“GOD HAS COME TO TEST YOU!”

Exodus 20:18-21                                                         (ESV)
“18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, THE PEOPLE WERE AFRAID and trembled, and they stood far off
19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let GOD speak to us, LEST WE DIE."
20 Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for “GOD HAS COME TO TEST YOU”, that the fear of HIM may be before you, THAT YOU MAY NOT SIN."
21 The people stood far off, while MOSES DREW NEAR TO the thick darkness WHERE GOD WAS.”

In Genesis 22 Abraham, a man who was called a friend of GOD and had FAITH like no other, was PROVEN to be who GOD knew all along that he was.  In my notes I have written “GOD knew all along that Abraham would be obedient.  Now, Abraham knew he could be obedient and the rewards of obedience.  GOD already knew Abraham’s obedience, now Abraham knew GOD’s faithfulness!”

The children of Israel had already been made aware of the goodness of GOD through ten plagues and HIS deliverance from Egypt, through the parting of the Red Sea, and by THE CLOUDS that were going before them.  Why could they not SEE that ALMIGHTY GOD was IN CONTROL, and that they weren’t???

Now the Israelites were in the wilderness, alone WITH GOD, and they were saying “... but do not let GOD speak to us, LEST WE DIE."  GOD, on the other hand, wanted to display that HE was where their FAITH needed to reside, and not just when things were going smoothly!  That “GOD HAS COME TO TEST YOU” could have meant that HE was about to PROVE the same FAITH that Abraham displayed.  But the children of Israel didn’t have the same FAITH, even though they had seen GOD’S providence time and again.  Joshua 5:6 says “For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, PERISHED, BECAUSE THEY DID NOT OBEY THE VOICE OF THE LORD; the LORD swore to them that HE would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

GOD might have tremendous Blessings ahead for us (me), but we are going to have to display when “GOD HAS COME TO TEST YOU” that HE is able, and willing, to Glorify HIMSELF with our lives.  Will I be like “... THE PEOPLE WERE AFRAID and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let GOD speak to us, LEST WE DIE?”  Or will I be like Abraham, although he loved Isaac, was about to sacrifice him on an altar?  “GOD HAS COME TO TEST YOU”.  Will I pass the test???