When your teacher gives you a test, who is the test for: your teacher, or you? When your teacher gives you the test, you are the one taking it to prove how much you know, not to prove how much the teacher knows. That would not make sense, but sometimes Christians seem to do that with God. For example, Genesis 22:1-14 is when God tested Abraham and told him to go sacrifice his son, Isaac.
Let me give you a bit of background. At this time, Ishmael and his mother were no longer with them. It was just Abraham and Sarah. Now, God promised Abraham a son that would create the entire Jewish people and bring forth Jesus, but Abraham and Sarah were too old to do this when God promised it. Well, when Abraham was ninety nine and Sarah was eighty-nine, they conceived and bore Isaac, the promised son. Now, Abraham is well over one hundred years old, and God has just told him to sacrifice his only son (Isaac). Keeping this in mind, God did not promise a second son. Isaac was the promised child, so you can imagine the confusion on Abraham.
Now, when God tested Abraham in this way, do we say that God wanted to see how faithful Abraham was? For some reason, many people do, but that is not true. God is omniscient, that means that He knows everything that there ever is to know. He already knew Abraham's faithfulness, but Abraham did not know the full faithfulness of God. It was Abraham that did not know, not God.
So often people get it mixed up; thinking that God is too high to know us so we remind Him of the list of "good deeds" that we have done for Him when things go wrong. "God, I don't know why I have cancer, but it shouldn't be happening. I sat in the front row in church all of the time. I read my Bible and pray every night before bed. I go feed the homeless and tithe by ten percent, sometimes even more for the missionaries and church planters. God, you know that I do my share. Why is something bad happening to me?" We act as if we remember and God has forgotten.
We see that when God calls Abraham to do this, he does not complain at all. He wakes up the next morning and goes off to sacrifice his son. He sets the fire place, places his son on the alter, and is about to kill him with the knife when an angel came to stop him and showed him that a ram was in the wilderness, stuck waiting for them. Abraham called that spot, "The Lord Will Provide." Abraham learned something. When he went on blind faith, he learned that God will provide. It wasn't for God, it was for him.
Some of us are going through hard struggles right now and we may be wondering why God is testing us. Well, have faith to do whatever it is that God has asked you to do, and you will learn something. Maybe you know that God is able to heal, but you never knew in your heart that God could heal you until you got sick and needed to trust in Him when you were afraid. Whatever is going on in your life, trust in God and know that He is doing it for your good and for His glory. In the end, it will be better than anything that you could have imagined. Don't trust me on it. Trust God.
-D
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