Bible Study - Temptation (3) - The Temptation to Test GOD - Matt 4/Deut. 6 - April 30, 2023

 

Bible Study – Temptation (3) – The Temptation to Test GOD – April 30, 2023

This is lesson three (3) in our series entitled “Dealing with Temptation.”

Our focus scripture is Matthew 4:5-7 and Deuteronomy 6:16-25.

All humans will face temptation during their life upon earth. This includes Spirit-born Christians.

1 Corinthians 10:13:

¹³ No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

When a person is conceived, he/she has been fashioned by GOD in his/her mother’s womb according to HIS purpose. A person’s DNA brings in good attributes and some not so good attributes. All humans have ancestral baggage. 

JESUS had ancestral baggage scripture reveals in Hebrews 4:15:

¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest (JESUS) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

As we read in our selected scripture, we see that JESUS was not exempt from being tempted to take a short cut for Himself. Let’s explore!

Matthew 4:5-7:

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written:

He will give his angels orders concerning you,
and they will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.”^[b]

⁷ Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”^[c]

JESUS knew that Satan was a liar and the Father of lies as recorded in John 8:44: You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

Notice that Satan quotes scripture to JESUS. There are many reasons why Spirit-born people must know scripture. The main reason is for them to know truth to use in battles that Satan brings their way. We can use scripture for offense and defense.

JESUS did not take the easy way out. JESUS remained true to HIS calling and HIS purpose for all mankind. Only JESUS living a perfect, sinless life could pay, in full, for all sin by the shedding of HIS blood for the sins of all mankind for eternity.

We skip to the Old Testament:

Deuteronomy 6:16-19:

¹⁶ Do not test the Lord your God as you tested him at Massah. ¹⁷ Carefully observe the commands of the Lord your God, the decrees and statutes he has commanded you. ¹⁸ Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your ancestors, ¹⁹ by driving out all your enemies before you, as the Lord has said.

Another reason to study and know scripture is to avoid pitfalls along life’s journey. The Holy Spirit reminded Moses of what Moses himself had experienced in the wilderness. GOD equips us but with certain instructions.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is known as the Shema or simply to listen.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

⁴ “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. ⁶ These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. ⁷ Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol^[b] on your forehead.^[c] 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.

Remembering God through Obedience

¹⁰ “When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give you—a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. ¹³ Fear the Lord your God, worship him, and take your oaths in his name. ¹⁴ Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you, ¹⁵ for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise, the Lord your God will become angry with you and obliterate you from the face of the earth. ¹⁶ Do not test the Lord your God as you tested him at Massah. ¹⁷ Carefully observe the commands of the Lord your God, the decrees and statutes he has commanded you. ¹⁸ Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your ancestors, ¹⁹ by driving out all your enemies before you, as the Lord has said. (Ancestral, real or imagined)

What did Moses do at Massah? Let’s go back and review GOD calling Moses to go to Egypt and be GOD’S spokesperson to the Egyptian King for the release of the Israelites. Moses questioned GOD’S reasoning for choosing him for such an awesome responsibility. We read in Exodus 4:1 Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

² The Lord asked him (Moses), “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

³ “Throw it on the ground,” he said. So, Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran from it. ⁴ The Lord told Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So, he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. ⁵ “This will take place,” he continued, “so that they (Israelites) will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

Moses staff became a symbol of the presence and power of the one true GOD of the Israelites, “I AM” or Yahweh.

GOD instructed Moses on when to use the staff and when to not. GOD instructed Moses to use the staff a number of times but our focus is on the time the Israelites could not find water in the Wilderness twice.

We read in Exodus 17:1-7: (The First Time)

17 The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. (The water was bitter)  ² So the people complained to Moses, “Give us water to drink.”

“Why are you complaining to me?” Moses replied to them. “Why are you testing the Lord?”

³ But the people thirsted there for water and grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you ever bring us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

There are times when GOD leads us into dry places where we cry out to GOD. It is always a teaching opportunity. It all depends how we respond to it.

⁴ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!”

When GOD’S Chosen experience the dry places, who do they turn to in a crisis? Where or to whom do we turn to when we experience the dry times in our lives is a reflection of our spiritual growth.

In this case Moses turned to the LORD!

⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. ⁶ I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ He named the place Massah^[a] and Meribah^[b] because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Such an issue presented itself a second time when the Israelites were wandering in the Wilderness of Zin. The Israelites and their cattle were thirsty and they complained to Moses and Aaron. 

Notice that Moses and Aaron go into the tent of meeting to inquire how GOD wanted them to handle this water crisis.

Numbers 20:6-13: ⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting. They fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. ⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses, ⁸ “Take the staff and assemble the community. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will yield its water. You will bring out water for them from the rock and provide drink for the community and their livestock.”

⁹ So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence just as he had commanded him. ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron summoned the assembly in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?” ¹¹ Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that abundant water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

¹² But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me to demonstrate my holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them.” ¹³ These are the Waters of Meribah,^[b] where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, and he demonstrated his holiness to them.

Why on earth did Moses strike the rock rather than following GOD’S instructions and “speak to the rock?” Simply “Moses did not trust GOD to demonstrate HIS holiness in sight of the Israelites.” Was it ego? Often, we stick with what we know works rather than reaching beyond our comfort zone. I believe GOD wanted to show Moses and the Israelites that HIS power was in the spoken word and not in a stick. Only Moses had a stick but all who place their faith in GOD have a voice.

What did JESUS tell HIS disciples in Matthew 17:20 - ²⁰ “Because of your little faith,” he^[a] told them. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of ^[b] a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”^[c]

GOD desires complete obedience to HIS instructions. Water came from the rock but Moses had to suffer the consequence. He could not enter into the Promised Land but GOD did allow him to see it from atop a mountain.

Deuteronomy 6:20-25:

²⁰ “When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²² Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, ²³ but he brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that he swore to our ancestors. ²⁴ The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today. ²⁵ Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

How can we measure up to verse 25? We can ask JESUS to forgive us for our sins, ask HIM to come into our lives, believing that JESUS is GOD’S acceptable atonement for all sin. Quicker than the twinkle of the eye, that person is Spiritually born into GOD’S Family, never to be unborn.

Let’s read 2 Corinthians 5:25:

²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” ²¹ He (GOD) made the one who did not know sin (JESUS) to be sin^[e] for us, so that in him (JESUS) we might become the righteousness of God.

When a person places faith in JESUS, that person is made righteous before GOD and as a result can approach GOD 24/7 with his/her requests. The Spirit-born person becomes an Ambassador for CHRIST and represents GOD’S Kingdom upon earth.

Yes, the Spirit born person will find himself or herself in the wilderness and be thirsty for the living water that only JESUS provides. That is when we go to our FATHER and make our requests known to HIM. HE will give all who seek HIM the living water provided by the Holy Spirit.

Life is a journey and GOD’S desire is that we build the right relationship with HIM through faith in JESUS. GOD’S desire is for HIS Children to trust HIM in all circumstances and HE will test us. Why? Because HE loves us.

Blessings!!!