Can we really ask – God where are you?

New Christians may wonder, “Can we really ask – God where are you?” Non-Christians may just assume the answer is no – after all, why would God respond to someone who didn’t believe in Him? Even long-time Christians may feel embarrassed to ask, “God where are you”? Wouldn’t that be a humiliating show of a lack of faith? Not only can we ask, someone already did. Someone from a long time ago. And he was one of God’s prophets, from the Old Testament. We even have God’s answer. Written for all of us to read.

I’ve asked that question. And, to be honest, not always so politely.

And whether we believe it or not, there’s nothing wrong with asking.

What could possibly be wrong with actually asking? It’s not like God doesn’t already know the questions in our minds before we ever put them into words. He knows it’s in our minds before we even fully form the thought! In my case, He certainly knew I was angry – so why even try to hide it?

So, ask! Ask away.

Can we really ask - God where are you? is article #01 in the series: God where are you. Click button to view titles for entire series

When we ask, “God where are you”, we aren’t the first.

The Old Testament gives us an example of one person who asked. It’s in the Old Testament, so many people might not have read it. It’s a small book, only three chapters. But still, many probably haven’t read it.

It’s written by one of the so-called minor prophets. Not by one of the famous ones. It’s not written by one of the more famous people at all. Unless you’ve read it, you may not even know it exists.

However, since I’ve asked the question so often, and since I have read it, I can say it’s one of my favorite OT books.

How might we ask the question today?

Before we get into the text of the Old Testament book, or even identify the author, let’s see how it might look using today’s English. Some people think the Bible’s not relevant today. Do the things below look relevant?

“How long must I keep telling you that things are terrible?
 Why don’t you save us?
 Why do you make me watch while people treat others so unfairly?
 Why do you put up with the wrong things they are doing?
 I have to look at death.
 People are harming others.
 They are arguing and fighting all the time.
 The law can’t do what it’s supposed to do.
 Fairness never comes out on top.
 Sinful people surround those who do what is right.
 So people are never treated fairly.”

That sounds pretty relevant. It’s a comment anyone could make after watching just a few minutes of the evening news. And it is asking our question today – God where are you?

Or, Google a few of these and see what you get.

Like –

• “call for help” will return things like domestic violence, agencies for people in need, police, fire, Etc.
• “Why don’t you listen” returns many links to songs – so this would seem to be a popular topic today.
• “Things are terrible” returns over 1.5 million links!

Feel free to look up others – but there’s no doubting that the questions are quite relevant today.

Who is the minor prophet whose words gave us the translation above about the state of the world he lived in?

The thing is, those lines above, in orange text, were written about 2,700 years ago! Yes – about 700 BC.
They are from Habakkuk, considered a “minor” prophet (because his book is short – only three chapters), who gets to do something pretty major – talk to God and get an answer! Ask Him – God where are you?

The lines above are from the NIRV, which is more in line with styles of writing/speaking today. I normally prefer to use the NIV which is:

Habakkuk asked – God where are you?

Habakkuk asked the questions lots of us would like to ask. Maybe we have asked. And while we may have other reasons for asking, many of us have asked similar questions as well.

In any case, regardless of the Bible translation we read, this is someone who is clearly not happy with what’s going on around him. Habakkuk’s also clearly not happy with what he thinks God isn’t doing about these things.

Both of these are situations that many of us feel we are in all too often. It sounds pretty relevant to me. 2,700 years and things haven’t really changed all that much.

There’s still death and destruction, although we can now carry it out on a much grander scale than ever before. There’s still injustice, strife, and conflicts in the world, but thanks to the Internet. we can see more of it and see it so much quicker than ever before. There’s still too much violence. And thanks to AI, we can create all these things and make them look real, even though they never happened.

The law isn’t always followed or is perverted to the point where it isn’t recognizable anymore, and true justice often does not prevail – but thanks to 24-hour cable news, we can constantly be reminded of all these failures on a scale never seen before.

And there’s no shortage of people willing to tell us that they know how to “solve” all these problems. That they can bring order and justice and resolve all these conflicts, if we will only put them in power over us. And we listen to them, but it only gets worse.

