“Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham! 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. …….Do not lay a hand on the boy 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……and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”  Genesis 22:1,2,18

“The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert, so that the devil could test him.”  Matthew 4:1

“And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him…” Matthew 22:35

There are some who are reading this they may actually enjoy being tested.  Some enjoy it because they love the thrill of the challenge and thrive under pressure.  Some enjoy testing because they are supremely confident in the outcome and look forward to the reward and adulation of a high achieving score.  I fall into to neither of those categories or any other rationale that would find tests enjoyable.  In some instances I would say that I go as far as to get text anxiety.

There is a school of thought that says, we as Christians, will never face testing, at least not from God.  I can’t say that I am one that follows that particular theology.  I do believe that it is plainly written that God, Himself will not bring about temptations to sin.  Those temptations come from the enemy.  Yet temptation and tests are not the same thing.

It is not that I am speaking for God (heaven forbid); but simply referring to God’s own revealed Word in the bible.  It is plainly stated that God tested Abraham in Genesis.  It was Satan who tempted Jesus in the wilderness, but the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to face the test of temptation.  Then there are the worldly tests that we throw at each other and even sometimes at God, which is what a lawyer did to Christ.

Let’s look at the context of Abraham’s testing.  God had promised Abraham, he would be a father of nations.  God was leading Abraham to the promised land.  While, Abraham did not have an heir by his wife, he had prospered in many different ways.  Finally, in a miraculous event; Sarah, Abraham’s wife conceived and bore Abraham a son and heir when she was older than 90 years old; Isaac.  Thus now Abraham had all the blessings he had been promised by God and was exceedingly successful.  Plus, God still planned to keep His covenant with Abraham to be the father of the chosen people of Israel.  But, would Abraham stay true to the covenant?  God knew the hearts of men and knew that often, once exceedingly successful, men will turn from God to follow their own ways and seek their own glory.  Would Abraham turn?  God tested Abraham and Abraham passed.

It appears obvious that God, in His spiritual form can not be tempted.  Yet God did not stay in a purely spiritual form as He allowed Himself to be begotten of a mortal woman and be born of true flesh and blood as Jesus Christ; God’s Son.  Hence, God being flesh, experienced things like hunger, exhaustion, human emotions and yes, so that He could truly experience the human condition, temptation.  The only difference is Jesus Christ overcame all temptation which can not be said for any solely or souly human.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that we have an advocate who is not unfamiliar or has not been tempted.  What a grace filled plan that God would allow Himself to be in a situation where He would be tempted by Satan, just to have the human experience of it.

Finally in the third referenced test above; it is solely human in nature.  Humans test for many reasons; most of which are justifiable in nature, such as to measure a person’s understanding or level of mastery.  Yet we can also test for illegitimate, nefarious reasons, hoping and even planning for the test taker to fail so we can unleash a harsh judgmental punishment.  That is what the lawyer attempted to do to Jesus and was abruptly and completely silenced.

So we have the how’s and whys of testing; let’s talk briefly about taking the tests.  Again starting with Abraham, notice that he did not have the answer to the test within him.  He knew God promised him a child and Isaac was that child.  God had said that Abraham was going to be the father of a great nation but how could that be if Abraham had to sacrifice his only child?  Was this some clever riddle to be solved?  If so, Abraham possessed not the wits to solve it.  Even when Isaac pointed out, as they started their trek, that they had no animal for the sacrifice, Abraham’s only answer was “God will provide”. Not only was that the only answer it was the right answer as well.  Abraham didn’t try to bargain with God or runaway from God with Isaac, he didn’t try to substitute some other young man hoping God wouldn’t notice.  Abraham relied completely in God in faith and passed the test and was rewarded with the continuing covenant.

In Jesus’ case, remember He was God and human.  Jesus had the power of God and would often times use that power to overcome demons. Yet, to thwart the temptation of the devil, Jesus didn’t use His own words, but the words of His Father; “man does not live by bread alone”, “you shall worship God only” and “do not put the Lord your God to the test”. The great power in these replies is that we have access to those same exact words.  Those words weren’t just for Jesus but for all of us.  God, through His immeasurable grace, has given us the same tools that His Son used to defeat the devil.

However, we are not God on earth.  What that means is that, unlike Jesus Christ, we will fail a test or tests at some point.  All human beings are fallen except Christ.  So we fail, we don’t faithfully wait on God; we are not only tempted but give into the temptation and sin, now what?  Once we have failed we are open to and will rightly receive the full judgement and wrath from our Just Heavenly Father! Is that right?

Well maybe that is what would seem to be the right outcome to have.  Maybe that’s how we would want to handle other people’s failures for tests we implement.  Yet the one who was tested and did not fail, freely took upon Himself every single one of our failures.  Jesus Christ, takes upon Himself all our test failures and washes them away, erases them by the blood of His Perfect Sacrifice.  Grade book closed.

The enemy would have us believe we are tested because God hates us and wants to judge and condemn us.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  God wants us to learn.  God wants us to rely on Him and see how through faith in Him we can overcome any test.  The enemy wants us to believe that when we fail, we are separated from God for all time to come.  The risen Jesus Christ testifies to us that we are eternally cleansed and forgiven for all failures and He stands ready to bring us through any test we may face.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father help us to understand that it is in Your wisdom that we are tested to allow us to learn how to rely on You and Your Word in all tests.  Forgive us when we lack the faith to turn to You and try to pass the tests on our own or worse yet are perfectly content and/or relish in our failures.  We praise the name of our Savior, Your Son, Jesus Christ, that He freely takes upon Himself our sins, that our failures are wiped clean by the blood of His sacrifice.  That in the testing we may grow ever stronger and prosperous, living lives that bring glory and praise to Your Most Holy Name.  We pray in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen