The Smelter

What is man that You exalt him, and that You are concerned about him,
that You examine him every morning and put him to the test every moment?  Job 7:17-18 NASB

Put him to the test – Does God test you?  Is He so concerned about your current spiritual state that He deliberately lays obstacles before you to see if you’re loyal?  Is life just one long examination to determine if you quality for the next one? It often seems so, doesn’t it?  How else are we to understand God’s pronouncement over Abraham at the sacrifice of Isaac: “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  How else are we to interpret the words of the master: “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?”

Let’s investigate Job’s choice of verb, bāḥan.

It often appears in parallel with נָסָה [nāsâ] and צָרַף [ṣārap], its meaning falling about midway between the two. nāsâ means “to put to the test, tempt” (in the archaic sense), while ṣārap means “to smelt, refine.” bāḥan partakes of both of these in that it denotes examining to determine essential qualities, especially integrity. [Whereas bāḥanusually has God as its subject, nāsâ occurs almost equally with man as its subject. ṣārap when used in the religious sense has only God as subject and man as object. But bāḥan in contrast to the other two, is used almost exclusively in the spiritual or religious realm. Furthermore, whereas ṣārap and nāsâ denote attaining knowledge through testing, bāḥan seems to denote attaining knowledge intellectually or intuitively^[1]

Unlike the Egyptian doctrine where the heart is weighed after death, Yahweh continually assays the hearts of his people that in the end they may come forth as gold (Zech 13:9; Job 23:10).^[2]

Did you notice Oswalt’s remark that “bāḥan usually has God as its subject”?  It’s divine testing that Job has in mind, and, as Oswalt notes, the examination is almost always in the “spiritual or religious realm.”  What does that mean?  Is God “keeping score”?  Or is He overseeing attitude, direction, intent?  Are the circumstances of our lives “engineered” (as Oswald Chambers suggests) or are we thrown into a somewhat chaotic environment and asked to make choices based on devotion to a higher cause?  How does it make you feel if you think that God brings about all those difficulties just to see if you are worthy?  Doesn’t He already know if Abraham fears Him?  Or is He anxious to know the depth of Abraham’s commitment?  Why is the servant in the parable “wicked’?  Was it because he didn’t make enough money or was it because he didn’t understand the relationship with the master?  Job speaks as if God’s examination is meticulous and constant, but what would it be like to be under the divine microscope 24-7?  If you grew up in the Christian world of “God has a plan for your life,” does that make you feel closer to Him when you derail the plan, even accidentally?

The story of Job raises more questions than simply the fixation on the justification of evil occurrences among righteous people.  Here we find a fundamental inquiry into the relationships between omniscience and obedience.  It’s possible that this dichotomy is even more disconcerting than the good versus evil one.  It’s certainly personal.

Topical Index: test, bāḥan, Job 7:17-18

^[1] Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 230 בָּחַן. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 100). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.