Matthew 4:5-7
5 “And the devil took Him to the holy city, set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him: ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’”
and,
‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, “’You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”
There is an extremely important characteristic of the walk of a believer that is thought-provoking and needs to be highlighted in our minds, stamped in our hearts, and embedded in our souls: avoiding to tempt the Lord our God. That is because this is a dangerous thing to do.
The world tempts Him at every minute of every hour, but we should be known to be people that honor Him with reverent fear and awe. Tempting the Lord means that we do not trust Him to be God enough to take care of us, provide for us, heal us, restore us, deliver us, and the like. Then, we take matters into our own hands without His counsel, ignoring His warnings, His timing, the principles and ways of His Kingdom, rebelling against His counsel, or opposing other believers because we do not agree with them.
This is the exact same way the world that does not know Him behaves since they are under the influence of the spirit that rules it. Tempting the Lord arouses His anger because this means to Him that we trust more in His archenemy—the spirit of this world (the Antichrist) and its system—than we trust in Him and also that we prefer to be under the influence of that spirit more than we want to follow the ways of His Kingdom and His counsel. This way we arouse His jealousy for us, and therefore, His wrath to burn against us.
This reminds me of when I was about 17 years old. I was out of high school and because I wanted to be a polyglot (someone that is fluent in several languages), one of the languages I started studying was French. But as I had finished one semester at school and needed to register for the next term, when I attempted to ask my dad for the money to register, I overheard him talking to my mom about the struggles he was having with his business and how they needed to increase in their finances. Hearing this made me reason that I should not put another burden on my dad so I did not say anything about needing to register for my class, and therefore, skipped that class.
After some time, my dad realized that I had not come to him to tell him about my registration for my French class and asked me for the status on that. I told him what I had heard him say to mom and what I had decided to do about it. He then turned red, and raised his voice at me and said: “That is my problem!” “Your job is to tell me what you need and I make sure to provide it for you!” I had never seen my dad so angry at me before and it was about the issue of not trusting Him to be able to provide for me. Before and after that time he had been a good provider and he even would invite me to sit with him while he did the budget for the house and for his business when I was younger.
This way, he taught me to be mindful of how I handle my finances. Something I greatly appreciate to this day. But on this occasion, I allowed fear to set in and I doubted his ability to help me and did not trust that I would have what I needed. Neither did I stop to consider that he had always been there for me and that he was a good encourager for me to follow my dreams.
This is an example of how we could arouse God’s anger when we tempt Him, in this case with doubt and unbelief of who He is and of His power and ability to do whatever it is we need of Him. The children of Israel tempted God this way also. Exodus 17:2-7 says,
2 “Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, ‘Give us water, that we may drink.’
So Moses said to them, ‘Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?’
3 And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, ‘Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’
4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!’
5 And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.’
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’”
Deuteronomy 6:16 also says, “You shall not tempt the Lord as you tempted Him in Massah.” That is because they tempted Him with their doubt and unbelief.
Likewise, according to 1 Corinthians 10, twenty-three thousand were destroyed by serpents in one day because they had committed sexual immorality. This Scripture also highlights various other ways our ancestors tempted the Lord and the consequences of their choices. They lusted after evil things, became idolaters, and also they ate, drank, and played carelessly. This tells me that they had no vision for their future, did not take care of their bodies, neither did they pursue God’s purpose in their life. Instead, they were people that aimed at nothing with their lives and wasted time, energy, and resources in things that amounted to nothing in the end. This also is tempting God. This chapter also mentions that others tempted God by complaining and were destroyed by the destroyer (the destroyer is one that brings death).
Malachi 3:15 shows that others have tempted God by calling the proud and wicked blessed and by raising them to positions of influence and authority. But 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 continues by saying,
11“Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Christ provided a way of escape for us out of every kind of temptation possible because He was also tempted when He walked among us on earth. He is aware of the temptations of the enemy that would try to derail us from our destiny. Besides, the enemy, who is a copycat, does not have any new tricks up his sleeve. He always comes with the same tricks. He only disguises them through different people or different places, or different settings. But it is always the same trick. Our job is to be gentle as doves and wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16) and cling to our God through our intimacy with Him for He always helps us come out of temptations as mentioned in Matthew 6:13.
Moreover, Psalm 78:41 says that when we tempt God we limit Him. But James 1:12 encourages us by stating, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love Him.” However, verse 13 makes it clear that no one can say that God tempted him; “for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”
One last morsel of knowledge and understanding that helps us avoid tempting God is that according to 2 Peter 2:9, “the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and that He reserves the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.” So know that God knows the way out of every temptation to do what is not His will for us. He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can handle but knows how to bring us out. That's why we should not ignore His warnings that help us avoid doing something that could bring serious consequences to us.
So at this point, I want to invite you to join me in this prayer of repentance based on Psalm 51. Heavenly Father, we humbly come before you, Righteous, Just, and Loving God, to ask your forgiveness for every time our ancestors tempted you, every time our generation has tempted you, and for teaching the generations after us to tempt you with our behavior. We ask that you have mercy on us according to your loving kindness and tender mercies. Merciful God, we ask that you blot out our transgressions and iniquities, and cleanse us from our sin.
We also ask that you do a thorough job of cleansing and washing us that we may not sin against you. Blameless Judge, expose to us what you see on the inside of us and give us the wisdom to walk in your ways. Break us for what breaks you about our conduct and mindsets. Purge us out of every stronghold of the spirit of this world that causes us to tempt your wrath.
Create in us a clean heart and renew the right spirit within us that is ready to obey and trust you as we come to you first and foremost with every need and temptation, knowing that you will show us the way out. Do not reject us when we come before you but help us honor you more for your word warns that you do not honor those who do not honor you. Bring us to be more conscious of your Spirit’s guidance and ever-presence within us and deliver us from the consequences of our choices for only you are the God of our salvation.
Gracious God, help us give you the offering you desire and accept from us: that with contrite and broken hearts we come before you. Help us, Lord rebuild the walls of protection that were broken down because of our sin against you. And as we come to you with repentance restore us so we can become a testimony to others of how you helped us because we humbled ourselves before you in our time of need. Help us Lord, for we do not want to become a byword used to warn others of what we should not do because of our pride. We ask you this in the name of your Son Jesus which is the name above every name. Amen. To Him alone be all the glory.▪
All Scriptures from the NKJV.
Images courtesy of Google Images.
