Divine tests, often overlooked in today’s church, are crucial to our faith and greatly affect our Christian lives and relationship with God.The numerous examples in the Word of God reveal a variety of tests faced by individuals. In this article, and the succeeding ones, we will examine some of these examples, analyse why God tested these persons, how He tested them, and some common misconceptions that we have about God’s tests.
There will be times in life when God would lead and direct us into situations where we will be tested. Many people run away from these tests because they think that a test or a challenge is proof that they have missed the will of God. Nothing could be further from the truth. All it means is that you are being tested, as others have before you.
God tests our hearts
Jeremiah 17 verse 10 says this, I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.
Proverbs 17 and verse 3 says, ‘A crucible for silver and a smelter for gold. And the Lord is the tester of hearts.’
The Lord does test our hearts and these scriptures shed a very bright light on this somewhat neglected topic of divine tests. Jeremiah 17 states unequivocally that God tests us. It says, I test the heart. And to what end? The answer is also given, to give to each one according to his way, according to what his actions deserve. This is astonishing. Here is where many miss it. We know that in redemption God does not judge us based on our merit, rather He grants His forgiveness to us when we turn to Jesus, on the merit of the shed blood of Christ. They then extrapolate that they will always receive whatever they want from God in any area of their lives, irrespective of their conduct.
This notion of divine testing is not limited to the Old Testament. It’s also deeply rooted in the New Testament. Yet we often believe that God grants us blessings only on the basis of our prayers. Indeed, he does answer our prayers, but he also responds to us based on our works, on what our actions deserve, and on the state of our hearts. The Bible says that He examines our hearts. So how does God test us?
Types of tests.
Tests take many different forms. Here are a few examples of the different kinds of tests that we see in the lives of people in the Scriptures. We will go into further detail later.
- Difficult instructions.
God may give instructions that are difficult to follow or require a major sacrifice on the part of the person. The story of Abraham, who was asked to sacrifice Isaac, is a case in point.
- Unusual circumstances.
Sometimes God puts people in unusual circumstances to test their obedience. The supply of manna for the Israelites in the desert is one such example.
- Challenging circumstances.
These are situations where our faith is tested as well as our resistance to adversity.
- Reaction to trials.
We are often tested in the way that we react to difficulties and to trials. These can be a test of our character and our faith.
- Challenging timing.
Sometimes God’s timing is different from what we expected. And so our patience and faith in his plan are tested.
Test 1: Difficult instructions – the case of Abraham.
According to Proverbs 17.3 and Jeremiah 17.10, God tests our hearts. How then does God test our hearts? To discover this, we will examine the life of a man whose heart was tested, a man that God then called his friend. Several times in the life of Abraham, we see him being tested and his obedience to instructions would determine the rest of his life. Let’s take a look at his story. In Genesis chapter 22, something fascinating happens.
By this time, we have seen Abraham leave his country to go to the one that the Lord had shown him, settle there, move from place to place, build altars. By this time, he had circumcised his entire household, he had made the mistake with Hagar and birthed Ishmael. Many years later, when he was 99, God appeared to him and told him he was going to have a child. Sarah did have a child. We have also witnessed the departure of Hagar and her son.
All these incidents now belong to the past. Several events had occurred successively in the life of this man. He had gone to Egypt and left. He had gone to Abimelech’s country and left, and it would seem that now his life was more or less settled. You know, sometimes there are people who struggle in life, try hard to get things done, go through very difficult situations, and then they seem to arrive at a place where everything is now smooth sailing. They think, okay, now I can relax. I can take it easy because I have arrived at a measure of stability in my life and in my relationship with God. And now things are going to run like clockwork, everything is in place.
The kids are thriving remarkably well. They’re comfortably settled in school, adjusting beautifully to their environment. They have a strong love for the Lord, regularly read their Bibles, and dedicate time to prayer. They even participate in youth meetings. Overall, everything is going wonderfully! This was more or less Abraham’s situation. His son Isaac had been born and was thriving.
