Testing God and Trusting God

One of the alumni of my Devotional Writing course, Becca Rehberger, has started a blog in which she's offering thoughts in connection with sermon excerpts from Martin Luther.  You might want to check out Becca's Notes on Luther blog. 

Becca has given me permission to feature one of her posts here also, on the Electric Gospel, as a way of introducing you to her page.  This is an item titled, "Testing God and Trusting God."

“He who holds fast to the Word alone, trusts and abides in it, does not doubt that what the Word says will come to pass; he who does not dictate aim or time or means or ways, but resigns all freely to God’s will and pleasure as to when, how, where, and by whom he will fulfill his Word; he, I say, has a true living faith which does not nor cannot tempt God. Learn then what it means to tempt God; it is easily understood; it is a deficiency of true faith. To faith belongs above all the Word of God, as the foundation and rock of faith (Complete Sermons of Martin Luther Volume 1.1, tr. Lenker, “Epiphany”, pg 367).”

"Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.’ 
But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.’ 
Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?" (Isaiah 7:11-13, NIV 2011)'”

The Bible frequently talks about human beings being tempted and tested, and we see the evidence of that temptation in our everyday lives. Whether our sin of choice is anger, envy, self-pity, or something else, the devil finds some way to dig his claws into us and tempt us to sin. So how can God be tested and tempted?

It’s true that Jesus was tempted while he was in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). However, the Bible speaks of God being tested in a different sense. Essentially, to test or tempt God is to expect him to do something he has not promised, or, as Luther puts it, “to believe when he did not command faith and gave us no Word, or to disbelieve when he bids believe and gives us his Word. (Complete Sermons of Martin Luther Volume 1.1, tr. Lenker, “Epiphany”, pg 367)”

God’s people have always been guilty of this. Ahaz, the king of Judah in the passage above, disbelieved God when he offered to give the king a sign — in wanting to avoid testing God, he did just that through his unbelief. However, Jesus resisted the temptation to test God in our place. This is especially evident when the devil told him that he should throw himself down from a high place because the angels would protect him (Matthew 4:5-7).

At first glance, it may seem as though the devil has a point, but that’s not the case. God gives us ways and means to protect us from physical and spiritual danger: food to prevent us from starving, work to help us support ourselves and our families, common sense to keep us from putting ourselves at unnecessary risk, and his Word to strengthen our faith. Jesus knew that putting himself at risk in this way was breaking the Fifth Commandment, which applies to our own life as well as others‘. God does not want us to dare him to do something he has not promised, nor does he want us to tell him when he can work.

That doesn’t mean God is absent or aloof. Far from it — in fact, he tells us to call upon him when other means of support fail (Psalm 50:15). He continually tells us in his Word to trust in him for deliverance in bodily needs (Malachi 3:10). In fact, the Lord’s Prayer includes a petition to “give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). So Christians work and remain watchful, using the ways God has given us to sustain ourselves while trusting in God to provide.

The most important piece of God’s provision deals not with our bodies, but with our souls. When it comes to saving ourselves from sin, we are helpless — as Ephesians 2:1 says, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” We can’t come to faith on our own any more than a dead person can do a cartwheel. God had to do all the work to bring us to faith: Jesus’s perfect life and innocent death paid for all of mankind’s sins, and the Holy Spirit’s power works faith in our hearts through God’s Word. Though we are tempted to tell God, “I can come to you on my own,” he has already done everything for us.

God has given us everything we need to know for salvation, and given us the freedom to serve him in everyday life. He gives us the power to overcome temptation and the faith to trust his Word. That fact frees us from fear of this life and the next.