What does it mean to test God?

It is thus, it seems to me, our Lord deals with Satan. He could at once have set him aside on grounds of reasoning, and have shown the perverted end to which Satan was applying Scripture; but He rather deals with him on moral grounds, which every Christian is capable of judging. Do I find a scripture used for the purpose of making me distrust God? At once I take my stand on "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." What is meant by this? I am never to doubt the Lord will be for me. If I do anything to prove Him, to see whether He will be for me, this is at once unbelief and disobedience. It is an allusion to Israel's history again, and another quotation from the book of Deuteronomy. Indeed, our Lord quotes every answer to the temptations, as has been long ago remarked, from the book of Deuteronomy. You will find in Exodus 17 that the Israelites tempted the Lord by asking, Is He among us or no? This does not mean that they provoked Him by idolatry, or refusal to do His will. It is not a question there of open sin, but of unbelief of His goodness and presence — unbelief, in a word, of God's being for us. This is exactly what our Lord pleads. Cast Myself down in order to find that the scripture is true and that the angels will bear Me up! I do not need to do such a thing; I am very certain that if I were cast down the angels would be there to sustain Me. If you have a person whom you suspect of dishonesty on your premises, you may perhaps be disposed to test him in some way or other. But who would think of testing one that he had full confidence in? Now that is exactly the import of our Lord's answer, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." His soul resented the idea of trying God, to see whether He would sustain His Son. God might try Him; Satan might put Him to the test; but as to His tempting the Lord, as if the Lord His God required to be put to the proof whether He would be true to His word — away with such a thought! He would not hear of it for a moment.

Before we pass to the next chapter, it would be well to observe for a moment the second answer of our Lord — "Ye shalt not tempt Jehovah your God." What was meant by this? Not any ordinary fleshly sin on our part, as many suppose. Tempting God was to doubt Him, as many, all of us, are apt to do. Satan took advantage of the scripture that said that He should not dash His foot against a stone. He quotes accordingly Psalm 91, intimating to Jesus that, if He were the Son of God, all He had to do was to throw Himself from the pinnacle of the temple; and all must endorse His claims. Was not this a positive promise? God would "give his angels charge concerning him;" and what a fine proof it would be that He was the true Messiah, if He threw Himself down from such a height, and withal the angels preserved Him! But Satan as usual tampered with the plain written word, alike with its letter and its spirit; for after "to keep thee" he omitted "in all thy ways." This he tried to conceal from One, all whose ways were obedience, venturing to insinuate what a noble demonstration of His Messiahship it would be. And what was the Lord's answer? "Thou shalt not tempt Jehovah thy God." The true Israelite does not require to put God to the test. If you suspect a rogue is in your employment, you may test him by marking a piece of money to see whether he steals or not: am I then going to mark something for God to see whether He will keep His word or not? I know God will do it; I do not require to put Him to the proof. This is the meaning of it, and such is precisely the path of duty. He that believes may calmly confide in God under all circumstances. His Father will take care of him. Is not this in wonderful harmony with the rest, following on the confession of the one true God of Israel?

In the second place then, the enemy sets Him on a pinnacle of the temple, to induce Him to apply to Himself the promises made to the Messiah, without abiding in the ways of God. The faithful man may assuredly reckon on the help of God while walking in His ways. The enemy would have the Son of man put God to the test (instead of reckoning on Him while walking in His ways) to see whether He might be trusted in. This would have been a want of confidence in God, not obedience; or pride, presuming on its privileges, instead of counting on God in obedience. Taking His place with Israel in the condition they were in when without a king in the land, and, quoting the directions given to them in that book to guide them in the godly path there taught, He uses for His guidance that part of the word which contains the divine injunction on this subject, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God"; a passage often quoted as if it forbade excess in trusting God; whereas it means not to distrust, and try if He is faithful. They tempted God, saying, Is God indeed among us? And this Satan would have had the Lord do.

I would just remark in passing that it is sin not to have confidence in the Lord - not to be quite sure that He will help us, whatever the need may be, when we are walking in His ways. It is recorded of the children of Israel as sin that they tempted the Lord in that which they said here "Is the Lord among us, or not?" (v. 7.) When we are going on wickedly and wilfully, and say, "Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us," that is quite a different thing. The Lord (if His children) will indeed be with us even then, but to chasten us. Whenever there is real need in the wilderness, it is sin to doubt whether God will help us or not. If we are not as sure of water in the midst of the sandy desert as though we saw rivers of water running through the country, we are tempting God.

This is the force of that expression of our Lord to Satan "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Satan wanted Jesus to try by an experiment whether God would be as good as His word. Had He done so, it would have implied a doubt. His answer was, "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Tempting the Lord is doubting the supply of His goodness in giving us all that we need.