The promise he was expecting and that he had expected for so long was finally here, and the future promise concerning this son must have been resonating in his heart. His wife Sarah was happy because after all these years of barrenness, she was finally a mother, her son was growing, and he was doing well. The promise was being fulfilled because the child of promise was there.
However, several years after the birth of Isaac, the Lord tested Abraham. In Genesis 22, it says ‘After these things, God tested Abraham’. The Lord tested Abraham. God does not act in a manner alien to His character. And in testing Abraham, he was being totally in character. Indeed, it is very much in God’s character to test his people, to put them in situations that would challenge them. It’s in God’s character to disrupt our lives and our plans in view of a greater purpose. We need to think through the implications of this passage. What He’s asking of Abraham is to give Him his hope, his pride and his joy, the child he had waited for over so many years. He knows this will hurt, but He asks all the same.
Here is the test. It’s as if God was saying to Abraham, give Me what I gave you. I’m taking from you that which is exceedingly precious to you. Abraham could not argue. He hardly say, ‘but Lord, he’s my only son’ because God himself had told him, ‘give me your only son.’ Nor could he say, ‘but Lord, I love him’, the Lord had told him, ‘the one whom you love.’ It’s almost as if he was saying to Abraham, I know what I’m asking you. I know it’s big for you. It’s a sacrifice. I know it will be hard for you. I know it will cost you, but I’m asking all the same because I want to test your heart.
Remember Proverbs 17.3, God is the one who tests our heart.
On God’s instructions, Abraham had let go of his first son, Ishmael. Who would have imagined that God would come back and ask him for the second and in such a final way? So Abraham gets up and he leaves. He trudges on with his son by his side. And one can imagine that with each step that he took, this old man must have sought to remind himself of God’s faithfulness. Perhaps at each step, he kept saying to himself, God is faithful. God is faithful. Otherwise, how could he even have continued?
We learn from the New Testament that Abraham believed that God had the power to raise his son from the dead. Throughout this period, he must have been convinced that God would not abandon him. I imagine he must have been thinking along these lines, ‘My God, who brought me from my homeland to this place, who made these amazing promises to me and to my descendants, who made me let go of Ishmael, is certainly a faithful God. This same God who has saved my life many times as well as my wife’s, I am certain that he has great plans for me, and he will fulfil them.’
And so, he continued to walk and to walk and to walk to his destination. And I’m convinced that at each step, he kept thinking about the character and the faithfulness of God and reminded himself constantly of what he knew about God. These stories were written so that we can see our lives in them, such that when our turn would come to be tested, we would not say this was too much to be asked. People often reject the Lord’s requirements because they don’t suit them, convinced that He has made a mistake. They do not know the Lord. It is important for us not only to love the Lord, but also to know Him, to know His ways and His character. It is essential that we move beyond the simplistic and sugar-coated version of Christianity that has been passed down to us, a view that leads us to believe that God is present primarily to support our weaknesses.
The purpose of the test
At the tail end of this test, Abraham has an encounter with God and God tells him, ‘now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me. Now I know that you fear God.’
This sentence should be engraved on our hearts, and we must think on it at length. It shows God’s response to a man who passes the test and reveals the purpose of the test. There is another reason why it has led to endless speculations, studies, theological discourses, and what have you. Because God is omniscient and knows everything. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows the thought that is in my mind even before it is on my lips.
So, why would God say to Abraham, ‘now I know’? Some things we leave in the realm of the sovereignty of God. What we need to learn from this is to take Him at his word when He says that He wants to discover certain things about us. But I think that more than anything else, He wants us to discover certain things about ourselves. So, he says here, now I know. In other words, you have confirmed, your actions have confirmed what I put in you, what I expected from you, and what I told you.
Unusual circumstances
In the course of a person’s life, he will find himself in different circumstances, sometimes accidentally. But at other times, God will orchestrate circumstances that will be unusual and require compliance with His instructions. In the case of Israel, they were faced with a completely new situation as they were compelled to feed in the desert. This is an unusual situation in which God had given specific instructions on how to gather and eat the bread from heaven.
