God doesn’t change. So He isn’t sitting up in heaven running tests to figure people out. That’s not what a “test” is for.
The real test is simpler and harder: stop expecting the command to make your life easier right now. When things blow up, don’t call it a failure of the promise. Call it the next obstacle you’re supposed to walk through while you keep doing what God asked.
That’s exactly what happens with Abraham. God tells him:
וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ אֶל־אַבְרָם לֶךְ־לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ׃ וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ וֶהְיֵה בְּרָכָה׃
(בראשית יב:א–ב)
“Go from your land, your birthplace, your father’s house to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation, bless you, make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”
Then a famine hits. Then his wife gets taken by Pharaoh. Abraham doesn’t freeze and say “this wasn’t part of the deal.” He keeps moving. He uses his head. With Pharaoh he follows his judgment, and it works out — not by magic, but because his mind was already walking in God’s ways.
That’s the whole point of serving God. You’re not doing it so life goes smooth. You’re doing it because it’s right and because it serves something bigger than you. When you’re actually trying to walk like God (imitatio Dei), your personal discomfort doesn’t disappear — you still feel it — but it stops being the main thing. The job comes first.
God never told Abraham he had to stay in Canaan while everyone starved. He told him to go Canaan but nothing about staying there. When the famine got severe he followed his instincts and left(as opposed to the Ramban, the Rambam doesn't mention that he did anything wrong)
וַיְהִי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ וַיֵּרֶד אַבְרָם מִצְרַיְמָה לָגוּר שָׁם כִּי־כָבֵד הָרָעָב בָּאָרֶץ׃
(בראשית יב:י)
“There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there, because the famine was severe.”
Going down to Egypt and later going to war to rescue Lot are the same kind of move. Both involved his family, and neither was a prophecy telling him what to do. He didn’t need a nevuah. He was already locked into ratzon Elokim — the will of God — so he knew what justice required and he acted.
Then this happens:
וַיְהִי כְּבוֹא אַבְרָם מִצְרָיְמָה וַיִּרְאוּ הַמִּצְרִים אֶת־הָאִשָּׁה כִּי־יָפָה הִוא מְאֹד׃ וַיִּרְאוּ אֹתָהּ שָׂרֵי פַרְעֹה וַיְהַלְלוּ אֹתָהּ אֶל־פַּרְעֹה וַתֻּקַּח הָאִשָּׁה בֵּית פַּרְעֹה׃
(בראשית יב:יד–טו)
“When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. Pharaoh’s officials saw her, praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh’s house.”
One week he’s willing to risk his wife. Later he’ll be willing to risk the child of that same wife. Both times God steps in via Abraham walking in the ways of God, and both are saved. The pattern is clear: the person who is actually serving God keeps walking toward justice without waiting for a new command every time. He’s already in the stream.
In the future his descendants would take the same path down to Egypt. What started as an apparent exile and the eventual slavery of his great-grandchildren, ensured their flourishing and the birth of a nation with the giving of the Torah. That’s what God promised Abraham in this week’s parsha. His children may not have it easy in the moment, and what seems like injustice turns out to be the greatest gift to Abraham, his descendants, and the world as a whole.
In our own time, many people — in modern Judaism and in the Chareidi world — do the opposite. They take their personal beliefs, their comfort, or their fears, and then declare that this is the will of God. They become the false prophets of our generation: whether it’s progressive views dressed up as Torah, or the claim that avoiding the army (and the loss of income that comes with it) is somehow a higher divine calling. Abraham didn’t need a new prophecy to know what justice required. He was already walking in the ways of God. The question is whether we are.
Maimonides and Shadal both say the same thing about “tests.” They’re not for God to learn something. They’re public lessons so other people (including us) can see what real devotion looks like. Shadal makes the point especially about the Akeidah: the world needs to see that true servants of God will go to the extreme if commanded — even when it goes against what they personally believe is right — and also see that the true God does not actually want child sacrifice.
Maimonides is blunt about the other idea people love: that God makes you suffer now so He can give you a bigger payout later. He thinks that view is wrong and ugly. It makes God look like He needs to manufacture pain in order to hand out rewards. That’s not a just God. Real service is doing what’s right because it’s right and because it serves the larger purpose — not because you’re trying to cash in on suffering.
That’s also why God keeps pointing Abraham to the future of his children: they will become a great nation that actually does God’s will. When someone’s whole life is aimed at that, the real reward is the ongoing life of his children and his deeds.
Maimonides says it cleanly in Hilchot Avel 4:4:
וְהַצַּדִּיקִים, אֵין בּוֹנִים לָהֶם נֶפֶשׁ עַל קִבְרוֹתֵיהֶן — דִּבְרֵיהֶם הֵם זִכְרוֹנָם.
“For the righteous we do not build a monument on their graves — their words are their memorial.”
A tombstone isn’t what keeps a righteous person alive in the world. Their words and deeds do that.
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