Transcription
This morning, we are sharing on handling your season of trials and tests, divine testing. And we'll be sharing from Genesis chapter 22, verse 1 to 18. Genesis chapter 22, verse 1 to 18. Now, we'll be reading from the Living Bible.
So later on, God tested Abraham, Abraham's faith and obedience. Abraham got called. "Yes, Lord," he replied. "Take with you your only son, yes, Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will point out to you."
The next morning, Abraham got up early, chopped wood for a fire upon the altar, saddled his donkey, and took with him his son Isaac and two young men, who were his servants, and started off to the place where God had told him to go. On the third day of the journey, Abraham saw the place in the distance. "Stay here with the donkey," Abraham told the young men, "and the lad and I would travel yonder and worship, and then come right back."
Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering upon Isaac's shoulders, while he himself carried the knife and the flint for striking a fire. So the two of them went on together further. Isaac asked, "We have the wood and the flint to make the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" "God will see to it, my son," Abraham replied, and they went on.
When they arrived at the place where God had told Abraham to go, he built an altar and placed the wood in order, ready for the fire, and then tied Isaac and laid him on the altar over the wood. And Abraham took the knife and lifted it up to plunge it into his son to slay him.
At that moment, the angel of the Lord shouted to him from heaven, "Abraham, Abraham!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. "Lay down the knife! Don't hurt the lad in any way," the angel said, "for I know that God is first in your life. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me."
Then Abraham noticed a ram caught by its horns in the bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it instead of his son as a burnt offering on the altar. Abraham made the place "Jehovah-Jireh," and it still goes by that name to this day.
Then the angel of God called again to Abraham from heaven, "I, the Lord, have sworn by myself that because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your beloved son from me, I will bless you with incredible blessings and multiply your descendants into countless thousands and millions, like the stars above you in the sky and like the grains of sand along the seashore. They will conquer their enemies, and your offspring will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, all because you have obeyed me."
We need to understand that righteous people, despite their right standing with God, will go through trials, will go through tests, will go through examinations in the process of time. And as I speak right now, some of you listening to me are currently going through a trial. You're going through a divine test. You are going through a divine examination.
Now, we need to be very sensitive to a message like this because most of the time, when you are going through your own season of a divine test, a divine examination, God would never make it obvious to you that that is exactly what is going on, possibly because if he does that, then part of the purpose of doing it in the first place will be lost. So most of the time, when you are going through your season of a divine test, you begin to wonder, "What is really going on? Is God no longer answering my prayers? Is the enemy now stronger than God?" Things begin to happen that provoke the question, "Why? Why? Why?"
You must recognize that these trials, tests, or examinations that are encountered by righteous people could be divinely arranged. In Genesis chapter 22, verse 1 through 18, we could see that in this instance of Abraham, this was consciously, intentionally, deliberately arranged by God. And sometimes, the trials, the tests, or examinations could be divinely permitted to happen. God may not be the one initiating it, but it comes with his approval, it comes with his permission, as was the case of Job in Job chapter 1 and Job chapter 2.
When you look at Job chapter 1, verse 6 to 19, you'll see that God permitted Job to go through that period of very severe testing and trials that was orchestrated by Satan. In Matthew chapter 4, verse 1, the Contemporary English Version of the Bible says, "The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert so that the devil could test him." You know, Jesus was now in the wilderness for 40 days, and he was alone, alone there with Satan, and he went through a number of tests and temptations face to face with Satan. It wasn't by accident. The Holy Spirit deliberately led Jesus out of the town, straight to the wilderness for a purpose. And what was that purpose? For him to be tested, not by demons, not by principalities, but by Satan himself. And you could see also some details of what was prevailing in that environment. In Matthew chapter 4, verse 1 through 10, you begin to read details that apart from Satan, the Bible says wild animals were there with him, and it was just Jesus that was there.
In Genesis chapter 22, verse 1, Amplified Bible, it says, "Now after these things, God tested the faith and commitment of Abraham." So God is going to someday test your faith. God is going to someday test your obedience. God is going to someday test your level of commitment to Him.
