A car crash! The police gets called and they try to find out what happened and how. They put some marks on the road surface. Two people are standing next to the car with an officer taking notes about what has happened. Obviously, the forensic information is insufficient. A full perspective on what happened can only be gained through an examination of the witnesses’ accounts. It would be strange indeed, if this additional source of information were not taken into consideration. The police officers on duty may be the best in their field, yet they are usually not witnesses themselves. One cannot go back in time. Experts may try to reconstruct and analyze any traces left to find out what happened. But it would be a big mistake not to ask those who have seen everything with their own eyes.
Every person who gives witness has to be confronted with an important question: „Where were you when it happened?“ Would someone be an acceptable witness if he or she were not present or saw everything from a huge distance? Hardly!
Nowadayws there are many who know for sure how everything happened although they were not present. I don’t refer to a car accident but to something much bigger. Although the most marvellous things have been brought into existence through that grand event, there is still the wide-spread belief that it was all but an accident, a big bang, which made the cosmos, the Earth and finally even mankind. There are inumerable traces and theories in great number. But there is a question which was asked thousands of years ago and is recorded for us in the Bible. This question comes up at the end of a long talk between well-meaning experts and their suffering friend. It is a question posed at exactly that point where you would expect an answer instead, a question showing us where we have gone beyond our area of expertise. This time the question comes from God Himself:
“And the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said, Who is this who makes the purpose of God dark by words without knowledge? Get your strength together like a man of war; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers. Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if you have knowledge.”
Job 38:1-4
Can a question like this serve as part of the answer? This question is not an inquiry for information, but rather that people might learn to question their own world view. Do we trust His word or the “experts” who know everything better (such as how long it really took!) although they were not there? God knows all clever sounding attempts trying to explain the origin and the course of this Earth without Him. Corresponding to that we read of another question:
“Where is the wise? where is he who has knowledge of the law? where is the man of this world who has a love of discussion? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”
1 Corinthians 1:20
If the right answer to God’s question is not to be found in human philosophies, where else? It should not surprise us, that the answer to God asking Where? can only be found in a special location provided by God Himself. This place is “Christ, in whom are all the secret stores of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3). In order to get there, the prayer of Job might be a first important step:
“I see that you are able to do everything, and to give effect to all your designs. Who is this who makes dark the purpose of God by words without knowledge? For I have been talking without knowledge about wonders not to be searched out. Give ear to me, and I will say what is in my mind; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.”
Job 42:2-4
