PUTTING GOD TO THE TEST
& PRESUMING UPON GOD
1.
Ps.78:18,
They willfully put
God to the test by demanding the food they
craved.
2.
78:41,
Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of
3.
78:56,
But they put
God to the test and rebelled against the Most
High; they did not keep his statutes.
4.
106:14,
In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test.
5.
Mt.4:7;
Lk.4:12,
Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "
6.
Acts 15:10,
Now
then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor
our fathers have been able to bear?
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Matthew 4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God. (KJV
DBY WBS YLT RSV)
Matthew 22:18 But Jesus perceived their
wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye
hypocrites? (KJV BBE DBY WBS YLT)
Mark 12:15 Shall we give, or shall we
not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why
tempt ye me? bring me a
penny, that I may see it. (KJV DBY WBS YLT)
Luke 4:12 Jesus answering, said to
him, "It has been said,'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" (WEB
KJV DBY WBS YLT RSV)
Luke 20:23 But he perceived their
craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? (KJV DBY WBS YLT)
Acts 5:9 But Peter asked her,
"How is it that you have agreed together to tempt
the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband
are at the door, and they will carry you out." (WEB KJV
DBY WBS YLT RSV)
Acts 15:10 Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the
disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? (WEB KJV DBY WBS YLT)
1 Corinthians
7:5 Don't deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a
season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together
again, that Satan doesn't tempt you because of your
lack of self-control. (WEB KJV WEY ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV
NIV)
1 Corinthians
10:9 Neither let us tempt
Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. (KJV DBY WBS YLT)
1
Thessalonians 3:5 For this cause I also, when I couldn't stand it any longer,
sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had
tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain. (Root in
WEB KJV WEY ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)
Hebrews 3:9 When
your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. (Root in KJV DBY WBS YLT)
James 1:13 Let no man say when he is
tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted by evil, and
he himself tempts no one. (Root in WEB KJV WEY ASV DBY WBS
YLT NAS RSV NIV)
Genesis 22:1 And it came to pass after
these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said
unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. (KJV WBS)
Exodus 17:2 Wherefore
the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And
Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? (KJV ASV DBY WBS)
Deuteronomy 6:16 You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah. (WEB KJV ASV DBY WBS)
Psalms 78:56 Yet they tempted and
rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies; (Root in WEB KJV ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS)
Isaiah 7:12 But Ahaz
said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh."
(WEB KJV ASV DBY WBS)
Malachi
3:15 Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work
wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and
escape.' (WEB KJV ASV DBY WBS YLT)
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Certain kinds of
tests are okay.
The
wet / dry wool test worked well for Gideon.
And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou
hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be
on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know
that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for
he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the
dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this
once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be
dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did
so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only,
and there was dew on all the ground. -- Judges 6:36-40
The
Elijah light-my-fire test is another option.
Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and
of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am
thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O
LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that
thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the LORD fell, and
consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and
licked up the water that was in the trench. -- 1 Kings 18:36-38
And
the turn-the-sun-back-10-degrees test worked well for Isaiah and Hezekiah.
And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will
heal me...? And Isaiah said ... shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go
back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light
thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return
backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he
brought the shadow ten degrees backward. -- 2 Kings 20:8-11
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The
whole Israelite community set out from the
Moses replied… “Why
do you put the LORD to the test?” They were without
water, thirsty, and they did ask God through Moses to provide for them.
In what way were they testing the Lord? Almost 38 years later, just
before the Israelites were going to cross over into the Promised Land, Moses
reminded them of all God had taught them, and he reminded them of this
incident, “Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah.” (Dt.6:16) Just after Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit,
before entering into His 3 year ministry, he was led into the desert we he was
tested by the devil. Jesus had to pass a similar test when the Adversary
took him to the top of the holy city and setting him on the highest
point asked Him to jump so that Heavens angels would catch Him. Jesus
answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Mt.4:7) If both Jesus and the Israelites were required to pass this test before entering the fullness
of what God had called them into, we too will need to pass this test
before entering into the fullness of all God has called us to.
What
is this test really about?
“But the people
were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why
did you bring us up out of
If God gave them what
they asked for, would they trust him then? David the Psalmist said of
them, “but they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the
desert against the Most High. They
willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. They
spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the desert? When he
struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But
can he also give us food? Can he supply
meat for his people?”"
(Ps.78:17-20)
[This is the background for Jesus’ statement in
Jn.6:26 “Truly, truly I say to
you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your
fill of the loaves.”] When God delivered them from slavery, still
they doubted, when He parted the
Contrast the trust of the
Israelites to that of their forefather, Abraham when God asked him to sacrifice
His only son (Gen.22:1-18), his son of promise which he his wife Sarah had born
to him when he was 100 years of age. Abraham did not doubt God as he
packed the firewood but no sacrifice, and when his son asked his only response
was that God would provide.
Gods
love for us cannot be determined by our circumstance
We run the risk of
putting our God to the test when we determine God’s love for us [or measure His goodness] by looking at our
circumstances. We must look at our circumstances through His Love.
The book of James puts it this way, “Regard it all as joy, my brothers, when you face various
kinds of temptations; for you know that the testing of your trust produces
perseverance. But let your perseverance
do its complete work; so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in
nothing” (Jas.1:2-4) [ie, the work of
perseverance is character-building and therefore for your good]
God is interested in our happiness, and it’s true that he does want the
best for us, even on earth, however, more important than our happiness is that
we be found having trust. To God our trust is worth far more than pure
gold, “even gold is tested for genuineness by fire. The purpose
of these trials is so that your trust’s genuineness [real confidence in God],
which is far more valuable than perishable gold, will be judged worthy of
praise, glory and honor at the revealing of Jesus the Messiah.”
(1 Pt.1:7)
The Bible has many
accounts of those called by God and as a result faced great opposition. It was this opposition when endured with
faith that established the promise. When Abraham had not withheld his
only son, God said, “that because you have done this, because you haven’t withheld
your son, your only son. I will most certainly bless you; and I will most
certainly increase your descendents to as many as there are stars in the sky or
grains of sand on the seashore.”
(Gen.22:16b-17)
Conclusion
Before we will enter into
the fullness of what God has called us to, we will need to pass the same tests
the Israelites did during the wilderness, one of which is learning not to put
our God to the test by doubting His love and faithfulness to us. When God
gives us an assignment, there will be opposition. God will not always
seem near to us either, but we must come to trust Him even when he seems
distant. When the Israelites wandered the desert facing their trials and
the harshness of the desert, “There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a
father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” (Dt.1:31) We may not see God carrying us through our
trials, but He is there not only helping us, but carrying us. “Who among you fears
ADONAI? Who obeys what his servant says? Even when he walks in the
dark, without any light, he will trust in ADONAI’s
reputation and rely on his God.” (Is.50:10)
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WHEN GOD WAS PUT ON
TRIAL
1All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the
wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and
camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the
people to drink. 2(B)
Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to
drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do
you(C) test the LORD?" 3But the
people thirsted there for water, and(D)
the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out
of
The ESV notes
here point out that Meribah
(v.7) is often used in legal contexts having to do with bringing suit (ie, plead
your case, Mic.6:1). God is being tested in the judicial sense,
accused of abandoning
Rom.1:16-17 "In the Gospel
[the good news that Jesus has born the
penalty for our transgressions],
the righteousness of God has been revealed." 3:9-26 "But now the righteousness
of God has been manifested…the law and the prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness
of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For…for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, being justified by His grace as a gift, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by
His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because
in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins."
Paul is arguing not only that God
delayed judgment of Old Testament believers by leaving previously committed
sins unpunished, but also that He transferred their sins to Jesus where
they were punished and thus righteousness upheld. That is the core of what the discussion of
Abraham's justification in Rom.4 is about.
"It was to show
His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and
the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (4.21-26) "so that grace
might rein through righteousness." (5:21)
When John
expressed his reservation to baptize Jesus, Jesus answered "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness."
(Mt.3:13-15)
This is how God resolves the tension between judging sin and forgiving
the sinner.