In Job chapter 1, verse 12, New Living Translation, it says, "All right, you may test him," referring to Job. The Lord said to Satan, "Do whatever you want with everything he possesses." God gave Satan express permission to do that which Satan knows best to do: to kill, to destroy. He said, "But don't harm him physically." That was the phase one of the test. In chapter two of Job, you see that test and temptation going into a phase two, and this time God permitted Satan to afflict him physically. I speak to someone here who has faced some health challenges for some time. The Lord now put an end to that health challenge. The Lord grant unto you and that loved one a complete and permanent healing in the name of Jesus.
Then 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13, Good News Translation, it says, "Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promises. He's a promise keeper. He's a covenant keeper. He's a God who honors His word. He is not man that he should lie. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm. At the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it and so provide you with a way out." God is about to make a way out.
Now, we quickly look at four notable lessons. And the first lesson is that in this journey of life, even as a child of God, you must have it in mind that some trials are not avoidable. Some trials are not avoidable. You know, we wonder from time to time when things happen to people we know are significantly living a godly life, and when the wrong things, terrible things, painful experiences happen to such people, we begin to wonder why things go wrong for them despite the person's innocence. Why would God allow a young boy, a young girl, an innocent young boy, innocent young girl, to go through this kind of affliction, despite the person's holy lifestyle, despite the person's obedience? Why would things go wrong? Despite the person's commitment to God? Because there are some things that could even happen to a man of God, a woman of God, and it shakes the faith of every other person that is following God in that environment, because people begin to wonder that if this could happen to someone who is so close to God, then what will happen to us?
So when things go wrong, despite the person's excellent performance, despite the preventive prayers that have been offered, you see men and women who are very prayerful still go through some serious challenges and painful experiences, despite taking all precautionary measures, things still go wrong. So these things make us wonder, you know, what exactly is going on here?
Now, take note of this: that despite the godly lifestyle, the faithfulness, and commitment of Job to God, he was still allowed by God to experience the serious trials that he went through. In Job chapter 1, verse 8, you can see God's testimony of the uprightness, integrity, and faithfulness of Job. Job 1:8, Amplified Bible, it says, "For there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and abstains from and turns away from evil, because he honors God." Good News Translation, Job 1:8: "There is no one on earth as faithful and good as he is." Now, this is quite instructive. God, God himself is saying here that not only was Job faithful, blameless, upright, he, no other person on the surface of the earth at that time lived such a faithful and honest life as Job, yet God allowed him to go through all the damage, destruction, loss of loved ones, even health affliction that he suffered.
So Job chapter 1, verse 8, Good News Translation: "He says, 'There is no one on earth as faithful and good as he is. He worships me and he's careful not to do anything evil.'" International Children's Bible: "No one on earth is like him. He's an honest man and innocent of any wrong. He honors God and stays away from evil."
Now, it is quite instructive to put a cross here that within the perfect will of God, there can be trials and adversities. In fact, within the perfect will of God, they are the perfect will of God also involves divinely arranged trials, divinely arranged adversities. I give you three instances. In Genesis chapter 15, verse 13 to 14, Genesis 15:13-14, God told Abraham long, long, long ahead of time that his seed will be in a foreign land and they will be enslaved in that land for 400 years. 400 years. This was revealed long, long ahead of time. It was going to be a time of slavery, a time of oppression. And here is God making it clear that when it begins to play out, it's not, it won't happen just by accident. I've seen this ahead of time, and I have permitted it to happen.
In John chapter 9, verse 2 to 3, there was a man born blind. And while the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ were wondering what could have caused this man's affliction, Jesus made it clear that this man is going through what he's going through today, not because of his sin or his parents' sins. He said, "God permitted this to be so so that sometime in his life, the power of God to reverse an impossible health challenge, physical disability such as his own, will be demonstrated." Praise the Lord! So whatever is that very, very challenging situation you have been faced with, I want to let you know by the message of God, it has an expiring date, and God will bring it to an end and give you a testimony.
And of course, in Matthew chapter 4, verse 1 to 10, we could see the temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it was actually divinely arranged. It was the Holy Spirit that led him into it. Sometimes, when you find godly people going through serious challenges, people begin to try to provide a reason why it's happening, and they find it difficult to accept that it was not a mistake, it was not an error, and that God actually permitted it to be so.
