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April 26, 2015 |
| Testing God | ||
We have probably heard that we should not test God but what exactly does it mean to test God. We have also seen another verse where God specifically says "test me." That seems like a contradiction. In this lesson we are going to look at the topic of testing God.
One of the first incidents in the Bible that is referred to as testing God is recorded in Exodus 17:2. This incident is referred to in many places in the Bible as an example of testing God.
Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water that we may drink" And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?"
Looking at just this verse it's hard to understand how they have tested God. We get more of the picture a few verses later in Exodus 17:7
He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us, or not?"
From what they said, "Is the LORD among us, or not?", we can see that the Israelites were asking God to prove himself to them by providing them with water.
The word Massah means "test" and Meribah means "quarrel." We already know that the Israelites were testing God but "quarrel" gives us even more insight into what was going on. When you quarrel with someone you are trying get them to accept that your idea is superior. Ultimately it comes down to who is in charge and who is making decisions.
There is even more to what the Israelites were saying than that. In telling God to prove himself they were showing their lack of faith in him. This is even more surprising in light of all the miracles that God had done for them, to free them from Egypt and preserve them in the wilderness. Yet they did not have faith in him and demanded he perform a task to prove himself to them.
Hebrews 3:8-9 expresses this idea that though they had seen everything God had done for them over 40 years they still had no faith in him and demanded proof.
Do not harden your hearts to anger him, like the rebellious, and as the day of temptation in the wilderness. 9 When your fathers tempted me and they proved and saw my works 40 years.
Over and over David mentions this lack of faith despite seeing what God had done for them, with the result that they kept testing God.
When your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work. (Psalms 95:9)
And in their heart they put God to the test by asking food according to their desire. (Psalms 78:18)
Again and again they tempted God, and pained the Holy One of Israel. (Psalms 78:41)
Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies (Psalms 78:56)
But craved intensely in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. (Psalms 106:14)
This instance in Massah / Meribah was not the only time the Israelites did this - not even close. As the Israelites were about to go into the Promised Land the first time, 12 spies were sent in to look at the land. Of those 12, 10 came back with doubts about whether they could take the land. Each of these was an expression of their lack of faith despite the fact that God had said he would give them this land. In Numbers 14:22 we see God's point of view of what those 10 have done.
Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice
After 40 years in the wilderness, as the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land, Moses reminds them about the things they have done and should not do. In Deuteronomy 6:16 he mentions their testing of God.
You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.
Jesus refers to this verse in the gospels when he uses it to reject Satan's efforts.
Yeshua said to him, "Again it is written: 'You shall not tempt the Lord Yahweh your God.'" (Matthew 4:7)
But Yeshua answered and he said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord Yahweh your God.'" (Luke 4:12)
Notice the gospels use the word "tempt" where Deuteronomy used "test." The difference is very small. One of the definitions of "tempt" is for an obsolete way of using the word, which means we don't usually use the word that way anymore. That meaning is "to try or test."1 So tempt once had the same meaning as test. These two words are that close in meaning.
A more common meaning for "tempt" now is "to entice or allure to do something often regarded as unwise, wrong, or immoral." The meaning of "test" that applies here is "the trial of the quality of something." Both show the idea of trying to get God to do something to prove himself.
There is another case where Israel tests God in the wilderness. It isn't called testing or tempting in the Old Testament but there is a New Testament reference to it in 1 Corinthians 10:9 that does.
Neither should we tempt the Messiah as some of them tempted and serpents destroyed them.
The incident referred to above is described in Numbers 21:4-6
… the people became impatient because of the journey. 5 The people spoke against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food." 6 The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
Israel was again trying to get God to prove himself instead of trusting him. The food that they were now complaining about, the Manna from Heaven, however, was in fact the proof of God that they needed. The problem really wasn't about the food though. It was about control. They wanted God to do something that would make them happy.
We now have a good understanding of what it means to test or tempt God in this way. At its core it comes from a lack of faith in God. This results in a desire to assure oneself of one's own safety and life. The method for doing this is to get God to do things to prove that he is still there, or to do those things that we believe we need to have to survive. Simply put, the lack of faith that God is in control makes a person feel out of control and the response is to try to gain control.
There are other ways to test God though. In Malachi 3:10 we see something different. God specifically instructs his people to test him.
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."
The difference is that God had made a promise and it is this promise he wants them to test. Unlike the testing we saw before the test that God wants here is an act of faith - to give as an act of faith that God will bless them in return.
In New Testament times Jesus would frequently criticize the Jews for always wanting him to give them a sign to prove that he was the Messiah. This was the same testing of God that the Israelites had done in the desert. In Isaiah 7:12 we see something that is different.
10 Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 "Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven." 12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!"
When King Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign that is as "deep as Sheol or high as heaven" God does so in the following verses. The sign is the coming Messiah who will die and therefore go to Sheol and then be resurrected and ascend to heaven.
King Ahaz understands the verse from Deuteronomy "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test" and he feels that he would be doing so by asking for a sign. But what he has failed to understand is that God has instructed him to ask for a sign. So in trying to obey God he has actually disobeyed God because of his lack of understanding. God had made him a promise but King Ahaz was unwilling to act in faith on that promise.
There is also a notable case in the New Testament where someone tests God. Annanias and Saphira hatch a plan to sell some land and to claim to have given the full amount to the church but in fact they have given less. This event comes from Acts 5:8-10.
[Simon] said to her, "Tell me if for these proceeds you sold the field." But she said, "Yes, for these proceeds." 9 [Simon] said to her, "Because you have agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord Yahweh, behold the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door and they will take you out." 10 And at that moment she fell before their feet and died, and those young men came in and found her dead. And they took her up and brought her out and buried her beside her husband.
They were temping God with money in exchange for glory for the "selfless" act that they were claiming they had done. This is a little different way of tempting, giving God something or promising something in an effort to get God to do something.
We see another form of tempting God, the Holy Spirit, in Acts 15:7-10. The situation here is that some of the Jews in the Christian congregation felt that the Gentiles should be required to be circumcised and live according to the Torah. It was natural enough for them to think that. Before Jesus the only way for a Gentile to become part of the Jewish church was to become a Jew and cease being a Gentile. Becoming a Jew included Torah observance.
[Simon] arose and he said to them, "Men, brothers, you are aware that from the first days God chose the Gentiles to hear the word of the Gospel from my mouth and to believe. 8 And God, who knows what is in the hearts, testified to them and gave them the Spirit of Holiness as to us. 9 And he made no distinction between us and them, because he purified their hearts by faith. 10 And now, why are you tempting God, so as to put a yoke on the necks of the disciples, which not even our fathers nor we were able to bear?"
It isn't immediately clear here how requiring Gentiles to observe Torah would be tempting God. Looking closely we see Simon Peter's point is that Torah had never applied to Gentiles and without Torah ever applying to Gentiles the Holy Spirit had been given to them, so who are we to tell God how things should be and require Torah observance of them. This would be tempting God by telling him how things should be.
We've seen that there are many ways to test or tempt God. They all have at their core the idea of telling God what to do.
But God does want us to test him in this way: