LISTEN TO HIM - DO NOT PUT GOD TO THE TEST

LISTEN TO HIM

Do Not Put God to the Test

Jesus said unto him,

 It is written again,

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Matthew 4:7

And Jesus answering said unto him,

It is said,

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Luke 4:12 

In this lesson, Jesus is still being tempted by Satan and still replying with Scripture to every proposition the Devil makes.

Matthew 4:5-6 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Luke 4:9-11 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Susan: Once again, “if” would be better rendered “since.” Satan did not doubt the fact that Jesus was indeed the Son of God.

Susie: Satan next tempted Jesus in the area of the “pride of life” by telling Him to jump from a height that would surely be suicidal. He is again trying to trick Jesus into displaying His power as deity rather than remaining in humble subjection to the Father’s will.

Susan: God’s enemy is trying to get Jesus to test God, to see if His Father truly would send angels to save Him. Satan even employed scripture to try to trick Jesus:

Psalm 91:11-12 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Susie: The Scripture was pointing out that we can trust God, not that we should put this trust to the test.

Susan: God is trustworthy and does watch over us, but we should not set up situations in which we need to be rescued. There are times we cannot make sense of what God is doing, but He is still trustworthy, and we should not allow those times to create doubt in our minds. This is challenging to do, but God’s word is true—we can trust Him.

Matthew 4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Luke 4:12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

The MacArthur Study Bible has a good note Matthew 4:7:

Christ replied with another verse from Israel’s wilderness experience (Deut. 6:16)—recalling the experience at Massah, where the grumbling Israelites put the Lord to the test, angrily demanding that Moses produce water where there was none (Ex. 17:2–7).

Deuteronomy 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

Exodus 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?

Susan: Jesus again quoted a verse from the Old Testament and refused to put God to the test.

Susie: We are wise to learn from history. Jesus knew this failing of His people that they tested God many times even as the Lord was freeing them from slavery in Egypt and leading them to the Promised Land. We are to trust the Lord rather than test the Lord.

Ways this might apply to our lives:

·     Scripture needs to be at our fingertips and in the forefront of our minds so the Holy Spirit can help us use it to avoid temptation

·     We should never test God by purposely putting ourselves in need of rescue

·     Putting God to the test is arrogance, haughtiness, and ultimately doubt