Why is God asking questions or appearing uncertain in the Bible if He's omniscient?

Question

Is God omniscient? lists all the passages were it is written that God is omniscient.

Reading other passages, I found a few things that seemingly contradict this:

1. In Genesis 3:8-13 God asks Adam and Eve where they are and if they have eaten from the tree

2. In Genesis 18:20-21 he apparently does not know what they have done

   ²⁰Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous ²¹ that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

3. In Genesis 32:22-30 God wrestles in his bodily form with Jacob, but asks Him about His name

4. In Numbers 22:9 He asks “Who are these men with you?”

5. In Deuteronomy 8:1-2 and other instances, God tests people, but wouldn't He know beforehand what they would do?

Answer 1

Gaining information is not the only reason for asking questions. Asking questions is a very powerful teaching device--not because the teacher does not know the answer, but because in the answering of the questions the students learn.

Adam was hiding from an omniscient God. He had never felt the need to hide from God before. The question helped Adam understand and confess what he had done. "I'm hiding... I've never hid before... this is the consequences of my sinful choice..." Adam even had a choice of whether to answer or not.

In response to the question of whether he had eaten of the fruit, Adam blames Eve and even tries to implicate God in it, since He brought her to him. He had a chance to take responsibility, but he failed in that and reverted to the blame game.

God also asks rhetorical questions, as He did to Job. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

So, the fact that God asks questions does not mean He lacks knowledge or information and must gain it from the minds of men. He asks questions for other reasons, just like you and I do in our conversations with other people.

For the question about when God wasn't asking questions (2 and 5)...

God doesn't say He doesn't know what's going in in Sodom. He just says that He is going to go there to observe it. He doesn't just observe either--He also takes Lot out of the city.

Testing is another issue. Like questions, God is not gaining information by it. It actually does a lot for us, as we build up a history of learning from both the right and wrong decisions we make. If we are tested and fail, we deal with the guilt and the understanding of what we ought to have done. If we are tested and succeed, we set a pattern for future testings.

Answer 2

Allow me to caveat my answer with the following Bible reference before I even attempt an explanation:

Romans 11:34 (NIV)

For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counsellor?

There is a branch of Theology Proper (i.e. theology about God) called Open Theology, made popular by Clark Pinnock's book The Openness of God. In it, the traditional understanding of God's attributes are questioned; including His omniscience.

There are numerous biblical texts that support God's omniscience, such as those found here.

However, the question is more about what to do with the above verses. The fact remains that God has always intended to be relational with His creation, and while He may know the answer to such questions, the people God is interacting with in these passages will be changed in some way through answering them.

God's questions are for our benefit, not His.

Answer 3

Simply this.

God gave us free will. He allows us to follow or turn away from him. God knows what we will do. However, we have the power to control our responses. If God forced our hand, we would not have free will!

Some examples

God allowed Abraham to go up to the point of sacrificing his child, but not to actually do it. It was a test of Abraham's. And Abraham was better because of the test.

Did God know that Adam and Eve would fall? Yes, he knew but Adam and Even weren't perfect. God allowed them to suffer the consequences of their choices. If he prevented them from suffering for their choices, they would not have free will!

Summary

God allows us to either reap the benefits of following him or suffer the consequences of turning away form him. He knows beforehand what we will do, but we don't. So, he allows us to fail or succeed for our benefit.

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An interesting (old) story about this:

St. Maximus ca. 580-662 a.d.
(The Life of Our Holy Monastic Father Maximus the Confessor and Martyr)

After quite some time, three men of high rank, Theodosius, Bishop of Caesarea in Bithynia, and the patricians Paul and Theodosius, were sent by Constans and Patriarch Peter to win over the saint. They were joined by the Bishop of Bizye, and alternately flattered and threatened Maximus, testing his faith and posing various questions. They began by introducing themselves, then requested Maximus to sit down. Bishop Theodosius asked, "How are you faring, my lord Abba Maximus?"

"Exactly as God knew I would before the ages," replied the saint. "He foreordained the circumstances of my life, which is guarded by providence."

"How can that be?" objected Theodosius. "Did God foreknow and actually foreordain our deeds from eternity?"

The saint said, "He foreknew our thoughts, words, and deeds, which nevertheless remain within our power to control; and He foreordained what befalls us. The latter is not subject to our control, but to the divine will."

"Explain more exactly what is in our power, and what is not," requested Bishop Theodosius.

"My lord, you know all this," answered Saint Maximus. "You only ask to try your servant."

The Bishop admitted, "Truly, I do not know. I wish to understand what we can control and what we cannot, and how God foresaw one and foreordained the other."

The venerable Maximus explained, "We do not directly control whether blessings will be showered upon us or chastisements will befall us, but our good and evil deeds most certainly depend on our will. It is not ours to choose whether we are in health or sickness, but we make determinations likely to lead to one or the other. Similarly, we cannot simply decide that we shall attain the kingdom of heaven or be plunged into the fire of Gehenna, but we can will to keep the commandments or transgress them."

Answer 4

Judaism teaches that God binds Himself under Torah just as a Master Architect limits himself to following a blueprint. This finds a parallel in Christianity in Kenotic theory:

Philippians 2:5-8 (NET)
You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had,
who though he existed in the form of God
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
but emptied himself
by taking on the form of a slave,
by looking like other men,
and by sharing in human nature.
He humbled himself,
by becoming obedient to the point of death
– even death on a cross!

John 14:9 (NET)
Jesus replied, “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

God's creation functions according to His Word. His participation in creation is at a level that is seen in Christ's ministry. IOW, God is not limited by default as described by Open Theology. His limitation is self imposed. He "rests" after creation is set up.

Answer 5

If your child does something wrong and they dont know you know about what they did then they will keep it to themselves, but when you ask them a question regarding what they did wrong then they will be scared and not know how to answer you without trying to lie and cover up what they did. So by asking questions is letting that person know you know what they did and now they need to come clean own their own so they understand you have the control not them. God ask questions to see how much we understand him and lets us know that he knows everything that happens and there is no getting around God.

Answer 6

The passages you quote could have been written by up to four different individuals who each were bringing their own understandings of GOD to the written Word. Some of the interpretational issues we have with the bible is due to the fact that the bible actually presents multiple theologies about the character of GOD, and that they are all intended to be held in tension with each other rather than fit our non-rabbinic post-enlightentment Aristotelian and non-Hebraic western understandings of logic.

Besides, the bible was not written in order to give us a systematic theology of GOD, but rather to be a written testimony to the fact that Jesus is the christ through whom all things will be remade in the power of the holy spirit by the love of the father.