 211- 217.
3. Ibid.
4. Ib