Exodus 16.4 ‘Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow My instructions.’ When we read this, it doesn’t shock us at all. We think, oh yeah, it’s manna. Imagine that you were hearing this for the first time, bread would fall from heaven, only gather enough for one day. You will not find it normal at all.
And the passage confirms that it is a test because God says ‘I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions’. This is something that many believers miss, because they think that God’s instructions are optional, and that we may or may not abide by them. But God expects us to obey Him and follow His instructions. We would be wrong to think that God disapproves of all the complicated circumstances in which we find ourselves, sometimes He is the one who orchestrates them to test our hearts.
This is an aspect of the life in God that many believers seem to miss because they seem to think that God’s instructions are non-compulsory and that we can choose to obey them or not. But God expects us to obey him and to follow his instructions.
The pleasure of God in our tests.
My prayer for each one of us is that when we’re coming out of a test, God will be able to look at us and say, “Now I am happy with you. I am satisfied with you.” Beloved, God calls each one of us, but there is always a time when he expresses his satisfaction or dissatisfaction over us. I am in the habit of saying that I’m not trying to get God to love me. God loves me. God is love. He cannot but love me.
What I want is that God be pleased with me. What I want is that he be satisfied with me. What I want is that what I think inside, what he sees in me, and what I do will be fully in line with his desires. When he tests me, I want to respond as he desires me to respond and satisfy his heart. Abraham reacted the right way and God was satisfied.
Common misconceptions about divine tests.
An erroneous view of Christianity.
Many have an idea of Christianity that is centered on man, believing that God exists for our pleasure, while in reality, it is the opposite. Those who think this way equate being a Christian with a life in which God will meet all their needs, provide a sense of fulfillment, and ensure constant well-being. And if at some point, I’m not feeling good, it means God is not doing His job.
Furthermore, any instruction that differs from my current feeling is rejected as being of demonic origin or God is reprimanded for acting contrary to His character because we think that His character is to continue to cajole us, encourage us, and make us feel good. This version of Christianity taught by many believers, preached and expected by many, is the reason why there is so much falling away. People are disappointed when the things they expect do not happen because the picture they have of the relationship between God and man, is a far cry from the truth.
An erroneous view of what constitutes a divine test
Secondly, there exists a common misconception about the true nature of tests—an inaccurate understanding of divine testing. When I was studying this concept of divine tests, I found myself in an online forum where people were discussing their experiences of being tested by God. It was fascinating. One member of the group admitted that he did not have a girlfriend at the moment, and he felt that God was testing him for him. The test that he was going through was the fact that God did not give him a girlfriend. As I listened, I began to wonder if Western Christianity had not lost its way. Have we not lost our compass if for one individual, the absence of a girlfriend is seen as a profound test of life from God?
We live in a world where the Christian worldview is increasingly marginalised. Western society has become virulently anti-Christian. There is increasing and widespread stigmatisation and stifling of Christians. Preaching Christ today is considered highly reprehensible. In our modern world, it takes a great deal of courage to speak out and to preach the gospel while denouncing the ills of society. And in many parts of the world today, Christians are persecuted and killed for their faith.
Over 3 billion people have never heard the gospel, even once. Furthermore, many who have encountered it remain largely unaffected by its message. It’s our mission to go into these places and share the gospel with them. Some of us may have to put our lives on the line for our convictions.
To conclude
We must reshape our understanding of pain and redefine our perception of what is truly challenging. Otherwise, we will never be able to live a life that honours the Lord. If we want to survive in these last days, we must be prompt to obey, and we must learn to submit fully to God. He is sovereign.
He is not only a father, He is also a king, and as king, he demands obedience. Let us thank the Lord for the opportunities that He gives us to obey him. Let us thank him because he tests us as his children in order to help us to grow in our relationship with him and in our service to him.
Let us thank him for the grace to recognise our seasons of testing and to pass those tests. We will cover the next types of test in the next article.
