This is Jeopardy!
Did you know that Jeopardy is my favorite TV show? There are several reasons for this.
I love the quirky/nerdy contestants. (Since confession is good for the soul, I should add that I love competing from home against them.)
I also love the fact that in recent decades, the show changed it rules and now no longer has a five game limit for winning players. One contestant, Ken Jennings, won an astonishing 74 games in a row. Perhaps this phenomenal accomplishment, like Joe DiMaggio's 56 consecutive game hitting streak, will never been broken. (Sorry, we Jeopardy fans love this kind of trivia.)
There is another thing that I love about the quiz show. What's this? Jeopardy has a unique format. Each participant is required to phrase their response in the form of a question. (Like I said, it's quirky.)
There is a lesson that we can learn from Jeopardy. We tend to think of the Bible as a book offering ultimate answers, but it's just as much about ultimate questions. (Which is one reason why I'm so fond of Ecclesiastes.)
Many of the great questions in the Bible are asked by God himself.
In Genesis chapter 3, the Lord asked Adam why he was hiding. In the very next chapter, He asked Cain: "Where is your brother?"
After Job insistently demanded to speak with God about the injustice of His ways, the Lord answered out of the storm: "Who is this that darkens My counsel with words without knowledge??
I could give you many, many more examples; let one more suffice. Devastated by the adulterous idolatry of His wayward people, the Lord was about to wreck vengeance on them. However, in the end, He relented, declaring: "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zebloiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.
Jesus asked many, many questions during his ministry. I will close with just one classic example.
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
