Our Life — Our Test

When the Israelites entered the wilderness. “…the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not” (Exodus 16:4). The Lord poured down a blessing and it was a test. The test was on the seventh day when no bread rained down from heaven because it was the sabbath and they were to keep the sabbath by not doing the work of gathering bread (Exodus 16:25-26). The Lord’s blessing on our life brings a test with it. The manna from the sky was an additional gift in a long line of gifts to Israel in those days. The biggie gift that got them started was the freedom from slavery to Egypt! God opened the door of the sea by blowing back the waters and making a path through the chaos to the land He promised Abraham in Genesis 12. For Israel, the test began right after the gift of this freedom from slavery — right after the gift of this deliverance, right after the gift of this salvation.

Later, it continues. “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.’ The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20). This was later when they were standing before the mountain of the Lord where God gave his covenant containing the ten commandments. If after the deliverance, the commandments were obeyed, an abundance of life-blessings would continue to bear fruit in the experience of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 28:9-14). If they failed the test by ignoring the commandments they would lose the abundant living promised in verses 9-14 and undergo a devastating suffrage of a different kind — the kind that falls on a person’s life when they surrender to sinful choices (Deuteronomy 28:16-68).

I’ve been thinking about the binding of Isaac told in Genesis 22. In the first verse of the story recorded there we are told that God is about to test Abraham; but when did the testing of Abraham’s begin? Abraham was tested when he was invited to go to a new land (Genesis 12). He was tested when he was promised a child even though he and Sarah could not have children. It seemed this promise would never come to be and so Abraham and Sarah chose a surrogate mother to conceive a substitute child. Then later, when the promised child finally did supernaturally arrive, Abraham was tested with a command to offer this promised son as a sacrifice on a fiery altar (Genesis 22).

God blesses us with salvation and then comes the test. We are expected to bear fruit by living our lives under his direction. Romans 12:1-2 tells us to “offer ourselves as a living sacrifice… which is our worship” and to do this by “not conforming to the shape that our culture wants us to fit into” but to “be transformed by making up our minds” to follow Jesus in the way we live our lives. Therefore, our life is a test (1 Corinthians 3:9-20). We are tested. Our life tests God’s wisdom as a testimony to it. Our life tests God’s provision as a testimony to it. Our life puts to the test God’s plan for living as a living testimony to its superiority as the way to live life. It is superior to living life the way the world of this age does it. If a Christian were to live life conformed to the way of this age, then it would not look so much like a blessing. It would look nearly the same as the way worldly people live life (Ephesian 4:17-24; 1 Peter 2:12). If a Christian were to live life transformed or changed or converted, then it would look very different than the way people of this age live because people of this age are focused on feeling good, having their own way all the time, and gathering the treasures of this world as evidence of what they value (Matthew 6:19-24). For their sakes, we must pass the test! And when we fall short, we need to get back up, repent of our sin, and go about passing the test. For Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly — more abundantly than you will ever see by looking at the way the people of this age live their lives (John 10:10).

W. Stephen Williams © July 19, 2024