EXAM TIME! When God gives a pop quiz, will we pass?

This is the time of year students dread most - exam time!  Tests!  It has been a LONG time since I've been in school, but that doesn't mean I have forgotten the sleepless nights of test anxiety.  Did I study enough?  Did I study the right stuff?  Would I remember what I studied?  Would I pass?  What a relief when they were over!  If you're taking tests in the next week or two, I feel your pain!

I've been reading through the Old Testament book of Exodus, chapter 16 & 17 this week and reading about tests. 

Two kinds of tests are spoken of in these chapters, one where God tests the people of Israel, and the other where the people of Israel test the LORD.  I was curious about the meaning of the word TEST as they're used in these verses, so I looked them up in my Bible Dictionary, which said this:

TEST: the idea of putting to the proof – from either a good or bad intention – is found throughout the Bible.  Thus the Lord often tests his people with the purpose of strengthening their faith (good intention).

That's what we see in Exodus 16.  

The Israelites have just left Elim, a place with 12 springs and 70 palm trees, an abundant water supply, and have come to the Desert of Sin, and they're thirsty again.   So they all grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  (I've been counting, this is the 2nd time they've grumbled at Moses since leaving Egypt about a month before.)  

Ever notice how quick we humans can forget about how bad things were when they were bad?  We exercise "selective memory" and choose to focus only on what was good instead.  The Israelites were no different.

Forgetting all about the cruel bondage God had only recently saved them from, and finding themselves hungry, Egypt suddenly didn't look so bad.  They complained: "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt!  There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted (what happened to cruel bondage,  making bricks without straw, etc?), but YOU (Moses), have brought us out into the desert to starve this entire assembly to death!"

I chuckled when I read what the Lord said in verse 4.  Without addressing the people's grumbling at all, He said, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you."  

Good thing I'm not God, because I would have said, "I will rain down fire from heaven on all you ingrates!"  God is FAR more gracious than I would ever be - and I'm VERY thankful for that because far too often I'm one of the "ingrates". 

The LORD explains to Moses that the people are to go out and collect this bread from heaven each day, gathering just enough for the day.  And He follows it up with: "IN THIS WAY I will TEST them and see whether they will follow my instructions."

God was "putting to the proof" whether or not  the people of Israel would obey Him.  This brand new nation, chosen by God to be His very own people, needed to grow up in faith. God's tests were designed to bring about that maturity. 

I love this whole miraculous provision of manna story.  The LORD sends it down every day.  The people are to collect it in the morning, but just enough for that day, and only as much as they need to feed their families.  Collect too much and it went bad.  Neglect to collect it, and it wasn't there by afternoon.  

On the 6th day, the day before the Sabbath rest, they were to collect twice as much because no manna would be provided on the Sabbath, so the people could rest and worship that day.  How's that for a demonstration of God's sovereign provision!  Amazing!

So, when final exam time came, and the Lord reviewed their obedience, did Israel pass His test?  Not everyone.

When Moses told them that none of the manna gathered was to be kept until morning, we read: "However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it till morning, but it was full of maggots and had begun to smell."

When Moses told them that no manna would be provided on the Sabbath we read: "Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none."  Then the LORD said, "How long will you (plural), refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?"   Slow learners, those Israelites!  

In speaking of how God tests man, the Bible Dictionary quotes Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 2: “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments."   In Deut. 8:16 the LORD further says: "so that in the end it may go well with you".  

When God puts us to the test for the purpose of growing our faith, the tests are sometimes severe and painful, but we can count on them always originating from His love for us.  

It wasn't only God doing the testing in these chapters, Israel was also putting God to the test - a bad intention. 

Over in Exodus 17, verses 1-7, the Israelites are once again between a rock and a hard place - literally.  The LORD has been faithfully providing manna (He would do so for all of the 40 years the people of Israel would wander in the desert) as the entire community moved from the Desert of Sin until they made camp at Rephidim, where they expected to find water, but didn't.  

So, they quarreled with Moses (quarrel #3), saying, "Give us water to drink!"  They were thirsty, so they grumbled further (#4) saying, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"

Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with ME?  Why do you put THE LORD to the test?"

Moses didn't take the grumbling personally.  He recognized at once that this grumbling was against the LORD Himself, who had until now been incredibly faithful and patient with Israel. 

We can hear Moses' frustration when he cries out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people?  They are almost ready to stone me!"  Once again, I'm thinking, "good thing I'm not God!"

The Lord answered by telling Moses to go on ahead, take the rod with which he struck the Nile, and go to the rock at Horeb.  God actually says: "I will stand there before you".  I wonder whether Moses saw evidence of God's presence?  Whether or not he had any indication of it, Moses obeyed, believing that the LORD would be there with him.  And when he struck the rock, water flowed out.

In v. 7 we read, "Moses called the place Massah, (which means "testing"), and Meribah, (which means, "quarreling") because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"  What a fearful thing to say of the God who had been so incredibly faithful to them!

 In speaking of how people test God, the Bible Dictionary says: Satan sought to entice Jesus to put God to the test by tempting him to jump from the pinnacle of the temple, knowing that angels would come to his help.  In response Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:16, “Do not test the LORD your God.”  The name Massah (“testing”) constituted a reminder (and not a good one) of Israel’s testing of God in Sinai.  To test God is to assert unbelief and lack of trust in Him.

The people of Israel "put God to the proof" and He never failed to act on their behalf - but their testing of Him proved what was in their hearts - unbelief and lack of trust in Him.

Maybe God is "putting you to the proof", with a test that requires waiting for His direction; or trusting that He knows best when His answer to your prayer is "no"; or believing that He IS with you even when He seems absent, or any one of a million other tests designed to "put to the proof the faith that is or is not in your heart". 

The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:5 speaks of how we who are believers in Jesus through faith are shielded by God's power until He returns.  Then in v. 6-7 he says, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  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."

What are God's tests revealing in you and me?  Growing faith, of greater worth than gold?  Faith that may be proved genuine and bring glory to Jesus?  Or are they resulting in grumbling and blaming God?

Are you, am I, guilty of a "So what have you done for me NOW, God?" mentality, completely forgetting about His past faithfulness and wanting more proof of His love and care?  Time to look back and give thanks!

I don't know when God's next exam will come, but I do know that I want to pass!  I want that faith that, even though refined by fire, is proved genuine and results in praise, glory and honor when my Lord Jesus is revealed in all His glory!  Don't you?