But Dad, WHY?

If you have children, you will identify with this.

Quite often, when I tell my kids to do something, they respond: "WHY?" Now I don't want to stifle their inquisitiveness, but I know that a sincere quest for knowledge is not the motive for their question.

When my four-year-old daughter asks "why" she should go to bed, her aim is to call my judgment into question. She wants me to offer a rationale for my decision so that she can argue with that rationale.

In most circumstances, I want my kids to ask questions. I want them to be full of wonder and curiosity. But I have a rule in my house: "If I tell you to do something, I want you to say 'Yes, Abba' first. Then you can ask why." (Abba is the Hebrew word for "dad.")

Do we do the same thing with our Abba in heaven? If he gives us a command, do we seek an answer to the question why first, and only then obey? Or do we say "Yes, Abba" and obey immediately, and then begin to study and learn his amazing wisdom?

Sometimes I give my children instructions that they could never possibly understand at their age. That is just because I am older and wiser. God designed it to work that way.

This is true with him also. We may never understand why he instructs us to do one thing or another. But that is because his ways are higher than ours, and his thoughts above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). If he were not wiser than us, then he would not be God. If we could understand his wisdom, then we would be god.

It is not noble to wait until you understand before obeying. One who only obeys when he understands has not submitted to God's authority. One who says in their heart, "If it makes sense to me, I will do it," has made God into their personal adviser. They are treating him as a servant, not a master.

I know what he really meant by that...

What is even more dangerous is the one who attempts to determine God's intentions, only to accomplish them through another means. This can be compared to a teenage son asks his father if he can take the family car. The father replies, "No," offering no further explanation. The son reasons that he was not given permission to use the car because someone else would need to use it soon. This was a perfectly reasonable inference, which perhaps had even been true in the past. With that in mind, he figures that it should be fine to use it for a quick errand, so he takes it for a spin anyway. But this time, the actual reason his father refused was because the car had faulty brakes that needed immediate repair.

When you give your children an explicit instruction, do you want them to divine your intentions in order to accomplish it their own way?

Only rarely does God give us his rationale for the commandments. Perhaps this is so that we will not question his unfathomable judgment.