2 Pt.1:1 "To those who have
obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our
God and Savior Jesus Christ" > 1 Jn.1:9 "If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness."
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http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=117769605795
For this reason late
Saturday night I apologized to God that, like in high school, I had presumed upon His kindness. It
was an honest "I'm sorry," feeling like he'd given me that memory in
high school to say that I should be careful not to put him to the test, especially when I only have limited
mental and physical energies. So it was, when He began to help me put
thoughts together late in the night, and at about 7am I found myself with a
sermon that was something substantive and intelligible, I was thankful but
humbled; like my earthly father, my Heavenly Father had stayed up. I
deserved embarrassment but in God's mercy, He gave the people the manna they
needed.
This experience makes me
ponder in what OTHER ways I presume
upon God. Do I force Him to come through with money, energy, grace,
protection, etc when I really should be exerting God-given wisdom, prudence,
self-control, and intellect? Do I respect the kindness of God, or do I
just Expect it?
In my heart I don't plan
on continuing this habit - expecting God is always going to 'come
through'. Just like I shouldn't walk through downtown
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http://soulthirstcafe.com/?tag=presuming-upon-god
In Josh.7:1-5, we find the continuation of Achan’s story.
“Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two
or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a
few men are there.” Josh.7:3
So, with the
wall-crumbling success of
What happened? We were
coasting along, enjoying the spoils of victory against
Now before you jump to
conclusions and pin this whole thing on Achan, let’s
reexamine the facts. Before Joshua led the people into battle against seemingly
impossible circumstances (
He sought the Lord.
The Captain of the Army
of the Lord told Joshua exactly what to do and he did it - and thus led the
Israelites to victory. Joshua was desperate because the battle against
This is where Joshua
teaches us our next lesson. We must never
presume upon God. We can never assume that just because God brought us through difficult times
before and led us to success that He is obligated to do it again just because
we are His children. [That conclusion is neither axiomatic nor automatic.]
Here’s the positive way
to put it: We must always remain men and
women of prayer. We must live every moment as though we desperately
need God to come through for us, because if we do not, we will quickly discover
that we can get a lot of man-sized things accomplished under our own power - we
will just miss the God-sized things that God wanted to do through us if we
would have only been desperate for Him. It doesn’t matter how many battles
we’ve won, we can never presume upon God to do His thing just because He did it
last time and we’re pros now. We discover time and time again in the Scriptures
that God will let us fall flat on our faces when we substitute past successes
for present submission.
So today’s question is:
Where are you presuming upon God? Where are you leaning on past success to
carry you through rather than moment by moment desperation for God? What
project are you venturing forward with without consulting God first? His plan
may not be your plan. It rarely is. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests
with the LORD.”
Go to Him now with whatever project you are currently working on and get His
perspective. You’ll be glad you did.
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http://www.konghee.com/www/2009/08/dont-be-presumptuous/
And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust
of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous,
self-willed … 2 Pt.2:10
David prayed, “Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous
sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I
shall be innocent of great transgression” (Ps. 19:13). As we live our lives by faith, we have
to understand the difference between faith and
presumption:
Faith is a response to the initiative of God. Presumption takes the initiative away from God so that the believer
acts on his own initiative. Presumption is acting according to our own human will.
“But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against
the Most High. They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they
craved” (Ps.78:17-18). Presumption is a sin against God. In almost all cases, presumption is
classified as such a deadly sin, it is punishable by death!
Presumption
is linked to the Word of God in two ways:
(1) To claim a prophecy
to be a Word of the Lord when it is not - often leads to death (Dt.18:20, 22).
(2) To overstep the Word
of the Lord and to do beyond what His Word has said - often leads to
destruction (Num.14).
There are
various occasions of presumptuous sin recorded in the Bible:
(1) The presumptuous sin
of the children of
(2) The presumptuous sin
of Saul (1 Sam.13:8-14).
(3) The presumptuous sin
of David (2 Sam.6:1-7).
