God's Test

Psalm 11:4–6 NKJV

4 The Lord is in His holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. 5 The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. 6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind Shall be the portion of their cup.

God tests the SOns of men (in general), he also test the rigtheous

verse 5, the parralle that is being made between the righteous being tested and the wicked being hated reveals something about God’s love, God’s care, God’s interest in the testing of the rigtheous or the sons of men

There is a connection between God’s love for the righteous and God test of the righteous, in the same way God’s hate of the wicked and his judgement of the wicked.

The very fact that God would take the time to test mankind, to test the rigtheous show that we are important to God.

When God is interested in you, when God really care about you he will test you.

Job 7:17–18 NKJV

17 “What is man, that You should exalt him, That You should set Your heart on him, 18 That You should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?

The very fact that this powerful, majestic God would pay attention to man and test him every moment, reveals that man is highly valued in the sight of God. In this sense man is exalted before God.

When God is really loves you, and cares about you and is interested in you the test will be many.

The very fact that God test the sons of men in general and the righteous reveals how important we are to God.

God’s tests

We can group God’s test into two categories, or umbrellas of test.

The test that is designed to refine or purify us and purge our life from the impurities of sin, unrightheousness and those things that are not pleasing in his sight

Is 48:10-11 “10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.”

Since we are called by his name, and he does not wan’t his name to be profaned by our unrighteous conduct, he will purge and refine us through various trials and tribulation.

Malachi 3:2-4 “2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness. 4 “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the Lord, As in the days of old, As in former years.”

The goal is to make us as pure as he is, perfect to his image.

2. Test that are designed for the purpose of knowing us, knowing our heart and knowing our mind.

Jeremiah 17:9–10 NKJV

9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

Only God can know our hearts, and he does this by testing us.

Jere 12:3 “3 But You, O Lord, know me; You have seen me, And You have tested my heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, And prepare them for the day of slaughter.”

jeremiah was declaring to God that he know him because he has tested his heart towards him.

God will test you heart, to know you. to know everything about you. Your desires, your intention.

Why is it that he wan’ts to know us

He wants to know the people to whom he is going to give his possesion. To whom he is going to give the heavenly inheritance.

He has every right to test us and know us because alot is a stake, what he is giving us.

2 Thessalonians 1:11 “11 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,”

God has to test his people to count them worthy of this calling and ultimatly fullill gis goodness towards us.

The things that God wants to know about us

when we examine the scriptures and look at God’s tests in this regards, we see that there are things that God wants to know about us, for which he will test us

God want to know how important his commandment is to us

Deuteronomy 8:1–2 (NKJV)

1 “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers.

2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

Before he brought his people into the wilderness God tested his people.

He tested them so that he may know their heart

In this case, he wanted to know if they would keep his commandments or not.

He wanted to know how important his commandments were to them, especially in relationship with what he gives them and what they wan’t

One was that he tested them was through the manna

Exodus 16:1–5 (NKJV)

1 And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt.

2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.

5 And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”

The desired bread, they wanted food from God.

God gave them their desire, he gave them bread but with it he gave them a command so as to see how important his command was to them.

Will they be willing to disobey God to get more of the bread or manna. or will they be content with what they have been commanded to gather even though they might want to have more.

This test would let God know how they will behave when he gives them their inheritance.

will they keep his commandment in the promise land, with what God has given them?

God know the propensity of man to transgress the command of God for the sake of his desire,

He know how shallow man is that he would transgress God’s command for the sake of a peice of bread.

Proverbs 28:21 “21 To show partiality is not good, Because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.”

God expects that we will cherish his command more than our food, more than our desires or our needs. More than anything in this world.

Job 23:12 “12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.”

How valuable is God’s command to you.

God tested Abraham and he saw how precious his command was in the sight of Abraham, more than what he greatly loved and cherished who was his son isaac.

God will test you to see how important his command is to you.

God will test us to know how important his way is to us.

Judges 2:20–23 (NKJV)

20 Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice,

21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,

22 so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.”

23 Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

Inorder to test his people if they will keep his way, how important his way was to them he did the following.

He left the cannanite to dwell in the promise land.

They will sow and reap just like the people of Israel.

They have houses, possession and they would porsper but they were not walking in the way of the Lord.

God does not judge them nor remove them because he want to see if his people will keep his way.

Psalms 1:1 “1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;”

Psa 73:1-3 “1 Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; My steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the boastful, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

Psa 73:12-14 “12 Behold, these are the ungodly, Who are always at ease; They increase in riches. 13 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all day long I have been plagued, And chastened every morning.”

Psalms 37:7 “7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”

the reason why God allowed him to propser is to test you.

Psalms 37:34 “34 Wait on the Lord, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.”

God will test our faithfullness

Proverbs 20:6 “6 Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man?”

God want to test our faithfullness to him.

Are we faithfull to proclaim and give credit to him when he accomplishes great things through us.

He want to know if he does something for us or through us, are we going to credit for it.

2 Chronicles 32:27–31 (NKJV)

27 Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable items;

28 storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of livestock, and folds for flocks.

29 Moreover he provided cities for himself, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much property.

30 This same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon, and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

31 However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.

You can read the wonder from verse 20-23 same chapter.

God withdrew himself and was watching how much of what God has done was he going to take credit for himself.

Was he going to give God the glory, or was he going top be tempted by the praise of men to take credit for what God has done.

God is a jeolous God

Is 42:8 “8 I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.”

God will test how Important his promise word is to us.

Psalm 105:17–19 NKJV

17 He sent a man before them— Joseph—who was sold as a slave. 18 They hurt his feet with fetters, He was laid in irons. 19 Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the Lord tested him.

God will use time to test you how important it is to see the fullfillment of the promise word of God.

Joseph endured alot, and waited for a long time for the sake of the word of God.

How long are you willing to wait, what are you willing to endure to see that promise word fullfilled in your life. for it will reveal to God how important his promise word is to you.

Conclusion

1 Peter 1:6–7 NKJV

6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,

psalms 66:10-13 “For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment. I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows,”

The overall goal of all the test of God that we go through is to deteremine if our faith is genuine. Is it Authetic?

At the end it will be more precious the gold, it will be found to praise, honor and glory at the coming of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray that we may find grace to endure the test and to pass it and be counted worthy for God’s glory, his inheritance.