Expect God to Test Your Vision

I sit still with my face in a brace, wide-eyed and waiting for that imminent blast of air in my eyeball. “Now don’t blink,” the optometrist says. POW! I know it’s coming, but my whole body still jerks. I feel like an idiot.

(Photo: Design Pics, via Vivozoom)

Then we do it again with the other eye.

This unpleasant procedure has to happen each year. Without it, my vision isn’t all it can be.

The Lord does a similar thing with the vision He gives us in the Bible. We think we see it clearly until a blast in the eyeball jerks our whole frame of reference.

God Gives Vision, Then Tests It

In the Book of Genesis, The Lord’s people didn’t have Bibles like we do. Instead, the Word of God came through a variety of means—dreams being one of them. The Creator spoke through dreams to Abraham, Abimelech, Jacob, Laban, and to Joseph.

So, when God gave Joseph the vision he would rule over his brothers, it meant more than the fantasies of a spoiled kid longing for approval. It was like reading the Bible. The dreams were a revelation about the future.

Understandably, Joseph’s brothers were less than thrilled about Joseph’s Bible lesson. When they saw him approaching from a distance, they thought of a creative solution to the problem.

Here comes this dreamer! Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’ Then let us see what will become of his dreams!’ (Genesis 37:19-20).

Yeah, well, I guess that would do it. Or so they thought.

(Photo: Hills outside of Hebron. From Hebron Jacob dispatched Joseph to check on his brothers. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Let’s See What Will Become of His Dreams

It’s really no different with you or me. We have the clear Word of God before us. It’s filled with promises and truth in all sixty-six books. You see it. You believe it. Your vision is good.

POW! Your vision gets tested.

The statement: “Let us see what will become of his dreams,” revealed the test Joseph would undergo to see how confident he was of the Lord’s promise in spite of the threats to it.

The story reveals three responses:

• The brothers believed they could thwart God’s Word. Instead, the Father used them to fulfill it. That’s how a sovereign God works (Genesis 50:20).
• The father believed the circumstances over God’s Word. The father knew God spoke in dreams, but he abandoned that truth in lieu of trumped up evidence.
• Joseph believed God’s Word in spite of the circumstances. Joseph chose to believe God even though everything demanded God’s revelation was wrong.

You face these same three responses today as your vision gets tested.

(Photo: Flocks in the Dothan Valley. From here Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Surviving the Blast

God has revealed truth to you in His Word, but everything seems to challenge that promise. These three truths may help:

1. Expect your vision, your faith, to be tested (1 Peter 4:12). Don’t let the blast surprise you.
2. Even in your deepest pain and confusion, God hasn’t abandoned you (Deuteronomy 31:8; Psalm 38:21).
3. Whether you feel like or not, the Lord is with you during the test. In fact, He is administering it (Deuteronomy 8:16; 1 Peter 5:10).

Joseph’s life demonstrates what is true of you as well. One day, you will stand on the other side of the blast praising God for what it has produced in you.

Your vision will be clearer.

Tell me what you think: Tell me one experience where the testing of your faith made you stronger. To leave a comment, just click here.