God who tests the heart
[Proverbs 17:3-5, 7-8, 20, 23]
Yesterday Tuesday morning prayer meeting, I meditated on the word of God centering on Isaiah 41:10 – “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” As I meditate on this word of God, I thought about praying to God for faith that we trust in God who is with us and truly helps us even in a fearful situation rather than asking Him for us not be confronted with that fearful situation. This is because firstly, we must realize how much our faith is lacking even in the face of the fearful situation. Secondly, through that fearful situation, we must be trained and grow in faith to trust in God more and more. Do you want your faith to be trained, even through the fearful situation, adversity and crisis you face?
If we look at Proverbs 17:3, the Bible says, “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.” How does God test our hearts? As we think about the words of Proverbs 17 in three ways, we would like to learn the lessons God gives us:
First, God tests our hearts even through a liar.
Look at Proverbs 17:4 – “A wicked man listens to evil lips; a liar pays attention to a malicious tongue.” Here, “A wicked man” and “a liar” have something in common that they both listen so easily to the wicked and the evil words. Here, the wicked words refer to gossips, evil plans, or evil conversation that make up lies or slander, while the evil words refer to words that are evil and liars trying to spoil and destroy others (Walvoord). Those who do these evils or who lied will sin against God by saying the wicked and the evil words with their lips. One example is David's son Amnon who committed a sin after following his friend Jonadab's words (Park). When Amnon was frustrated to the point of illness on account of Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom and a virgin, Jonadab, son of David’s brother Shimea and a very shrewd man, said to Amnon (2 Sam. 13:1-3): “’Go to bed and pretend to be ill,’ Jonadab said. ‘When your father comes to see you, say to him, 'I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat it from her hand’” (v. 5). When Amnon heard this and was lying down on purpose, his father King David came to him. And Amnon said to him, “I would like my sister Tamar to come and make some special bread in my sight, so I may eat from her hand” (v. 6). King David accepted Amnon’s request, and eventually Tamar came to Amnon's house, tried to make some special bread for him, and was finally raped by him (v. 14). Another example is that the Jews listened to false prophets (Isa. 30:9-11; Jer. 38:1-6) (Park). With all the false prophets seeking the peace of the Israelites, the prophet Jeremiah correctly prophesied that Israel would fall into the hands of the Babylonian army (Jer. 38:3). Why didn’t the Jews listen to this word of true prophet Jeremiah, but listen to the false prophets? The reason is because the Jews were “rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction” (Isa. 30:9). That is why they told the true prophets, “"Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions” (v. 10).
Jesus said in Matthew 24:24 about the signs at the end of the world: “"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” Now these false Christs and false prophets are pouring out countless lies (Prov. 14:5). Since they are false witnesses, they are trying to deceive the Christians who have been chosen by God by pouring out lies. Why are they pouring out lies? Look at Proverbs 17:20 – “A man of perverse heart does not prosper; he whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble.” The reason is because they have perverse hearts. In other words, it is because their hearts are deceitful. In other words, since the hearts of false witnesses are false, lies must come out of their lips. Satan, the liar and father of lies (Jn. 8:44) is now trying to deceive the Christians as well as trying to ruin and destroy our souls by causing false witnesses to pour out lies. Satan is already causing the liars to sin against God by deceived church leaders. Look at Proverbs 17:7 – “Excellent speech is not fitting for a fool, Much less are lying lips to a prince.” This is what Dr. Yoon-sun Park said: ‘Here, “a prince” refers to a leader (Prov. 8:16). As a leader, he has the trust and respect of many people. Therefore, truth is the most important qualification for him. Nevertheless, if he is corrupted and lied, it goes against the expectations of many. As a result, many people also stumble’ (Park). How many believers are being stumbled by many church leaders now? How many of the church leaders lie and hide the truth? Aren’t we preaching a false life, false faith, or false gospel? Why does God allow those who lied under His sovereignty to deceive us? The reason is because, as in Proverbs 17:3, God is testing our hearts. In other words, God is removing all lies, impurities in our hearts even through the liars. Just as a crucible for silver and a furnace for gold separates the impurities of silver or gold, just as the impurities of our hearts toward God break up the lies through tribulation and suffering even through the liars. He is breaking apart and removing the lie that is not the truth of our faith. Therefore, God frees us with the truth (Jn. 8:32) and purifies our souls by obeying the truth so that we can love our brothers without lies (1 Pet. 1:22). Furthermore, God has established us as true witnesses of Jesus Christ with sincere heart and sincere love to save human life (Prov. 14:25).
