God:"Pencils ready. This is a pop quiz."

Did you ever wonder whether times in your life were tests from God? I have. I am also reasonably sure that my wife and I are experiencing a test right now. We're in the process of selling our current house and buying a new one closer to our jobs. We've already signed the paperwork to buy the new house, but the loan paperwork for our current house's buyer seems to be hung up for some reason.

First we were supposed to have "closed" on both houses last week. We were planning to move on Friday. Paperwork delays pushed us to Saturday and beyond. Monday was Columbus Day, so nothing was accomplished. Tuesday was supposed to be sort of a "drop dead" date; it certainly should have happened by then. Well...here we are still waiting for the all important loan documents.

Our phone service is being switched today. We don't even have keys to the house yet. Our current house is completely packed up. Nothing to do but wait. My wife thinks it's a sign from God that we ought to bail out and look for something else. I have a different theory.

I recently began re-reading the book of Judges in the Bible. I don't know why I chose that book except that I remember it having good stories. It opens by explaining how Israel fell away from following the Lord after the death of their leader, Joshua. They had made a covenant with God: God would give them land promised to their ancestor, Abraham, and they would destroy all altars to other gods found as they moved in. Israel didn't keep up its end of the agreement. So, the Lord stops helping Israel out in their fighting with the people they are trying to drive off.

The book says this in its second chapter beginning with verse 20, "In his anger toward Israel, the LORD said, 'Inasmuch as this nation has violated my covenant which I enjoined on their fathers, and has disobeyed me, I for my part will not clear away for them any more of the nations which Joshua left when he died.' Through these nations the Israelites were to be made to prove whether or not they would keep to the way of the LORD and continue in it as their fathers had done; therefore the LORD allowed them to remain instead of expelling them immediately, or delivering them into the power of Israel."(New American Bible)

Another version of the Bible reads that God did this "in order to test Israel." (NRSV) When faced with hardship or difficulty, who will we turn to? Who will we rely upon? It's a test from God. This sort of test is meant to strengthen us in our faith in God. I think buying this house is a test for my wife and me. I hope we pass.