How to Pass Tests, Part One

Are you facing any tests? All of us want to know how to pass a test successfully. This includes the tests of life that God gives through troubles he himself ordains. No child of God is exempt from such periodic tests.

Jesus, the Son of God, was tested, and we are told he became obedient to every test. In Exodus we read that the Israelites were tested several times. They were told to make bricks without straw. They were pursued by the Egyptian army, which wanted to destroy them totally. They were thirsty, but they had no water. They were hungry, but they had no food. They were attacked by the Amalekites. Additionally, the wicked Israelites themselves rebelled against God. Later, Kings Sihon and Og fought against them. When they had to cross the Jordan, it was overflowing. They had to conquer Jericho, a city with high walls whose gates were barred and locked.

Through all these trials, God tested them. In Deuteronomy 8 we read, “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. . . . Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you” (Deut. 8:2–3, 5).

Many years before, the Lord had promised Abram that God would lead Israel out of Egypt and bring them to the Promised Land to possess it (Gen. 15:14–21). God repeated this promise to Moses: “The LORD said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites’” (Exod. 3:7–8).

The test is: Would these people live by faith in God and his precious promises? Would they fear God and not sin? Would they love God and obey his royal law of liberty? Would they do this all of life? Would they obey God delightfully, immediately, and exactly? Would they hold on to God’s promises? Would they be like Joshua and Caleb, who had a different spirit and followed the Lord wholeheartedly all of life, finally entering into Canaan to receive their inheritance? Would they fear God as Joseph did in Egypt, saying, “How can I do this wicked thing and sin against God?” Would they walk in the narrow way of the word and not turn to the right or to the left?

The ancient Israelites were not unique in facing trials. Trials come to all of us—trials such as sickness, poverty, and persecution. We read about such fiery trials in Hebrews11: “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground” (vv. 35b–38).

Trials are designed to make us mature and strong. If we are children of God, all things must work for our salvation. These trials are ordained by God to purify our faith. Some of you may be going through such trials even now. If that is true, let me encourage you. Don’t look just at your circumstances; rather, look at Jesus, who is with us to help us. Look at Jesus, who died and was raised from the dead. Look at Jesus, who has received all authority in heaven and on earth. If God is for us, who can be against us? He is with us by his Holy Spirit. He will help us to pass the test and enter into our heavenly, eternal rest.

Let us then look at some tests Abram took. He is called the father of all believers, the friend of God. His name is certainly great. He is honored by Jews, Christians, and Muslims throughout the world.

The First Test (Gen. 12:1–9)

When Abram lived in the city of Ur on the River Euphrates (in the southern part of modern Iraq), the God of glory appeared to this idol worshiper. We are told that the people of Ur and Haran worshiped Sin, the moon god.

Abram was a sinner. He was an enemy of the true and living God, like his father Terah. But then God’s word came to him, the word of promise with a condition. The Lord told him to leave his country and kindred and his father’s house to go to a land God would show him. So, with his father Terah, Abram started the one thousand mile journey to Canaan. Along the way, he settled in Haran, where he stayed until Terah’s death.

In Genesis 12 we read that God appeared to Abram again in Haran, commanding him to leave Haran and go to the country God had in mind for him. This word of the Lord contained one condition and seven promises. The condition came as an imperative, for God always commands. What was that command? “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s house, and go to the land I show you.” In other words, “Leave the known and the familiar to go to the unknown and the unfamiliar.” God in effect was saying, “Deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow me. I will be your shield and I will be your reward.”

This is the test God demands of all of us: absolute faith and total obedience. Like Noah, Abram found grace in the sight of God. Abram believed and obeyed the true and living God, and he left.

With this command God made seven wonderful promises to Abram (vv. 2–3):

1. “I will make you into a great nation.”
2. “I will bless you.” Everything can be described by this one promise—”I will bless you.” God is saying this to us also.
3. “I will make your name great.”
4. “You will be a blessing to others.”
5. “I will bless those who bless those who bless you.”
6. “I will curse those who curse you.” God is not just a God who blesses. He saves and he judges.
7. “All the peoples of earth shall be blessed in you.”

Abram believed these promises, and he left Haran to follow the God of glory. God demands the obedience of faith from every child of God. Remember how Naomi told Ruth to go back to her god Molech and to her country and kindred and father’s house. “Go back!” she said. God gives us a choice. But we read, “Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.’ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her” (Ruth 1:16–18).

The Bible tells us, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” you will be blessed (Rom. 10:9). Jesus is Lord, and we are his obedient slaves.

The Christian life is an exodus, such as that of Abram, and later that of the Israelites from Egypt. God leads his dear children along, out of the land of slavery and to the land of liberty, a land flowing with milk and honey. He leads us through the wilderness of trials and testings. And in him, the elect will pass all tests.