For most of us though, we don’t claim to be able to fix all of these problems. Just some of them, if we were in charge of these things. And we wonder why God can’t seem to take care of even our “little” problems. Some wonder if God even exists. Some claim He is dead. Some claim He never existed.

No matter which group we’re in – the “I can fix everything”, or the “I know how to solve that one issue”, or even the “I can’t take it anymore and don’t know what to do” group – the questions that Habakkuk asks are the same questions that are on many people’s minds and lips (and blogs) today.

And for all those asking, “How long” or “Why don’t You listen”, there’s an implicit acceptance of one critical thing, that God in fact does exist. Reaching that first step can lead to further investigation. Many people who think they don’t believe in God have reached that point – but don’t realize it yet. They scream out to God, asking where He is, even though they claim to not believe He exists. That’s belief that God does exist and that He can do something about the world’s condition. Habakkuk had no doubt that God existed.

Obviously, I believe He exists as well. So why doesn’t God listen and how long will He put up with all the wrongs in the world? Or – are those the wrong questions?

These are questions asked by Christians and non-Christians alike.

For Christians, when we ask things like this, it’s often a question of faith.  Like – do we still have faith?  Do we still think God is loving?  Do we still think God is all-powerful?  Do we still think that God is all-knowing? Maybe He doesn’t even realize what’s happening?  

And, if He does know, does He even care about us anymore?  Maybe we got so evil that He just decided to abandon us?  Maybe He’s dead, and we’re just “existing” until everything totally falls apart since He’s not here to watch over what He created?  

There’s all sorts of questions that can come up.  I’ve had some of them.  I know other people who have had various ones of these.  It’s not an unusual feeling.  But, is it justified?  Are there things that we can look to, things that would show us that yes, not only is God still here, but He most certainly does still care?  

For the Christians reading this series, that’s what you should look for in it.

For non-Christians, maybe questions like this have kept you from believing in God/Jesus?  Maybe you think that people like us who do believe this are crazy?  Maybe you think we live in a dream world?  Maybe you even were a Christian at some time, but – like I did – abandoned the faith because of things like this?

Or maybe you do believe in God, but you don’t believe He’s loving and think this is the way it’s going to be forever. I used to feel like that sometimes – that life sucks and then you die. When this is where we’re at, is there something we can look to, something that would give us hope?  

For one thing, when I was in this group, at some point I realized that my anger at God did mean one very important thing: I still believed in Him.  If that’s where you are, then you’re one big step ahead of people who don’t even believe He exists. And that alone is one cause for hope.

So let’s see if there is hope.  Let’s see what happens with Habakkuk.

Conclusion – Can we really ask – God where are you?

Obviously, with Habakkuk as an example, in Old Testament times, it was OK to ask, “God, where are you?” The timeframe of the New Testament is much shorter. The last book, Revelation, was written by John, one of the original twelve disciples. So, it’s more focused on Jesus returning to earth, as opposed to asking God where He is.

Although, having said that, there are some examples from the New Testament where this kind of question did come up. We’ll get into that in a later installment of the series, but I think it’s important to see Habakkuk’s experience before we get into that.

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Answering one question – Is it OK to ask God questions like, God where are you”?

By the way, I do want to address one of the questions I raised above. Namely, are we justified in having these questions, these feelings? It’s very hard, if not impossible, to say having questions like these isn’t justified. Why? Look at what we just read. Habakkuk was a prophet of God. And look what he asked. And wait ’til you see what God answered and how Habakkuk responded to that.

And, if you don’t already know, Habakkuk is far from the only one of God’s people who questioned Him. People who we read about today, and probably wonder how they could ever have doubts.

Just to give a clue of what comes next, God does answer Habakkuk:

^{Hab 1:5} “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.

Uh Oh. That sounds pretty ominous if you’re already questioning whether or not God really is good.

The next segment of this series – What if God answers when we ask what He’s waiting for? – is coming soon. You can either check back from time to time, or use the subscription block below to sign up to receive an email when new articles are published here.

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