As we grew up, we all took various tests in school: unit tests, monthly tests, quarterly exams, half-yearly exams, and final exams. In college, it was unit tests, multiple revision exams, and semester exams. Just as life presents us with many challenges to help us grow, in our spiritual journey, God gives us tests to help us mature and receive new blessings.
In the spiritual walk with our Lord and Saviour Jesus ,we believers are tested quite often to see how we are in spiritual matters and its principles, God knows our weaknesses and strength, thru the tests he wants us to know the level where we are in our faith walk with him and wants us to improve further. As a young believer the tests can be easy but as we grow ,we experience these tests to be difficult and harder.
Luke 3:17 'His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” '
1 Corinthians 3:12-13 'If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. '
We will see two testing of God, one who passed (Abraham / Issac) and one who failed (David / Bathsheba) to see how God shaped up and what we can learn from these experiences.
Passing faith test - Abraham / Issac
Abraham did not have child for very long, He had his 1st Child - Ismael who was born out of flesh, 2nd Child - Issac was born out of God’s blessing. We read on God’s guidance and blessing on these two people in Genesis 17:19-21 'Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” '
God gave Issac to Abraham (ninety nine years) and Sarah (ninety years).
God tested Abraham in Genesis 22:1-24 - describes the story of God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham obediently prepared to sacrifice Isaac, but at the last moment, an angel intervenes, and a ram is provided as a substitute offering. This act of faithfulness reaffirms God's covenant with Abraham, promising blessings and numerous descendants. A short video of this story can be see in this link -
Many things to learn from God’s testing
God’s test
God tested Abraham’s true faith. God did not want Issac’s life. He wanted Abraham’s heart.
Issac was dear to Abraham’s heart and he wanted to be sure that Isaac was not an idol standing between God and Abraham.
Spirit of Obedience
Genesis 22:1 'Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. '
Abraham had a experience of “Spirit of Obedience” from the time God called him even before he acted in obedience, when God called him “Abraham”, he did not say with any pride like we would have done “yes lord or yes father what do you want”, he said “Here I am” thats the spirit of obedience.
No indignant Spirit
Genesis 22:2-3 'Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. '
Abraham did not reason with God to say, why God did you ask me to sacrifice my Only Son, you know I love him more etc.. He did not talk back. He was implicit in his obedience.
Location for Sacrifice
Genesis 22:2,4 'Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. '
In this test, interesting thing is God asks Abraham to “go to the region of Moriah”. Its like someone who is living in Chennai to say go to Madurai Dt.
God never showed him the exact place day 1, its with a purpose to test, how Abraham responds.
God did not show the place till 3 days. Just to see how long he keeps going to fulfil the promise God has given.
We see he took Issac and walked 3 days after which God showed him the place at distance (Genesis 22:4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance).
Spirit of Worship
Genesis 22:5 'He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” '
Abraham said to his servant “we will worship and then we will come back”, In a testing time like that Abraham and Issac were in a spirit of worshiping Lord.
Close walking with God alone can produce the kind of Spirit to - Worship him in midst of a deadly testing time like this.
You are 100% sure that God will take care of you, that kind of trust in Lord would be the relationship that he had.
The worship comes only if you know the characters of God (Mercy / abounding in Love and caring God)
He was filled with such a faith he used the word “we” (both Abraham and Issac) will worship and “we will come back” - What a confidence to say that he will come back with Issac inspite of God asking to offer him as a sacrifice.
Issac’s Obedience
Genesis 22:7 'Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” '
Verse 6 to 9 - We read Abraham, he bound his son Isaac in the wood as a sacrificial offering. Isaac was not a baby body, he was somewhat in a adolescences age where he carried the wood along with his father.
It talks about the way how Abraham has raised Isaac on being an obedient son to his father.
Isaac asking where is the Lamb for the burnt offering indicates he was raised Godly like Abraham.
It was not Abraham who was obedient, even Issac was obedient like his father to get into the altar to become a sacrifice offering.
God is never late to his promise
Genesis 22:11-13 'But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. '
Abraham never doubted God, he obeyed without any delay. If we do one thing what he asks us to do, God will reveal the next step at the right time without any delay.
God’s never answer too early or too late. He does things at the right time. He provided a ram just when one was needed. That’s why Abraham called the name of the place “Jehovah -Jireh - The Lord will see to it”
Blessing of Abraham
God blessed Abraham after he passed the test. We are descendants of Abraham.