“Leave!” God says to us. He demands that we separate from worldliness, from sin. God’s people are a holy people. We must turn from sin and turn to God. We must repent and believe. We must live lives of separation, not compromise, as Paul exhorts:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17″Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” (1 Cor. 6:14–17)

What is the heart of the covenant between God and his people? “I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, we cannot serve the God of glory and, at the same time, the idol of the moon god, or any other god. There is a high cost to Christian discipleship. We must leave sin and cleave to Jesus, the holy One. How can two walk together unless there is agreement (Amos 3:3)? “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” says the Lord.

Jesus said we must consider the cost: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 10:37–39). Elsewhere we read,

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. . . . In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:25–27, 33)

We cannot serve two masters: God and the world, or Jesus and cash. Paul says, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:7–8).

By faith, Abram obeyed God. His was the obedience of faith. So we read, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Heb. 11:8). Don’t worry about where you are going; God will lead his dear children along. Jesus is the way.

Faith without obedience is the devil’s faith, not saving faith. So Abram believed, he obeyed, and he left his country, kindred, and father’s house. He took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot, his servants, and all his property, including all his livestock. And in due time, the Lord brought him to Canaan, safe and sound. So we read, “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him” (Gen. 12:7). God was saying, in effect, “This is the land I am promising to give you. Stay here by faith.” So Abram built an altar and worshiped God. No longer was he a moon-worshiping idolater. By building an altar, he was declaring to all: “I am a worshiper of the God of glory.” Believers are worshipers. That is why we gather together to worship God every Sunday.

God asked Abram to leave, and he left and followed God. In the same way, God asked me to leave my country, my kindred, and my father’s house, and go and be a blessing to people in a far country. So I am a blessing to you, and every one of you is a blessing to me.

Thus Abram passed the first test.

The Second Test (Gen. 12:10–20)

But the Christian life is one test after another. We will graduate only when we die. Now Abram faced another test. The question is, would he pass it?

In Genesis 12:10 we read that God sent a severe famine to the south part of Canaan, a region called the Negev, where Abram was living. Abram had a large number of animals, but now there was no grass. This was another test of Abram’s faith.

Did Abram pray about the famine? Did he seek God, who had now appeared to him three times, to see what he should do? Did he call upon the name of the Lord, who had promised to bless him?

Abram did none of these things. Instead, he trusted in his own understanding. Why should he pray, when he could just use his head? If there is no grass in Canaan, and there is grass in Egypt, the solution seems crystal clear: go to Egypt. (PGM) So he started out, with his servants and animals, for the green country of Egypt.

But God had not commanded Abram to go to Egypt; he told him to stay in Canaan. Isaiah said in his prophecy, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,or seek help from the LORD” (Isa. 31:1).

One sin leads to another. When Abram reached Egypt, he became gripped with fear. He asked his wife to lie so that he would not be killed by those who wanted to take her for her beauty. He became focused on himself, not on God. This is what sin does. Abram did not love his wife sacrificially; rather, he let her be taken away to Pharaoh’s palace. He probably thought, “She is barren anyway. This way I can obtain a younger Egyptian wife and build a family through her.”

But, thank God, the Bible says, “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). God was faithful to Abram in spite of his failure. God sent severe plagues to the household of Pharaoh until Pharaoh realized Sarai was Abram’s wife. Pharaoh sent her back to Abram unmolested; then he rebuked Abram for lying. And Abram had no reply. Then Pharaoh deported Abram: “Go back to Canaan, and take your wife and your belongings with you!”

We waste a lot of time, effort, and money when we don’t walk with the Lord, but turn to the right or to the left. We make wrong decisions and suffer loss whenever we don’t pray or seek counsel from God-ordained leaders, asking, “What do you think about this idea?”

Abram failed this second test miserably.

The Third Test (Gen. 13:1–18)

In Genesis 13 we read that a fight arose between the servants of Abram and those of Lot because there was not enough grass for their animals.

Of course, God had not called Lot at all. God only called Abram, and the land and grass all belonged to Abram. Yet Abram trusted in God to provide. So Abram magnanimously gave Lot the right of first choice. In verse 11 we read, “So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan.” Lot chose the lush, green Jordan valley, basing his decision on grass (i.e., on cash). Lot walked by sight. But Abram was learning to walk by faith in God.

So Lot looked up, he saw grass, he coveted, and he chose for himself. In the real estate business, people say, “Location, location, location.” This man chose a beautiful location. But little did he know that “the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord” (Gen. 13:13).

