God, What’s with all the Tests?
Remember taking all those tests in school? I surely would not want to go back and experience the “test anxiety” from any part of my school experience! As an educator, I know one of the purposes of testing is to make sure the students fully understand the material. Tests, in most cases, are not the collective answer of a group, but rather, individual responses to a set of questions. In short, we want students to “prove” they know what we taught them.
In Deuteronomy 8, Moses is explaining the purpose of the many tests that the Children of Israel experienced in the wilderness as they were trying to reach the Promised Land. Verse 2 says, “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your hearts, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” God tested them by letting them experience hunger before He sent manna and thirst before He had Moses strike the rock so water would gush out. The Israelites complained more than once that they wished they were back in Egyptian slavery instead of being in the wilderness with Moses.
The fact is, if we are not tested, we really don’t know of what we are made. We talk about those Israelites very self-righteously, like we wouldn’t have been belly-aching right along with them. The very fact that they had to wear the same outfit for 40 years would have had me pitching a hissy fit (Deut. 8:4)! Moses told them the reason they were fed with manna was so they would know that “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD (v. 3)”. If you recall, it is this very verse that Jesus quotes when He is facing His very own testing from Satan himself in Matthew 4.
Just like in school, everyone has their own tests. Aren’t you glad you don’t have to take anyone else’s test? If you know me at all, you know how much I admire Mrs. Kay Arthur from Precept Ministries. Her study methods and teachings have made a huge impact on my life. She sent out a letter today describing a health related test that God has her going through at this time. She has had a severe flare of rheumatoid arthritis with debilitating pain. Here is her response to a question a doctor asked her about feeling angry toward God:
