Putting God to the Test
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:7 ESV)
In response to the second temptation Christ quoted Deuteronomy 6:16, commanding that we not seek to test the Lord. He tests us, but we do not test Him.
The matter comes down to our faith in Him, whether we submit our hearts to His provision at all times. Both words in the Old Testament Hebrew and in the New Testament Greek that are translated “test” have the idea of trying the Lord, putting Him to the test by seeking to extract from Him blessings that He has not promised us. We must accept Him by faith or not accept Him at all.
It is the most common thing to do in a polytheistic society, to test the gods to see see which god seems to give the better blessings. It is the ultimate spiritual “consumer” market ploy, to see if you can get the biggest “bang” for your spiritual “buck.” Even in the West, in a so-called “Christian” culture, we still do our church shopping, and though there is some legitimacy in checking out churches before committing to one, it can easily cross the line until we are also “checking out God.” We cannot choose a church like we choose a grocery store — which has the best prices, the most attractive decor, the finest parking, and the most conveniences. We need to always put as the first factor (and the only factor that truly matters) how will Christ get the glory for our decision?
There is a tension in this world between the leaders of society and society itself. It has always been there and for the last 500 years the West has seen the rise of the common man. A democratic value has swept across Europe and North America and it is today also sweeping across the rest of the world. Yet just as in the past the leaders of society abused their powers — kings, emperors, governors, and rulers became dictators and tyrants in some places — so today the common man is abusing his.
Our rights as human beings must stop and cease before the Creator.
I am of the free church tradition, that governs itself by a democratic value. History, even church history, shows us plainly that power corrupts, and a church leadership that is not held accountable to the people of the church in some significant way wanders astray. Yet the people of the church, when not held accountable by God, also wander astray. God has shows His authority through the preaching and teaching of the Word, through the call and the anointing of the prophet and the preacher.
Today we are on the precipice of a “Christian” movement that, if left to its own devices, will jettison anything that is hard and difficult, that gets bad press, or goes against the spirit of the age. The religion of many people’s choosing is whatever seems the easiest to swallow, rather than what will do the most good, or what is truly from God. Christianity can never been subjected to the popular whims of the times and expect to survive intact. We cannot and should not put God to the test by demanding He be more acceptable to our modern expectations.
What does this passage mean for us? How do we put God to the test?
There are acceptable ways that we may put the Lord to the test — specifically when He has made promises to us in His Word. The Lord is good and patient, and He does make promises in His Word and even invites us to put Him to the test in some ways. For example, He said:
We may test Him in the tithe: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” (Mal. 3:10 ESV)
We may test Him in our praise: “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8 ESV) Tasting is another form of testing, and this psalm says that if we will trust God and praise Him we will experience the inner blessings of the soul.
We may test Him in our spiritual rest: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:28–29 ESV) To “to learn” from Christ means that we learn by personal spiritual journey the great truths of the faith. We know Him as He reveals Himself to us in an ever deepening relationship. We rest in Him, and we follow Him by faith, but there is some element of testing in learning. As we experience the fulfillment of His promises to us then we grow in faith and in obedience.
We may test Him in prayer: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” (1 John 3:21–22 ESV) When we pray we should pray according to His will, for His glory, and not selfishly.
We could say that in some way the entire Christian life is a life of testing the promises of God to us, as a child might test the strength of his own father’s hand — not in rebellion, not trying to shake loose His grip from ours, but in finding Him in our experiences in life. The Lord sets us free to live and to experience life, but sometimes we find His convicting voice telling us where not to go, and what things He does not approve.
We can compare two types of children and understand how children of the heavenly Father should live. One child is terrified of punishment so he does not venture far from the strictest form of obedience. He is fearful of his own creativity, fearful of his own imagination and curiosity, so he stays out of fear in the mildest form of life, never venturing to the right or the left. Another child wishes to be obedient but also trusts his father, so he feels free to explore, to envision, to create, to see where the boundaries are. He “tests the ways” responsibly, with creativity and a wholesome sense of adventure. This second child is the one who more correctly depicts how the Christian should live. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7 NIV).
There are unacceptable ways that we should not put the Lord to the test. The hallmark of these wrong ways is a rebellious spirit that has never bowed before God, that demands from Him something that we simply want for ourselves, that complains at His provision, that demands He speed up His time table for us, that is unhappy at His reward.
The theme of testing God in the wilderness journeys in the exodus from Egypt is repeated often in the Psalms. The people made demands of God, rather than to receive humbly what He had provided for them.
He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved. (Psalm 78:15–18 ESV)
The last phrase above, “demanding the food they craved,” means to demand that God fulfill their lusts, not their needs. The heart that God blesses is the one that looks in faith on what He has given and rather than make demands based on human pride and lust, begins with gratitude. Seeing what God has done already, then we may pray in faith and in satisfaction of faith that He will provide.
Christ applied this to the method that God would use to establish His church. Satan tempted Him to test God wrongly by putting on a great display or show in public of God’s power. But it is interesting that Christ began His miracle-working ministry in an obscure town in Galilee, Cana, at a wedding, and over a seemingly insignificant matter — they had not enough wine (John 2:1–12). But it was there, and not in Jerusalem, that the disciples first put their faith in Him (John 2:11). Had He done it any other way, the disciples would never have had the opportunity of spiritual joy in the presence of a few quiet and obscure people, but also with the Spirit of God there. In fact, in John’s gospel, the next story in chapter 2, after the wedding in Cana, is His cleansing the temple of the money changers.
The safeguard for us is to not get ahead of God, but to humbly bow to His time-table for all things.
It seems that most believers have difficulty in realizing and facing up to the inexorable fact that God does not hurry in His development of our Christian life. He is working from and for eternity! So many feel they are not making progress unless they are. swiftly and constantly forging ahead. Now it is true that the new convert often begins and continues for some time at a fast rate. But this will not continue if there is to be healthy growth and ultimate maturity. God Himself will modify the pace. This is important to see, since in most instances when seeming declension begins to set in, it is not, as so many think, a matter of backsliding.
John Darby makes it plain that “it is God’s way to set people aside after their first start, that self-confidence may die down. Thus Moses was forty years. On his first start he had to run away. Paul was three years also, after his first testimony. Not that God did not approve the first earnest testimony. We must get to know ourselves and that we have no strength. Thus we must learn, and then leaning on the Lord we can with more maturity, and more experientially, deal with souls.”*
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* Miles Stanford, The Principles of Spiritual Growth, “Chapter Two: Time”