Lot was a worshiper of cattle and culture. His ambition was to live in a house in Sodom and become a powerful judge. It appears he married a pagan wife in Egypt who also loved culture. She hated the life of a pilgrim living in a tent. She hated Abram’s God. We must be careful whom we marry.

Lot left Abram and moved near Sodom. He pitched his tent toward Sodom. Later, he settled in Sodom and became a judge in Sodom. He pledged his two daughters to be married to pagan Sodomites. This is what happens to people who make decisions without God and without biblical counsel. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Prov. 14:12).

Abram, however, had learned a lesson from his earlier failure. He would not lean onto his own understanding. When the time came to decide about the land, he waited patiently. Abram wanted God to choose for him. So after Lot left, God appeared to Abram, saying, “Lift up your eyes and see what I have chosen for you.” So we read,

The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. 15All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. 16I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” 18So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD. (Gen. 13:14–18)

Had not God said to Abram, “I will bless you”? Our God blesses us with one blessing after another. If you doubt it, look at what God has done for me, and look at your own life. The Lord tells us, “For I know the plans I have for you, . . . plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11).And Paul says, “As it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:9-10).

Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14, and note how many times God says, “I will bless you.” There we read, “I will bless you when you go”; “I will bless you when you come”; “I will bless the fruit of your womb”; “I will make you the head and not the tail,” and so on. When we trust God, he will bless us.

So Abram passed the third test with flying colors.

The Fourth Test (Gen. 14:1–24)

Abram chose well, but Lot chose badly. He chose worldliness and culture. John writes, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17). And James the Lord’s brother says, “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

In Genesis 14 four kings and their armies came and defeated five kings, including the king of Sodom. There was no one to help Lot. He lost everything, and he and his family were carried off by the four kings. So Abram, together with 318 of his servants born in his house, together with a few neighbors, went all the way to Dan (near Caesarea Philippi), a place originally known as Laish. They routed the four kings and their armies, delivering the captured people and their goods, including Lot and his family, and came back victoriously.

God had promised Abram, “I will curse those who curse you” (Gen. 12:3). God gave him victory even as God later gave victory to Gideon and his 300 men. As God’s Spirit came upon Gideon, so the Spirit of God came upon Abram and his men and gave them victory. This is proven by Melchizedek’s doxology: “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.’”

God Most High delivered Abram’s enemies into his hand, and to the victor belongs the spoils. Yet Abram refused to take anything from the king of Sodom. He had learned to trust in God to provide for him. Later he called him Jehovah Jireh (Gen. 22). Abram passed this fourth test of faith again with flying colors.

Yet Abram had to go on trusting and waiting for God’s precious promises to be fulfilled. He had to wait twenty-five years for Isaac, six hundred years for the nation of Israel to possess the land, and two thousand years for the Messiah, Jesus, in whom all the peoples of the world would be blessed.

In Joshua we read, “So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled” (Josh. 21:43–45). Paul says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:20). Our God can be trusted. Let God alone be true and every man a liar.

What about you? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ, the Son of Abraham, the Son of God, the Son of virgin Mary, that you may be saved today? Will you stand the test, when testing comes? And it will come. Or will you be like the seed that fell on the rock? Jesus said, “Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away” (Luke 8:13).

Peter says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet. 4:12–13). He also states, “These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet. 1:7). And James exhorts, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2–4).

Conclusion

Let us then consider the following points by way of application.

1. God’s effectual call comes to every elect sinner in the preaching of the gospel. It tells us, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s house. Set out in faith and follow Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.”
2. In all of life, walk in faith, not by sight, and you shall pass the test.
3. Know that when we become faithless, Jesus remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
4. Those who confess Christ will be tested to prove and purify their faith. Peter was tested, and he passed. Demas was tested, but he failed, because he was a fraud. There are many false professors in God’s church. They are chaff, which the wind of the Spirit drives away.
5. Friendship with the world is enmity toward God: “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Rom. 8:7). Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. . . . You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matt. 6:24).
6. Be a worshiper at the altar of Christ wherever you go. Notice, Abram did not build an altar in Egypt. Sin and worship do not mix.
7. The Christian walk is following Jesus in his footsteps. So we are told to:

a. walk in the newness of life (Rom. 6:4);

b. walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7);

c. walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16);

d. walk in love (Eph. 5:2);

e. walk in the light (1 John 1:7);

f. walk in truth (3 John 3, 4);

g. walk even as Jesus himself walked (1 John 2:6). Whenever we face a decision, it is a good policy to ask, “What would Jesus do in this situation? Jesus is the way. What would he do?” And you wait until he tells you which way to go. You will hear a small voice from behind, saying, “This is the way; walk ye in it” (Isa. 30:21).

May God help us to walk as Abram did, and as Jesus did, that we may pass the test and hear the Lord’s gracious words: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”