Talk

Why Does God Test Us?

Ben Stuart
June 9, 2024

Wrapping up the “Why Does God…” series, Ben Stuart addresses the purpose of testing, why God tests us at all, and how we are to respond to it through studying Deuteronomy 8.

Key Takeaway

God tests you for your good—He evaluates, teaches, and prepares you for a future that is much bigger than you imagined.

Why does God test us? We don't have to question if He does; we know it absolutely happens. He will test you in multiple ways.

Pain—God brought His people to the wilderness.

Prosperity—How do you respond when everything is going well?

Praise—What happens to your ego? See Proverbs 17:3.

Pulling Back—We see this in Hezekiah when God just allows him to make a decision, and He doesn't divinely intervene.

Jeremiah 20:12 says that the Lord tests rightly the heart and the mind. So, we can expect it to happen.

Ultimately, what is God's purpose? Why does He put us through the particular test He does? How do we respond?

These answers are found in Deuteronomy 8. God reminds them of the past to prepare them for the future.

1) What is God's ultimate purpose in testing us?

  • Deuteronomy 8:1—God gave the law as a way of seeing and engaging life. His people needed to be careful to do it. He gives two commands in this verse.
  • Live and multiply. This is a fulfillment of the command given in Genesis 1-2. God wants His people to thrive and multiply.
  • Go in and possess the land. This isn't about real estate. God had promised this land to their father, Abraham, so He could bless him and his descendants, and everyone would be blessed through them as a people. All nations would know God because of them.

It's always for our good and His glory. He gives these commands because He wants us to be part of a thriving community with a thrilling cause. This is the longing of every human heart: to be known and a part of something bigger than yourself. It can drive some to politics and others to gangs, but God has something better. Do you trust in God's character? When you can't trace His hand, do you trust His heart?

2) Why does God test us?

  • Deuteronomy 8:2—To evaluate you. To know what is in your heart. If God knows everything, why test us? Because He likes for our lives to play out in reality. A good teacher knows what you'll get on a test, but they still give you the test. It's a paper trail for both you and them. It allows the world to see where you are. Difficulty exposes your deficiency. Your actions betray what you really believe. It gives you a starting point from where to move forward.
  • To educate you. Deuteronomy 8:3—God wants you to know something. Part of the test is to teach you. He doesn't want to crush you; He wants to instruct you. When you are squeezed, you see what really comes out of you, and you may not like it. God does this not to shame you but to help you. He wants you to know there is a way of living life that is insufficient, and He has a bigger story. God gave the manna in the wilderness—a beautiful combination of agency, where they had to go pick it up, and humility, knowing that God fed them. He's trying to give you humility. Man does not eat by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
  • To prepare you.
  • Deuteronomy 8:4—He provided in ways they never thought about.
  • Deuteronomy 8:5—God disciplines to make you useful. He knows bigger tests are coming, so He's preparing you now. He puts you in situations where you are desperately aware of your need for God so that when you're not desperate, you still remember Him. He's preparing you in the pain for the prosperity of the future, so that when you get to the Promise Land, you can do it right, you can be a Kingdom of Priests, a chosen nation. Fathers discipline their sons to produce steadfastness. See James 1:2-4.

Spoiler: Moses gives the command, and the people eventually enter the land. The people mess up beyond anything their ancestors or enemies did. God gives them chance after chance to do things the right way. They needed to remember who God was and that's what informs us on how to respond when we keep messing up.

How do we respond?

Remember. Remember God, the Lord who rescued and provided. He will give you life, a community, and a cause. Deuteronomy 8 is quoted often in the New Testament, not as things to do but to remember God.

  • Matthew 4—Jesus suffers in the wilderness like we do. He humbled Himself to face what we face. He suffers immense hunger and in the midst of the greater test comes the temptation. Satan tempts Him by telling Him to turn the stones into bread. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 and refuses to abandon His Father to meet His needs. He submits to the Father because He trusts Him. Jesus succeeds where we fail.
  • Earlier in Numbers 21:4-9, Moses talked about the fiery serpents. God warned the people that if they continued to disobey, there would be judgment. Sometimes, our pain is a direct result of our sin. Not always, but sometimes. So, the serpents bit them and they were dying. God tells Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it up on a staff and everyone that looks to it will be healed. It seems weird. The greater truth is that our sins lead us to a sickness unto death and God's solution is that we have to look up and acknowledge what we did. We realize our sickness is because of our rebellion, but when we come humbly, God forgives us.
  • John 3:14-16. Jesus tells Nicodemus that to be saved, he must be born again. Just as the serpent was lifted up on the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up. Jesus did not live aloof our of suffering, He took it upon Himself. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. When you humble yourself, acknowledge your sin, and look at Him, that humility is healing. We're meant to remember the Son of God who came for us to heal us.
  • Remember, God is the One who brought water from the rock and, therefore, brought life. In 1 Corinthians 10:4, the rock is Christ. He was struck so that He would pour forth life that we might live.

How do we get better in our tests and not bitter? How do we get educated in our call on our life in the midst of trial?

Remember the One who made you. See Jesus, who made a way of life for you.

"Do you trust in the character of God? When you can't trace His hand, do you trust His heart?"
Ben Stuart

Discussion Questions

  1. What are some of the tests that you have faced in your life?
  2. What does Jeremiah 20:12 say about testing? How is this a comfort when you are walking through it?
  3. What are the two commands that are given in Deuteronomy 8:1? How does this speak to the ultimate purpose God tests us?
  4. Do you trust the character of God? When you can't see what He is doing or understand why, do you trust His heart towards you?
  5. Why does God test us as a way of evaluating us? If He already knows everything already, why does He test us to see what is in our hearts? See Deuteronomy 8:2.
  6. Read Deuteronomy 8: 3. What does God use testing to teach us? Is He trying to crush you? What is the connection between agency and humility?
  7. How does God use testing to prepare you for what's to come? See Deuteronomy 8:5. What does testing produce in us according to James 1:24?
  8. What is the one word we are given as instruction for how we are to respond?
  9. What is the correlation of the serpent in the wilderness in Numbers 21:4-9 and what Jesus speaks of in John 3:14-16?
  10. When was the last time you pushed past your politeness with God in your prayers and were really honest? How can you intentionally remember Him today?

Scripture References

1Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the
Lord
promised on oath to your ancestors.
2Remember how the
Lord
your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
3He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the
Lord
.
4Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
5Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the
Lord
your God disciplines you.
6Observe the commands of the
Lord
your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him.
7For the
Lord
your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills;
8a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;
9a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
10When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the
Lord
your God for the good land he has given you.
11Be careful that you do not forget the
Lord
your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
12Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,
13and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,
14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the
Lord
your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
15He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.
16He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
17You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”
18But remember the
Lord
your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
19If you ever forget the
Lord
your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
20Like the nations the
Lord
destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the
Lord
your God.

Ben Stuart
Ben Stuart
Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.