PROVING GOD by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 15, 1905

PROVING GOD.

By G.

ALL human schemes for proving God, or testing His Word, are born of doubt.

Faith asks no voucher, or side assurance, that God will do what He says. Yet the Lord sometimes humors His weak, doubting servants, and honors their tests. He did so with Gideon (Judges 6:36-40), but the requirement on Gideon's part showed a lack of faith. But the Lord has given us some ways by which He asks us to prove His integrity and His fidelity to His promises. These are always legitimate tests, for God challenges us to apply them continually. First, we have

The Sabbath as a Test.

Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy Father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 58 : 13, 14.

Here is a straight, plain, unequivocal test: If we will refrain from our own fleshly pleasure on the Lord's holy Sabbath—the seventh day—and live so near to Him that the weekly commemoration of His work—creation and redemption—will be a delight to our souls, then we shall have the heritage of Jacob. And what is the heritage of Jacob?—It includes all the promises of the new covenant. See Jer. 31:31-34.

Another test, by which the Lord challenges us to prove Him, is

The Tithes.

By strict fidelity in this respect, we may always claim the promised prosperity. The Lord's infallible Word is the surety. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not

open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delight-some land, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. 3:10-12.

To get the full benefit of this test, there must be the utmost faithfulness in "tithes and offerings" (verses 8, 9), from the standpoint of God's judgment, and not from the result of selfish reckoning. Jesus told the Pharisees that they ought to tithe even the small incomes from their "mint and anise and cummin." See Matt. 23:23.

Still another legitimate means of proving the Lord, entirely proper because suggested by Himself, is

The Exercise of Christian Charity.

Light, health, and righteousness are assured, on condition that "thou bring the poor that are cast out [margin, "afflicted"] to thy house." In the same connection is the further promise: "If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shalt thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought; and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." See Isa. 58:6-11.

Is it not worth while to prove the Lord on this great proposition, with so much at stake? Then there is the promise of a great reformation, where the Lord's people are disposed to take Him at His word in the manner He has indicated. Here is the further promise: "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." Verse 12.

But the climax of all the means by which God desires men to prove Him—the climax of all because this particular test includes all others—is

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The contingency of such a proof is eternal life, which comprises all other possibilities to the one who seeks covenant relation with God in deed and in truth. The promise of eternal life to the believer is a direct challenge to sinners to prove the power and wisdom and love of God, by simply believing in Him who was sent to redeem them from sin and its penalty, death. "All things are possible to him that believeth." Mark 9:23. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. Those who will stand when the judgments of God overtake the unbelievers will be "they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.

God is pleased when men essay to prove His Word, if they set about it in the way that He designates. To do this is to show an honesty of purpose, a desire to know the truth. To set up conditions of our own, to attempt to bring

God to our human terms, is to judge Him by a human standard, and to assume that our tests are superior to those laid down in His Word. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts 16:31. G.