Tempting God- Lack of Faith

Forty days Moses spent in the mount, after forty days he found the children of Israel had broken the new covenant they'd just formed with God.
Back to the mount, Moses spent another forty days there and this time when he returned he found the children of Israel contrite, still holding to the renewed covenant, unlike the first time.

However things didn't go as hoped, did they? God was WILLING to bring His children to the land promised to them many years ago. God WANTED to bring His children to the land promised to them. But after 400 years of captivity the PURE desire to be God's children and follow the ways of God, to honor God, to love God, to worship God- had been corrupted. The adult generation brought out from Egypt were stained with sin and filled with doubt, filled with defiance. God worked MIRACLES to free them from slavery- every single adult witnessed firsthand the miracles. Time and again the Egyptians were plagued while the children of Israel went untouched! Some like to logic away the miracles of God by believing each plague had its root in mundane fact. Some will even say the plagues attacked the Egyptians but not the children of Israel because they lived in a different section of Egypt. How does that explain the Hebrews living as slaves among those living in close proximity to the main city not being affected? It doesn't! How does it explain some of the animals being affected and others not? God smote the Egyptians quite pointedly and not just with one plague but several. Pharaoh could no longer take it because HE KNEW that God was attacking him and his people and not attacking the children of Israel. With such stark differences between those plagued and those not, Pharaoh could not deny the hand of God at work and so he let all his Hebrew slaves go… hundreds of thousands of them! If there were a logical explanation, Pharaoh would have seen it and never let all those slaves go! Never! Miracles beyond any question, beyond any doubt and yet the children of Israel were QUICK to forget the hand of God at work in their behalf. So caught up in their selfishness, so hardened to God's love they felt it was better to be enslaved than to suffer for freedom to worship God. They were an EVIL generation. They were corrupted and hope only remained in their children being brought up under the newly established covenant with God.


Now suppose they HADN'T been an evil generation… would they have gone to the promised land a lot sooner than 40 years later? Without a doubt.


After that first 40 days and 40 nights in the mount, Moses would have given to them the tables of stone with the commandments, as well as the instructions for the sanctuary and the people would have gone on to build the sanctuary and journey to the promised land.


It was only because of their evil ways that they had to wander for 40 years. They were blessed though, that they weren't completely wiped out that they were given a chance to be redeemed as a people.


Read these verses about the evil generation of Israel wandering for 40 years--


Deu 1:35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers


Num 14:30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
Num 14:31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
Num 14:32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
Num 14:33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Num 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
Num 14:35 I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.


Deu 2:7 For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing


Deu 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
Deu 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
Deu 8:4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
Deu 8:5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
Deu 8:6 Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.


Deu 29:2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
Deu 29:3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
Deu 29:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
Deu 29:5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.
Deu 29:6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.


Jos 5:6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.


Neh 9:20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
Neh 9:21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.


Psa 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Psa 95:2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Psa 95:3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Psa 95:4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
Psa 95:5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Psa 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
Psa 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Psa 95:8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Psa 95:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
Psa 95:10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
Psa 95:11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.


Heb 3:7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
Heb 3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Heb 3:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Heb 3:10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
Heb 3:11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)


Heb 3:15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Heb 3:16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
Heb 3:17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
Heb 3:18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
Heb 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.



When Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and nights to be tempted- it was a trying time like we can't fully comprehend. It was there that Jesus' loyalty to God was to be tested. There would have been NO redemption for the children of God had Jesus failed the testing. There would have been NO wandering for 40 years weeding out the evil because it wasn't a people being tested, but the Savior Himself. Jesus relying solely upon God for absolutely EVERYTHING, Jesus believing, Jesus having faith.


Also, Jesus wasn't coming out of 400 years of bondage. Jesus was coming out of people steeped in the old covenant ways, over a 1000 years obeying the old covenant ways, a lot longer if you take it all the way back to the beginning of sin's entrance into the world when Eve sinned. Animal sacrifice as an example of the ultimate sacrifice needed to wipe out sins dates back to Adam and Eve, back to Cain and Abel. Jesus was the central figure in the turning point from a covenant that pointed to a Savior - towards a covenant existing after the Savior's arrival. The turning point was going to be fought tooth and nail (so to speak) by Satan. He'd existed for thousands of years trying to prevent the Savior from coming into existence - thousands of years! Now here He was, the Savior born and grown, ready to usher in the new covenant way and Satan wanted Him destroyed.


The first temptation written about was Satan wanting Jesus to change a stone into bread so Jesus would eat it and no longer suffer being hungry. Jesus told Satan that it was written that it was better to obey God than to eat.


Another temptation…


Mat 4:5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
Mat 4:6 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: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.


Luk 4:9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
Luk 4:10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
Luk 4:11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.


The devil was allowed to TAKE Jesus, to BRING Jesus to a pinnacle on the temple in Jerusalem.


Imagine it for a moment. Supernatural power being exert by Satan to transport Jesus from the wilderness to the holy city, and not just to the holy city but to a PINNACLE on the temple! We really can imagine it can't we? We can because we've seen enough movies on television that use special effects to do all sorts of fictional supernatural occurrences. The movie Superman from way back has Him flying about taking people here and there with him. Many other shows and movies use the same special effects to get the one watching to understand there is something spectacular taking place, something out of the ordinary. So yes, we CAN imagine it happening only with Jesus there was no special effects, no blue screen, no film manipulation, no special props it was the REAL deal. Satan took Jesus bodily from the wilderness and placed Him on a temple turret, a high place upon the temple. And once there Satan USED the written word of God to entice Jesus to sin. Did you catch that point… Satan USED THE WRITTEN WORD OF GOD! People like to imagine that Satan recoils at the mere thought of God but it's not true, Satan uses God's words- manipulating them as He did right from the beginning with Eve. Did the words Satan recite ring true? Yes, they were true!


Psa 91:11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
Psa 91:12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.


Luk 4:9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
Luk 4:10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
Luk 4:11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.


For it is WRITTEN- Satan used God's own words to tempt Jesus. Surely if God had said this it had to be true so Satan wanted Jesus to PROVE that what God said was true. You can just imagine Satan feeling superior and cunning ready to trip Jesus up with his wily ways. But it wasn't to be, Jesus knew God's word from the beginning to the end, every sentence written in what we call the Old Testament, Jesus knew.


Mat 4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Luk 4:12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.


Deu 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

Exo 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?


Jesus knew better than to do ANYTHING other than what His Father wanted Him to do. When Satan told Him to cast Himself down because God said He'd bear Him up with angels, how easy it would have been for Jesus to do just that- just as easy as it would have been for Him to change a stone into bread- very, very easy. But doing ANYTHING at all to try God is asking for trouble. It's not because it can't be done, it's because there has to be BELIEF without seeing, a belief without a proving. The importance of faith goes way beyond what the devil would have us understand. Jesus already believed, Jesus had the faith already and didn't need God to prove a single thing. Jesus believed wholeheartedly. We need to have this kind of faith when we are tempted, a faith that realizes that God is allowing all that happens to us for a reason and we don't have to know why, just know that God IS, and God's will must be done and we are not to tempt God- because our tempting of God reveals our lack of faith in Him.


By the grace of our Lord, our Savior may we come to full knowledge of His will in all things. May we understand the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness as He would have us understand. Help us Lord to learn of this amazing transitioning period in time- the ending of one way of life and the beginning of the new way of life that would exist until everlasting life becomes the next transition of us, Your people.


By Your will, by Your grace!


Amen.