Why do people ask questions for which there are no answers?

[debrakay]

I have been enjoying my time for the past couple of months here on Worthy.  Today it finally occurred to me that many people here ask questions for which there are no answers.  We can all speculate and discuss many different topics, not just pertaining to the bible, but many things.  Why is it that human begins what to know the answers to things which we can never be able to answer?  We know there is no definite answer but yet we still ask it.  Why are we always contemplating the unknown?  Only God will be able to explain many things when we stand before Him one day.  

For instance today in my scripture reading, Numbers 13:23 tells a about a single huge cluster of grapes found in the Promised Land.  This single cluster of grapes, loaded on a pole, took two men to carry it.  It does not say it was a branch of grapes.  It is a single cluster of grapes. THAT IS A HUGE SINGLE CLUSTER OF GRAPES!  Why is this verse in the bible?  How can a single cluster of grapes weigh so much that it requires two adult men to carry it?  Was each grape the size of a basketball?  What is God trying to tell us by including this in scripture? 

I have my own speculation that God was proving to the Israelites that this WAS the promised land and they could see it with their own eyes when they looked at the size of the grapes.  But what does this prove to us as the reader and the believer?  Expect the unexpected?  Watch for miracles? Never underestimate the power of God?  Where God leads you will be the Promised Land? 

I would love to hear other thoughts on this "grape" account and why we seek answers for unanswerable questions?

Edited April 29, 2021 by debrakay
correction

[BK1110]

Just in general the desire for knowledge and understanding spurs thought, learning, research etc. All of which can lead us to God if we do it without bias. Many of the fathers of modern science (Kepler, Newton etc.) made it plain that their belief in natural law that could be studied and understood stemmed from their belief in the existence of a natural lawgiver.

But the thing is with God there IS an answer to all questions...just maybe some of them we can't get in this world. The fact that we still yearn for the answers to such questions should and does point us to God even further, and makes us more excited for the day when we may be able to get those answers and understand our Father even better.

[Starise]

I am reluctant to admit it but I have always had interest in the unexplained. While I seldom have any concrete answers for many of my questions it doesn't stop me from searching because I think it's just in my nature to do so. Just the other day I was researching time slips and the quietness that often surrounds these events. Looking for concrete supporting evidence as compared to simply someone spinning a yarn which seems to mostly be the case here. Still I can't completely dismiss something if there is even a shard of evidence....but that's just me and I guess I like "detective" work like that. Sometimes mounting evidence helps me to support an opinion. Sometimes it ends up being a wild goose chase.

When it comes to the Bible I think we can get plenty from it by simply reading it at face value and asking the Spirit to lead us to the meanings through study that were intended. In the case of those large grapes I simply see the simple fact that the land God promised the Israelites was prosperous and to be desired.

On the other hand if I try to put on my rational hat in looking at those grapes I might remember that ancient earth had a higher oxygen content and maybe this was a hold over from that era. Many things were larger then. We have fossilized insects many times larger than anything we have today. Clearly something was different about those grapes as compared to the grapes we have today. There were also still giants around here and there, but that's yet another subject. 

What's my spiritual take away from the grapes themselves? That God probably has bigger and better planned for us all than we could ever imagine in the future. That in order to obtain that blessing we need to overcome the obstacles He lets cross our path in faith He will deliver. The Bible says the Lord rewards those who diligently seek Him. This isn't a prosperity gospel, this is our future one day in later on after we pass from these bodies. Not that He won't provide for us well here. God can do whatever He wants to do but there are no guarantees here on this earth other than that we will have "enough".

[Hopefully]

Hi here is what I found about the grapes

Numbers 13:23-25
23 Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. 24 The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. 25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. 

If you read my blog post last Wednesday, you’ll see that I was talking about the Giants/Nephilim in the Bible. A few verses before the verse that I quoted in Numbers, you’ll see that the spies that Moses sent out were to bring him samples of the food that was growing in the land of Canaan (also known as the land of milk and honey). They went to Hebron and cut down one cluster of grapes and two men had to carry this one cluster on a pole between them! Can you imagine how huge those grapes were? Plus, this is where the Giants were living, too. I’ll bet those grapes were as big or bigger than the apples that we eat today!

I did some more research about the Giant people that appear in the Old Testament. The Nephilim mentioned in Genesis were killed in the big flood that God caused to wipe out every living thing on the earth with the exception of the inhabitants of Noah’s Ark.

read more at https://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2010/10/it-takes-two-men-to-carry-one-cluster.html

The chapter ends with the men saying 

“We saw the giant Nephilim people there! (The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim.) We felt like little grasshoppers. Yes, we were like grasshoppers to them!””
‭‭Numbers‬ ‭13:33‬ 

Edited April 29, 2021 by Hopefully

[debrakay]

3 hours ago, Hopefully said:

If you read my blog post last Wednesday, you’ll see that I was talking about the Giants/Nephilim in the Bible.

The Nephilim have always intrigued me too! Since there were still giants in the land after the flood there had to have been some of these giant genes in Noah and/or his family for the giant genes to have survived the flood.  Someone on the ark was a carrier. At least that's the only way I can make sense of it.  The grapes, the Nephilim, Goliath, the giants in Canaan are all questions I can hardly wait to hear the answers for. 

