“To answer a man before hearing him out is foolish and disgraceful?”” Proverbs 18:13
After Adam and of Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God the of the met them with a series of questions. “They heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day; the man and his wife hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. The LORD God called out to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He replied, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden , and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid’. Then He asked, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman You put at my side – she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done!’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent duped me, and I ate'”. 1
There are at least four reasons for asking questions: 1. You wish to discover what another person knows about a subject. 2 – You don’t know the answer and you want to know. 3 – You help a person discover the answer, as does Socrates in Plato’s Republic. 4- You suspect the answer and wish the person to confirm your suspicion.
God did not ask for any of these reasons. He knew the answer, but wanted Adam and Eve to condemn themselves. Unlike God, you cannot be sure your impressions are correct, and so in this case you ask because you suspect the answer and wish the person to confirm your suspicion, as illustrated by the parent who suspects the child has stolen something. You are always best served asking rather than accusing
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1 Genesis 3:8-13
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