The Temptation to Test God

The Temptation to Test God. Deut. 6:16-25;Matt. 4:5-7 The second temptation of Christ was to prove His deity by the spectacular. The devil tempted Christ to prove that He was the Son of God by doing two more acts.Christ was tempted to test God. He was tempted to do the spectacular. He was to jump off the towering pinnacle of the temple and let God send His angels to catch Him in mid-air and lift Him gently to the ground. Since He was God's only Son, God would certainly bear Him up so the devil reasoned.Christ was tempted to attract attention by the spectacular. The worshippers at the temple, seeing such a spectacular event, would accept and proclaim Him to be the Son of God.God is not to be tested. His will, His power, His protection, His promises are not to be presumed upon or taken advantage of or misused. God is not to be tested or tried; God is to be trusted. His will and His Word are to be trusted and obeyed just as they are laid down; all things are to be done exactly as He says.God is to be trusted, not the spectacular. God wants men to believe Him because they love Him as their Father, not because of events and happenings, whether they be spectacular or commonplace.Believers are often tempted the same as Christ.They are tempted to test God, to lay hold of some Biblical promise and take it out of context, to misuse and misapply it. The motive is sometimes good, for the believer wishes to do great things for God.We must always remember that God does give us great promises. But we must stay close to God (meditation and prayer) and stay in His Word in order to rightly understand His promises. This alone will keep us from misusing and misapplying His promises.