In Luke chapter 24, verse 7, King James Version of the Bible, he says, "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again." This was long before it happened. "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men." So sometimes the perfect will of God will involve a trial or temptation. The trials of the righteous that have happened in the past didn't happen because of a secret sin, lack of sufficient prayers, carelessness, or mystic of the victims. So sometimes you should also be cautious in the way you continue to apportion blame. Sometimes you keep on blaming yourself, you keep on blaming someone who possibly advised you in the direction where the trouble is coming from. Have it in mind that sometimes these things were not mistakes at all. The trials were simply unavoidable. It was bound to happen. That is why even with your proactive prayers, it still happened. Even with your godly lifestyle, it still happened. So these are insights that we must have in mind in understanding the mystery of the trials and divine testing of the righteous.
So the trials were not due to the personal mistakes of the victims. I give you an example: the selection of Judas Iscariot by Jesus to be one of the twelve disciples was not a mistake to fulfill the prophecy of Jesus being betrayed by one of his own. Someone with a kind of heart, the kind of spirit, the kind of attitude to fulfill that role had to be sought out for. So when God was looking for faithful men who will walk closely with Jesus as his closest disciples, the twelve, you know what we call the twelve apostles, the twelve disciples, he carefully selected eleven, and then to make it twelve, he now had to look for an unfaithful man, a man that had a very disloyal spirit, a disloyal heart, a treacherous man. It was deliberate. God saw ahead that no matter the measure of love that Judas will see Jesus express to his people, when something is offered to him, he will still sell out. Jesus. So God was very sure, and he saw ahead that Judas, irrespective of the godliness that was manifested in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, he knew that Judas, despite seeing all of that, will still betray him.
You know, when Jesus was betrayed, one of the questions that would have been coming up in discussions among his followers: "Why did he choose Judas? See how Judas sold him out! See how Judas has finished him! Why did he choose Judas? Why did he use his own hands to choose Judas? It was a great mistake! The choice of Judas was a big error!" That would be even our conclusion today if it was played out today. But the truth is, the choice of Judas by God, and the acceptance of that choice by Jesus, because he prayerfully waited on God all night, and God gave him the names of the twelve, was not a mistake. It was never a mistake. And eleven apostles that God chose carefully as well to also be among the twelve. Take note, none of them, none of the other eleven, failed God or betrayed Jesus. They remained faithful to him to the very end, and even after he had ascended out to heaven. So the choice of Judas was deliberate. It was a deliberate choice by God, and it was not due to the influence of spiritual or human manipulations. It was not due to the influence of spiritual manipulation. So Judas Iscariot was deliberately selected by God because of his unfaithful and disloyal spirit.
And talking about his disloyal spirit, when you are loyal to your leader, anything that is done to honor your leader will be appreciated. But now, when a woman came and broke the alabaster box of very expensive oil upon our Lord Jesus Christ in honor of our Lord Jesus, Judas was the only one that was irritated and angry by what was supposed to be an honor to his leader. And then they started, you know, trying to provide a reason that what was done, that which was done to honor Jesus, was a waste of money, and that instead, the perfume, the expensive perfume, could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Judas never had a heart for the poor. He never had a heart for the poor. So we need to take note of this. So God had to look for someone who would play that negative and evil role against Jesus Christ, and for that reason, Judas was chosen.
Now, some trials are still bound to happen, despite all the measures that may be taken to avoid them. So loving and obeying God is not a guarantee that troubles will not come. You can encounter problems when you have made the right choice. You can encounter problems when you have taken the best decision. You can encounter problems when you have done the right thing. So the current trials, challenges, suffering, disappointments, unfruitfulness, or barrenness that some godly people are facing today are not necessarily as a result of a wrong choice, are not necessarily as a result of the wrong decision that they took in the past. If we don't understand these dynamics of trials, we can wrongly advise people who are going through such experiences. We have seen a situation where a woman doesn't conceive after some years, and some believers who have been in church for years will conclude immediately that that woman was not God's choice for her husband, simply because she has not conceived. These are very, very chronic errors. And sometimes it could be the other way around. Sarah was God's choice for Abraham, but it took them 24, 25 years of waiting for the promised child to eventually come.