Second, God tests our hearts through calamity.
Look at Proverbs 17:5 – “He who mocks the poor taunts his Maker; He who rejoices at calamity will not go unpunished.” Looking at Proverbs 14:21 and 31, the Bible says, “… blessed is he who is kind to the needy” (v. 21), and “whoever is kind to the needy honors God” (v. 31). However, it is said that those who violate this Scripture and mock the poor are despising the Lord who made the poor. Also, it is said that those who are pleased with human disasters cannot escape punishment. Rather, Proverbs 24:17 in the Bible says, “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice.” Isn't this love of neighbors and love of enemies? When I meditated on these words, I thought that God is testing our hearts through poverty in our lives. And I tried to meditate on the words of Proverbs 17:5 by connecting that poverty and disaster. The reason I did that is because I meditated on the unfortunate man who lost all his wealth because of disaster in the words of Ecclesiastes 5:13-16 during the early Morning Prayer meeting of the last week. In other words, no matter how rich we are, just like the man named Job in the book of Job, when we encounter disaster, we can quickly become poor and needy. And it means that we become destitute through such disasters and that God uses them to test our hearts. How does God really test our hearts through need? Look at Deuteronomy 8:3 – “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” The Bible tells us that the purpose of God to let us be hungry is to let us know that we live by every word that comes out of God's mouth. Why is God making us needy? God, who tests our hearts, wants us to realize in our hearts that we live only by the word of God through our need. And living only by the word of God means that we love our neighbors because we love God. God wants us to love the poor and even our enemies. In order to give us such love for our neighbors, God is trying to test our hearts even through disaster.
Third and last, God tests our hearts through a bribe.
Look at Proverbs 17:8 – “A bribe is a charm in the sight of its owner; Wherever he turns, he prospers.” What is “a bribe”? A biblical website defines bribery like this: ‘It is unclean money given to gain private advantage’ (Internet). The Mosaic Law said not to accept bribes (Exod. 23:8). Since God doesn’t accept bribes (Deut. 10:17, 2 Chron. 19:7), His people were also not allowed to accept bribes. King Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, said that bribes ruin people's understanding (Eccl. 7:7). In particular, the judges were severely warned (2 Chron. 19:7). It is because bribery has consequently bent justice (1 Sam. 8:3; Prov. 17:23) (Internet). That's why Proverbs 15:27 of the Bible says, “A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates bribes will live.” When I personally think of “bribes,” I think about Korean politicians who are frequently bribed and are investigated by prosecutors. There are so many politicians who went to jail for bribes. And when I see politicians being investigated by the prosecution for bribes, I wonder why these things happened so frequently. This is because, like the words of Proverbs 15:27, they are greedy for profit. Since a person who has received a bribe says that the bribe seems to be like a jewel and satisfies his covetousness, he will try to achieve the work he was asked to do, but the result is that he will lead him to the wrong way (Job 36:18) (Park).
How does God test our hearts with these bribes? God is teaching justice to our hearts through bribes. And God wants us to do justice in this unfair world with a just heart. And one more thing, God makes us realize that bribery doesn’t make us prosper, but God's presence makes us prosper. And the reason why God tries our hearts through bribes is because He wants to give our hearts joy. Look at Proverbs 17:22 – “A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.” The person who takes the bribe, even though at first the bribe looks like a jewel, the bribe and covetousness will bring him to heart trouble. In the end, he becomes anxious because of the bribe he received and kills his soul because of the worries of his life (Mt. 13:22) (Park). However, those who resist the temptation of greed and are satisfied with the Lord alone and have the joy of their hearts. Also, the Christian who regards God's presence as a jewel has joy in their hearts. And there is joy in the heart of a Christian who lives righteously in the presence of God. In order to give us this joy, God is testing our hearts through bribes.
When I think that we Christians are being tested or being trained, I think of Job 23:10 – “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” How much plague did a man named Job face and suffer great pain? But he believed that after God tested him, he would come out like pure gold. Today we learned about God who tests our hearts based on Proverbs 17:3. God tests our hearts through liars in order to remove all lies, impurities in our hearts, and make us to love the Lord with truthful heart. And God allows us to live in this world only with the word that comes out of God's mouth through disaster. Also, he tests our hearts with bribes so that we can realize that only God is with us is the secret of prosperity. Therefore, we have learned that God allows us to live righteously in this unfair world. I hope and pray, in the name of Jesus, that this learning will actually bless us all to be tested in our hearts by putting it into practice when we encounter lies, calamities and bribes on our journey of faith.