[debrakay]

@Hopefully Thank you for sharing your blog post.  It was good reading! I know that God has a purpose for everything under the sun and that He wants us to continually seek wisdom and knowledge until our dying breath.  I'm also sure as we share our thoughts and ideas about these very mysterious encounters and happenings that He smiles with pride that His children are doing just that. I have never been the kind of person who needs all of the answers but I have always been inquisitive and asking why, who, where, what, when, and so on.  @Starise mentioned the detective in him and I have to admit to that also.  Also, if Elon Musk offered me a trip into space I would jump on the chance.  Space, the final frontier.  I come from a long line of pioneers. 

[Hopefully]

6 minutes ago, debrakay said:

Thank you for sharing your blog post.  It was good reading

Your welcome and just wanted to clarify it’s research I did because I was interested in finding out about the grapes once I read your post, but I didn’t write it myself. 

[Billiards Ball]

17 hours ago, debrakay said:

I have been enjoying my time for the past couple of months here on Worthy.  Today it finally occurred to me that many people here ask questions for which there are no answers.  We can all speculate and discuss many different topics, not just pertaining to the bible, but many things.  Why is it that human begins what to know the answers to things which we can never be able to answer?  We know there is no definite answer but yet we still ask it.  Why are we always contemplating the unknown?  Only God will be able to explain many things when we stand before Him one day.  

For instance today in my scripture reading, Numbers 13:23 tells a about a single huge cluster of grapes found in the Promised Land.  This single cluster of grapes, loaded on a pole, took two men to carry it.  It does not say it was a branch of grapes.  It is a single cluster of grapes. THAT IS A HUGE SINGLE CLUSTER OF GRAPES!  Why is this verse in the bible?  How can a single cluster of grapes weigh so much that it requires two adult men to carry it?  Was each grape the size of a basketball?  What is God trying to tell us by including this in scripture? 

I have my own speculation that God was proving to the Israelites that this WAS the promised land and they could see it with their own eyes when they looked at the size of the grapes.  But what does this prove to us as the reader and the believer?  Expect the unexpected?  Watch for miracles? Never underestimate the power of God?  Where God leads you will be the Promised Land? 

I would love to hear other thoughts on this "grape" account and why we seek answers for unanswerable questions?

Aren't you asking a question for which there is no clear answer?

[Justin Adams]

13 hours ago, debrakay said:

The Nephilim have always intrigued me too! Since there were still giants in the land after the flood there had to have been some of these giant genes in Noah and/or his family for the giant genes to have survived the flood.  Someone on the ark was a carrier. At least that's the only way I can make sense of it.  The grapes, the Nephilim, Goliath, the giants in Canaan are all questions I can hardly wait to hear the answers for. 

Some have said that the flood was not totally worldwide. Others say that 'also after that' "whenever" 'the sons of God..' did their deeds is a reliable and admissible translation. Perhaps a second incursion. The 'sea peoples' were where Goliath originated - the Philistines. Maybe they were able to transit the deluge.

Looking at the ancient Greek monsters I think that some of the 'myths' were actually true and that the 'angels that sinned' not only taught humans some really bad stuff, but altered DNA and were able to inbreed and crossbreed certain species. The watchers would certainly have had the know how to perform all kinds of horrid experimentation on the earth. This is what the flood was probably also sent to purge the earth from. And that lends weight to the Joshua wars where even animals were under the Ban (Cherem or Herem) and God said to eliminate them all.

"Herem or cherem (Hebrew: חרם, ḥērem), as used in the Tanakh, means something devoted to God, or under a ban, and sometimes refers to things or persons to be utterly destroyed"

[Starise]

5 minutes ago, Justin Adams said:

Some have said that the flood was not totally worldwide. Others say that 'also after that' "whenever" 'the sons of God..' did their deeds is a reliable and admissible translation. Perhaps a second incursion. The 'sea peoples' were where Goliath originated - the Philistines. Maybe they were able to transit the deluge.

Looking at the ancient Greek monsters I think that some of the 'myths' were actually true and that the 'angels that sinned' not only taught humans some really bad stuff, but altered DNA and were able to inbreed and crossbreed certain species. The watchers would certainly have had the know how to perform all kinds of horrid experimentation on the earth. This is what the flood was probably also sent to purge the earth from. And that lends weight to the Joshua wars where even animals were under the Ban (Cherem or Herem) and God said to eliminate them all.

"Herem or cherem (Hebrew: חרם, ḥērem), as used in the Tanakh, means something devoted to God, or under a ban, and sometimes refers to things or persons to be utterly destroyed"

This is where I think there is often an impasse because some of the potential answers go outside the comfort zone of many people's rationality. The brain seems to make what is probably a sub conscious response to ignore explanations that don't entirely line up with their world view.

I just heard a sermon where the pastor insisted the sons of God were not angels and there was no inbreeding. This is the standard "safe" line to take on the subject that pacifies almost everyone. This explanation makes the most sense to some people and requires the least amount of effort to accept for them.

And I see this across a wide range of Biblical subjects. There's the commonly accepted versions put out there by many pastors, and then there's what really happened. Sadly most who attend church never dig any deeper.

Will it change anything so far as a person's relationship with God? In most cases no. Still I'm not the sort to sit back and let myself be spoon fed without digging in myself and attempting to answer some of these questions myself.