How Does God Make Himself Known?

Q. What is the chemical formula for salt?

A. You can get salt out of a saltshaker on a sticky day if you put a few grains of rice in the shaker beforehand.

Q. How can the subway system show a profit?

A. The best way to get from Grand Central to Broadway and 110th Street is to take a shuttle to Times Square and a northbound express with two red lights.

Question and Answer have somehow failed to make connections. One reason the answers are pointless is because they are answers to unasked questions. They might be very good answers if the questions were "How do you get salt out of a saltshaker on a sticky day?" or "How can I get from Grand Central to Broadway and 110th Street by subway?"

And part of our job, as we approach the Bible, is to learn to ask the right kinds of questions, the questions to which the Biblical answers are real answers.

It is pointless to ask of the Biblical writers:

Q. How can we prove the existence of God?

For the Biblical writers that kind of question would be quite beside the point. They were not talking about an idea of a "something somewhere" that might or might not exist. They were talking about the living Reality who had confronted them, changed their lives, entered into relationship with them. To try to "prove his existence" would be as though you and Joe discussed the question, "Does Fred really exist?" -- right under Fred's nose, with Fred perhaps contributing to the discussion from time to time. You are entitled to take Fred's existence for granted since you already know him. And that is what the Biblical writers do with God. He is the first and last fact of their lives. They don't waste their time trying to "prove" him; they try to see how he makes himself known, and what he demands of them.

So if we want to understand the Biblical answers we must ask the right question:

Q. How does God make himself known?

Then perhaps we can get somewhere.