It is after victory that Melchisedec comes out to meet him. In the future day this will be seen in Christ coming out to His people; it applies to ourselves in a heavenly way now. "Priest of the most high God." In that word, all the peculiar character of Melchisedec comes out. Abraham had overcome by faith. He knew God by faith. Now He is made known to him as "possessor of heaven and earth." The Gentile powers broken, God rules and does what He pleases; and Nebuchadnezzar gives Him the title of "Most High God." He takes to Himself His great power and reigns as Most High. This is not the name known to Abraham's faith; which was Shaddai. "I am the Almighty God; walk before me," etc. Abraham was called to walk before God, and He suffered no man to do him wrong in passing through the world. Jehovah, the one true God, brought His people into relationship with Himself-all the rest were false gods. We have the relationship of Father in contrast with these; but all these names are for faith to own. Most High is another thing; Possessor, etc.; "to reconcile all things to himself" (Col. 1), and "to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth," Eph. 1. He will be the possessor of heaven and earth. Melchisedec-priest, in this character of priest of the Most High, He has gained the full victory over the power of the world. The Heir of promise is the great victor; Psalm 91. He who has got the secret of who this Most High is (never the Father's name in Hebrews; it is the "throne of grace" spoken of) shall have the blessings of Abraham's God. So Hezekiah, taunted by the enemy, with "hath any of the gods of the nations delivered out of my hand?" 2 Kings 18:33. I will have Jehovah the God of Israel, now despised, but He will overcome amidst the gods of the nations; Psa. 91:2. No secret now in His name; v. 9. And He says, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God," Luke 4:11-12. Tempting God is trying whether He is as good as His word - to see whether it is true. Thou shalt not put God to the test. The knowledge of the Most High as Jehovah is Israel's God; v. 9. When Christ has taken His real power, He will be Melchisedec-priest: at least He will be Priest on His throne. The counsel of peace, as regards this earth, is between Jehovah and this Priest on His throne - "righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Aaron was never a king.

Has that no voice to us? Do we never tempt Him? What is tempting the Lord our God? Let me try and tell you. Have you never known your heart to be assailed in this way: "Now let me see whether God is as good as His word"? Is that trusting Him? Is that resting in Him? Is that believing Him? Is that confiding in Him? This is the very thing that was not in Adam — confidence of the heart in God, no resting in Him who has pledged His word. It is the very opposite to it. It is to say, "I will see whether God will sustain and uphold me; I will see whether God will carry me through this thing." Ah, that is not leaning on Him, resting in Him, but the very opposite! You are not sure then, are you? You are trying whether God will be as good as His word. That is tempting Him. But faith, confidence in God, says, "It shall be done." How sweet those old lines: "Faith, bold faith, the promise sees, And leans on that alone; Laughs at impossibilities, And says, It shall be done.'"

89 But to dare obey God in this world there must be confidence in God. This is the second trial the Lord undergoes for us. "If thou art Son of God, cast thyself down." Try if God will be faithful to His promise (Ps. 91). This too was just out of the path of obedience. In this path He could always count upon God; but to put God to the proof to see if He would be faithful is not to confide in Him as assuredly such. This is what is meant by the expression "tempting God," and not, to go too far in confiding in Him (Exod. 17:7). The confidence is perfect like the obedience. He waits on Jehovah. Sure that He will be faithful, that He is so always, He has but to follow the path of obedience and to depend on Him. His word will direct His steps and His thoughts, and will be accomplished in His promises. Such are the two elements of the life of the new man, of the life of Christ in us - obedience, and dependence. Christ was perfect in both, in an obedience which had the word, the will, of God, as the source of His activity, not simply as its rule. When Satan presents the word falsely as a snare, the word suffices as a perfect answer to conduct the steps and the thoughts of man.

Satan drops that and takes up another thing - "Cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee," &c. (v. 6) It would have been His own will if Christ had done it. Satan takes up scripture, and says, "It is written," to make Him do His own will. But He says, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." People abuse this often; they use it as the very opposite of what it is. When people talk of "tempting God," they mean trusting Him too much. Satan says, "Throw yourself down, to see if God will be as good as His word." "I have no need to throw myself down. I know He will do it when the time comes. Of course His word will be fulfilled. Why am I to see if it will be?"

Carefully notice, that Satan leaves out four words of the ninety-first Psalm. The four words are these, "In all thy ways." Jesus said to him, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." You will observe, it is never the way of a saint to put God to the test. Quite true, the ninety-first Psalm did apply to Him. But it is not the way of a saint to put God to the proof as to whether He would be as good as His word.

"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 … lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." He could quote Scripture too, and even apply a Messianic psalm to the Messiah Himself, if only to falsify its truth, but he omitted the cardinal condition of such care, "In all thy ways." (Ps. 91:11) To cast Himself down from a pinnacle of the temple was no part of God's ways, for Him, or for any man. In those ways He knew God too well to need to test Him to see if He would be as good as His word. And so His simple answer was, "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Thus too we learn what tempting God means. Men say that we tempt Him if we do not the best we can for ourselves, but this is the absolute opposite of the truth: we tempt God when we do not trust Him entirely in everything. The dependence of the Lord was as perfect as His obedience; He confided in God, and would not depart from the appointed path of His will: and in all this He is the perfect example for us.