God’s Testing – Proverbs 17:3
When David contemplated (Psalm 139) how thoroughly God knew his thoughts and actions, he felt trapped. Would God punish him for what he knew was wicked in his heart? But he realized that God was for him, had shaped him in the womb and planned his life. So he asked God to search him and know him and see his anxious thoughts, and expose any offensive way in him that could be dealt with, and lead him to the everlasting path.
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
and the LORD tests hearts. (Proverbs 17:3, ESV)
You heat the silver to molten temperatures and the portions of it that are not pure silver start rising to the top. You scoop the dross or slag, the non-silver portion, off the top and what remains is pure silver. The same process works for purifying gold. And the same process is used by Yahweh to purify us.
Yahweh doesn’t test our hearts because He doesn’t really know what we’re thinking. As David said (Psalm 139), He knows everything about us. He tests us to help us know ourselves and to purify us. He uses the heat of trials and suffering to draw out what is impure and leave what is genuine righteousness.
He does not test us because He wants us to fail. He does it because He loves us and wants us to succeed at being like Christ. That is our destiny (Romans 8:29).
About the Author
Randall Johnson
A full-time pastor since 1979, Randall originally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM) in 1979 and from Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin) in 1998. He is married with four grown children and a pile of epic grandchildren.
