Sometimes God leads his people into difficult seasons in order to test us, to try our hearts. No, this doesn’t mean God’s at all confused about what we’re thinking and feeling. The biblical idea of testing has more to do with revealing, with making plain what is hidden to us and to others (but otherwise crystal clear to God). According to James, in James 1, such testing is essential to the building of real faith. We tend to dislike such times, understandably in one sense. They’re hard. They hurt. They may extend for a long time. They may even feel desperate. But they’re important. When tested, the heart characterized by faith cries out to God and then waits on him. It perseveres in waiting, trusting everything to God who provides, God who answers, God who works all things for the good (and not the harm) of his people (Romans 8:28). Of course, the opposite is possible. The tested heart may also demonstrate faithlessness. It may demonstrate controlling fear, panic, and anger. This heart responds to testing by demanding of God (silly as that is) that he meet my need in my time and my way. Otherwise, I will cynically doubt his love and perhaps even deny his presence. Take that God!
The above spiritual ruminations flow out of Israel’s experience at a place called Rephidim (somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula) as recorded in Exodus 17:1-7. God led his people into a hard place…a very hard place…a place with no water. Faced with this hardship, and even with impending disaster (vs. 3), the people respond by quarreling with Moses and grumbling against him (vs. 2-3). In doing this, they quarrel not merely with the man, Moses, but more importantly with Yahweh’s appointed servant. In fact, they’re putting Yahweh himself to the test. So says Moses, in verse 2 (ESV): “Why do you test the LORD?” How presumptuous – that man would test God in this manner! How thankless – that redeemed Israel would doubt its rescuer! Read down to verse 7, and notice what Moses tells us there. He says that the people, “…tested the LORD by saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’” If God doesn’t provide water in their time and their way, then he must not be with them. He must not be the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He must not be worthy of their devotion. The Israelites sound like a petulant child (which they often were) threatening a so-called friend: “If you don’t give me that toy that I want, then you’re not actually my friend.” Really? This God just parted the waters at the Sea of Reeds for you to cross over. He goes before you, day and night, in a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire. His servant, Moses, performed mighty miracles in Egypt that you experienced. And you have the gall to dictate terms to him; the gall to assert what he must do to demonstrate love and care for you?
Briefly, consider how Moses is the foil of faith against faithless Israel. Notice verse 4: “So Moses cried out to the LORD, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’” Yahweh answers Moses (in vs. 5-6), and Moses obeys Yahweh (in vs. 6). When tested, faith cries out to God and then obeys his word.
Painfully, I’m too often like faithless Israel. At least I’m tempted to be. God leads me into a time of testing, and I get cynical. I get angry and anxious. I want the Lord to answer me in my way and my time, no matter how many times before I’ve heard his Word, seen him provide, even experienced him powerfully addressing that which concerns me. So often I look too much like a faithless, petulant child. Lord, thank you for being patient with your petulant children!
Fix Your Mind 