Designed to Question

Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

God made us with minds that question. We naturally look at things we don’t understand or know and ask questions. Ask the parents of any three year old on the planet! Questions, questions and more questions. Why is the ocean blue. Why is the sky blue? Why do caterpillars have so many legs? Where do teeth come from?

These kinds of questions drive parents nuts! After the first two, we generally have had enough. But the questions keep coming. And have you noticed, they always come when you are right in the middle of something else!

So who taught children to have this kind of focus when asking questions? We as parents haven’t modeled this behavior before them. They haven’t seen us endlessly questioning the simple things in life. So how did they learn to question?

While our text speaks specifically about kings seeking answers to questions, it applies to all of us as creatures made in God’s image. Remember, our original design was to be rulers of this planet, creatively using the best of our abilities to bring order out of chaos here just as the LORD had brought order out of chaos in the universe. He made us with minds to try to solve puzzles.

We know that the LORD knows all the answers already. But even kings have issues, matters, that are larger than one person can solve. He needs advisors and experts in various fields to help him make wise decisions.

I think that is the sign of a successful leader and a successful human being. Success requires us to be humble, able to admit that we are not the fountain of all knowledge. We need to be able to say, “I don’t know. I will get back to you on that.”

But it is a lost art to not know everything, or at least Google and YouTube have made us think we can answer any question and fix any problem by ourselves. It is a strength to know our limits and admit them. The more we do admit them the more we allow others to use their gifts and abilities to fill in the gaps.

So today when you are tempted to say something that you don’t “KNOW”, stop and allow someone else to fill in the gap. Take the low position and raise someone else up. It is the sign of a good leader.