Response

Part 2

…”Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exod. 4:11)

…How can I let myself be defamed?... (Isa. 48:11)

“O house of Israel,  can I not do with you as this potter does?...” (Jer. 18:6)

…”Have you any right to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4)

The above questions are asked by God to give light to his authority. It is not that He does not know about His own authority, but He is asking these rhetorical-like questions to show us our ‘place.’ God employs this technique to both show the lowliness of man and the loftiness of Himself, as God “wins” these questions no matter what the answer.  It is like a father asking an unruly child “who was it that raised you from nothing?”

…”Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Gen 3:11)

“…Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Isreal?’ (1 Sam. 2:29)

…”Son of Man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol?... (Ezek. 8:12)

Then the lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord?...” (Gen. 18:13)

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? (Gen. 4:6)

In the above questions, God is asking humans questions that point out their separateness from God. He is asking them if they have done wrong things not because He has no knowledge of them, but to allow the perpetrators to see what they have done wrong. E.g. “Was it you who colored all over the wall in crayons?”

…”Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?... (Isa. 6:8)

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” (Matt. 16:15)

In these verses, God is testing the faith of the hearers. Although God knows what they are going to say, He is asking them to step forward in faith. This is like at a wedding, when the groom is asked, “do you take this woman to be your wife?” The answer is (most likely) known before the question is asked, but the groom must now step forward and answer it.

Part 3

The wisdom of God is unreachable to humans, and even the wisest human cannot fully comprehend even the simplest attributes of God. If God were to reach humans by means of wisdom, it would not be possible, for humans would not understand. In 1 Cor. 1:21 the world did not know God through wisdom, rather the world was saved through belief in the Gospel. This looked like ‘folly’ to some men, but this pleased God, as it was not man’s attainment, not something men could work to understand, but simply Christ crucified.

Part 4

The Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom (1 Cor. 1:22), shows the methods that the Jews and Greeks were seeking for deliverance of wisdom from God. What they got, was much different: Christ crucified. In 1 Cor. 1:25 the reaction of Jews and Greeks to Christ is addressed, where it’s stated the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Not that God is foolish, but that even the least wisest parts of God are wiser than man. The ‘folly’ of Christ crucified has a lot more to it than man can begin to comprehend.