While faith recognizes
and yields to God’s sovereign will, presumption asserts self-will. Faith is
totally dependant on God and His rhema (Word), but presumption is dependant on our own
interpretation of the logos. Faith
will bear fruits that glorify God, but presumption contains an element of
human arrogance and self-glorification. Faith is yielding to God, but
presumption demands, compels, forces, and insists.
So how can a Christian
avoid presumption?
(1) Line-up your faith
with the whole counsel of God’s Word.
(2) Do not do anything
hastily (Prov.20:21; 25:8; Ecc.5:2).
(3) Never impose your
faith on others (Rom.12:3).
(4) Live at your own
level of faith (12:6).
(5) Always remember that
in the multitude of counselors there is safety (Prov.11:14).
(6) [Don’t challenge the goodness, faithfulness, or integrity
of God.]
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http://www.agsconsulting.com/htdbv5/r4592.htm
SECRET
FAULTS AND PRESUMPTUOUS SINS
"Cleanse
thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
sins; let them not have dominion over me; then shall I be upright, and I
shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and
the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and
my Redeemer." Ps.19:12-14.
This prophetic prayer
represents the heart attitude of the fully consecrated and earnest Christian.
While realizing forgiveness of the "sins that are
past through the forbearance of God," through the grace of God which was
in Christ Jesus, which imputed our sins to him and his righteousness to us who
believe in him, nevertheless the well-instructed soul realizes his faults, his
shortcomings.
These secret faults may be of two kinds:
(1) faults
which were secret to ourselves at the time committed--slips, unintentional
errors.
(2) secret
faults in the sense of being unknown to any one but ourselves and the
Lord--imperfections or faults of the mind before they
take the outward form of actual and presumptuous sins.
All Christians of
experience in the good way and in the battle against sin and self have learned
that there can be no outward or presumptuous sins that have not first had
their beginning in the secret faults of the mind. The sinful thought may be
one of pride suggesting self-exaltation; of avarice suggesting unlawful acquisition
of wealth; or of some other fleshly desire. The mere suggestion of the thought
before our minds is not sin; it is merely the operation of our faculties, and
of the influences which surround us, inquiring of [probing]
our wills whether or not we will consent to such thoughts. Many consent to
thoughts of evil who at the time would utterly repudiate any suggestion to
commit evil deeds; but if the thought be entertained it is a secret
fault, and the growing tendency would surely be toward the more outward and
presumptuous sinful conduct, the tendency of which is always from bad to worse.
The beginnings are always small, and correspondingly much easier to deal with
than in their developed form. Hence, the prophetic prayer, "Cleanse thou me from secret
faults" and thus restrain or keep me back from presumptuous sins.
In James 1:14-15
we read, "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his
own desire and enticed. Then, when desire hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Here we have the same thought
differently expressed. The temptation consists at first in the presentation to
the mind of suggestions which are impure or unkind or unfaithful to
obligations; but there is no sin, no fault, as yet. The fault begins when we
harbor the evil suggestions, begin to turn them over
in our minds, and to consider the attractions which they may have to offer.
This is where desire (taking hold of the evil thing instead of resisting
it) causes a beginning of the secret fault; and it is only a process of
development, which in many instances, under favorable circumstances, may be
very rapid, that sin, the presumptuous or outward acts of sin, results--for
instance, bearing false witness against a neighbor, or slander, or other evil
deeds. And the evil course having begun in the fostering of the evil
suggestion, and having progressed to presumptuous sin, there is a great danger
that the entire course of life will be ultimately affected thereby.
The more attention we
give to this subject, the more we will be convinced, from our own personal
experiences, of the truth of the Scriptural declarations respecting the
beginnings of sin as secret faults in the mind; and the more we will
appreciate the statement of the Word, "Keep
thy heart [mind, affections] with all diligence; for out of it are the issues
of life."--Prov.4:23.
The difficulty with many
is that they are looking for some great battles, instead of averting the great
battles by availing themselves of the Lord's provision, and keeping their minds
cleansed from secret faults. The little battles, which are much more numerous,
are the ones in which we gain the victories with their ultimate rewards. "Greater is he that ruleth his own
spirit [mind, will] than he that taketh a city."