Reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-3
“Remember [O, Israel,] the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in
the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart.”
Deuteronomy 8:2.
This Sunday’s forty days have God (not the Tempter) doing the testing. What’s God testing for?
To know what’s in his people’s heart, the text says. But doesn’t God already know that apart
from giving us an exam? The answer, of course, is yes. So why the testing? Answer: for the
same reason that schoolteachers give tests: so that students will know the truth about themselves.
God tests Israel for forty years so that (finally!) God’s people will know what’s in their own
hearts, and that it is at best a mixed bag. Learning that is indeed humbling. But not to know is
even worse. Human hearts are unknown territory, not to God, but to humans themselves. We
need God’s X-rays to show us our own pictures. To be humbled thus is not to be put down, but
to be confronted with the truth, typically unknown, so that we might be healed. Such tests,
however, are only half of God’s testing program.
Another kind of testing God does in the Scriptures is called “testing our faith.” Here too
the test is not for God’s benefit, for God to see how strong or weak our faith is. God knows that
without tests. The beneficiary of faith-testing is the one being tested. God tests our faith so that
we can see what faith can do when we trust God’s promise. God’s faith-tests increase our faith.
As Christ’s disciples we benefit when we “take the tests” God gives us. That’s true of
both kinds: the ones that expose the defects in our own hearts and the ones that show God’s
power and call us to trust it. During Israel’s forty years these two were most often one and the
same exam. For Lenten disciples the same is true.
Lord, increase our faith. Encourage us to take the tests you place before us. Dislodge the
prideful ego that occupies our hearts. Replace it with your words of forgiveness and mercy.
Nudge us to shift our allegiances from our agendas to yours, from our self-made achievements to
the good news you offer. Let Lent’s forty days be “time enough” to get the job done in us--
again. Amen.
the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart.”
Deuteronomy 8:2.
This Sunday’s forty days have God (not the Tempter) doing the testing. What’s God testing for?
To know what’s in his people’s heart, the text says. But doesn’t God already know that apart
from giving us an exam? The answer, of course, is yes. So why the testing? Answer: for the
same reason that schoolteachers give tests: so that students will know the truth about themselves.
God tests Israel for forty years so that (finally!) God’s people will know what’s in their own
hearts, and that it is at best a mixed bag. Learning that is indeed humbling. But not to know is
even worse. Human hearts are unknown territory, not to God, but to humans themselves. We
need God’s X-rays to show us our own pictures. To be humbled thus is not to be put down, but
to be confronted with the truth, typically unknown, so that we might be healed. Such tests,
however, are only half of God’s testing program.
Another kind of testing God does in the Scriptures is called “testing our faith.” Here too
the test is not for God’s benefit, for God to see how strong or weak our faith is. God knows that
without tests. The beneficiary of faith-testing is the one being tested. God tests our faith so that
we can see what faith can do when we trust God’s promise. God’s faith-tests increase our faith.
As Christ’s disciples we benefit when we “take the tests” God gives us. That’s true of
both kinds: the ones that expose the defects in our own hearts and the ones that show God’s
power and call us to trust it. During Israel’s forty years these two were most often one and the
same exam. For Lenten disciples the same is true.
Lord, increase our faith. Encourage us to take the tests you place before us. Dislodge the
prideful ego that occupies our hearts. Replace it with your words of forgiveness and mercy.
Nudge us to shift our allegiances from our agendas to yours, from our self-made achievements to
the good news you offer. Let Lent’s forty days be “time enough” to get the job done in us--
again. Amen.
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