Father of Many nations - Because Abraham obeyed God, God blessed him with a new name — “The father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5 'No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. ‘)
A friend of God - He entered into a new relationship with God and was called “A friend of God” (James 2:23 ‘And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.)
Due to his faith and obedience righteousness of God was credited to him.
Father of all believers - thru his faith, He received a new honour — “The father of all believers” ( Romans 4:11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ‘)
Failures of Tests - David’s experience with Bathsheba
We look at another example of God’s test, where David failed the test.
Example of David / Bathsheba - Read 2 Samuel 11 or see this short video for the story https://youtu.be/j3mr4sWnZ8c?si=MxzgN7kA9mPH3pqu&t=22
Short summary of David / Bathsheba story - The story of David and Bathsheba involves King David seeing Bathsheba bathing and desiring her. He summons her, and they have an affair, resulting in her pregnancy. To cover it up, David arranges for her husband, Uriah, to be killed in battle. After Uriah's death, David marries Bathsheba. This act displeases God, leading to consequences for David and his household.
Have you ever wondered how a godly man like David, who communicated with God daily, could stumble by coveting another man's wife? Even with his status as king and the ability to choose any woman, God allowed this test to reveal his shortcomings and guide him toward growth.
As we fail some of God’s test, there is a spirit of repentance that comes to correct us to get better.
There is no escaping of the sin we committed when we disobey or yield to our self desire leading to fail God’s test.
We will need to pay the price for the mistakes we make, only his grace gets us out.
Lessons from David’s failure.
In the eyes of David he did not realize the mistake he did, he was self righteous like any of us, But God sent Nathan (Prophet) to David to correct his mistakes - 2 Samuel 12:7-10 'Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ '
In this test, when he failed and committed sin, there is a price to pay for these failure in test. God outlines the price for the failure, in this case he said his new born son will die - 2 Samuel 12:11-14 '“This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ” Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord .” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord , the son born to you will die.” '
God’s word is final, how much ever we fight back with God things will not change, like God told Nathan the child was dead, no matter how much ever fasting David did, God did not change the decision. God does not spare any of his own even when they sin - 2 Samuel 12:15-18 'After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.” '
What does this tests mean to us ?
Tests from God is not to make us feel our heads hang in shame, its to improve our relationship with him, our dependence on him go higher, its for him to grant a new blessing. Its like how a school kid passes the exam, if the student aces it with toper they will receive praises across the school / some in news paper ads etc.. likewise we will be used in God’s plan
Tests are meant to grow up. Tests are needed for us to differentiate if we walk with God or with world. While we may hate these tests, it’s absolutely necessary for us to grow spiritually. Tests are meant to burn the chaff in us and burn the wood, hay and straw thats of no use in us. It’s to make us a pure gold when it’s put to smelter.
This is what God expects from his children—a “spirit” or an attitude of obedience. Like Abraham, God often tests us to see if we are still close to him or not.
Satan is at works to make us disobey what God asks us to do with a spirit of disobedience to defy his command / word, this is to rob the blessing of God Ephesians 2:1-2 'As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. '
The only way to overcome the spirit of disobedience is to lay our trust in God and ask help from God to shed the act of disobedience, ask his help to give the faith to Obey. He knows our situation, our weakness, not all are like Abraham, many are like Thomas who want to test and test and only obey, he knows how to deal with each of us. Surrendering to him and asking him to help is the only way out. Our self is not match to overcome the “kingdom of air” as he entices us with something fancy we get carried away to fall to his trap of disobedience..
We are warned, “God’s wrath comes on those who disobey Him” (Ephesians 5:6 'Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. ‘)
There is always a conflict between the flesh and spirit, the old nature and the new nature. Salvation does not change the old nature nor the old nature can be improved or disciplined (Romans 6-7). The only way to overcome the old nature is to accept God’s calling and obey God’s word.
A Christian who caters to the old nature (Romans 13:14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh) will always have conflicts and trouble.
Romans 6:7 'because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. ' - Our victory over flesh is crucification, reckoning to the dead so that the spirit of Christ can power us to obey his word.
As the people of the world go down from disobedience to disobedience... let us, the people of the God’s Kingdom, grow up from obedience to obedience.
God’s testing can be any time, We need to be prepared for God’s testing, it’s not like how it’s done in school at set time. God can test in small dealing as you buy something from a shop to see if you are dishonest or not and to something which is a major ones. As you walk closely you will understand the voice of his testing. Watch out for areas of life where you are close to world and God, he will test you on money matters, honest scales and any other that we can fail. God will test after a blessing to see how you react to honour him or yourself.
Amen