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“Jesus answered him, *‘It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’*”
— Matthew 4:7 (quoting Deuteronomy 6:16)
“*You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.*”
— Deuteronomy 6:16
“And he named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not?’”
— Exodus 17:7 (NASB)
The central theme of this song is very clear:
Do not test the Lord. Trust Him. Obey Him. Do not demand a sign.
The lyrics echo the words of Moses to Israel, and the words of Jesus to Satan. They contrast two ways of relating to God:
This is not a minor issue. It is a covenant issue. It reveals whether we know God as Lord, or whether we try to make Him serve our expectations.
So we begin with the Word of God itself:
“*Do not put the Lord your God to the test.*”
### Deuteronomy 6:16 – Moses Addressing a New Generation
Deuteronomy is Moses’ farewell teaching to Israel on the plains of Moab, just before they enter the Promised Land. A whole generation had died in the wilderness because of unbelief and disobedience. Moses is preparing the new generation to walk differently.
In Deuteronomy 6, Moses has just given the Shema:
> “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
> You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
> — Deuteronomy 6:4–5
Then he warns them:
> “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.”
> — Deuteronomy 6:16
Moses reaches back about 40 years to a specific incident at Massah. He is saying, in effect:
“Do not repeat the sins of your fathers. Do not relate to God the way they did in the wilderness.”
### Exodus 17:7 – Massah and Meribah
To understand this warning, we must go back to Exodus 17.
Israel has just been brought out of Egypt by mighty signs and wonders. The Red Sea has been parted. The Egyptian army has been destroyed. Bitter waters at Marah have been made sweet. Manna has appeared from heaven.
Now they come to a place called Rephidim.
> “There was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water that we may drink.’”
> — Exodus 17:1–2
Their reaction is not a humble request. It is a quarrel, a demand, an accusation. They say:
> “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
> — Exodus 17:3
Notice the steps:
1. Difficulty: no water.
2. Fear: “We will die here.”
3. Accusation: “You brought us out to kill us.”
4. Testing God:
> “…because they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not?’”
> — Exodus 17:7
Moses cries out to the Lord. God instructs him to strike the rock at Horeb. Water flows. The people drink. God provides.
But God does not forget their attitude. Moses gives that place a name:
> “So he named the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not?’”
> — Exodus 17:7
From that moment, Massah becomes a spiritual reference point. It is mentioned again in Deuteronomy 6:16; Deuteronomy 9:22; Psalm 95:8–9; Hebrews 3–4. It stands as a warning:
Do not relate to God with unbelief clothed in demands.
### Jesus in the Wilderness – Matthew 4:7 / Luke 4:12
In the Gospels, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. One of the temptations:
> “Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
> “He will command His angels concerning You,”
> and
> “On their hands they will bear You up,
> so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.”’”
> — Matthew 4:5–6
Satan quotes Psalm 91, but he twists its application. He is inviting Jesus to manufacture a sign—to force God’s hand, to stage a miracle as proof.
Jesus answers:
> “Jesus said to him, ‘On the other hand, it is written, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”’”
> — Matthew 4:7
Jesus reaches back to Deuteronomy 6:16. He refuses to put the Father on trial. He will not test God to prove sonship. He chooses trust and obedience instead of spectacle and demands.
This is the pattern for us.
### 1) “Test” – Hebrew: נָסָה (*nasah*)
In Deuteronomy 6:16 and Exodus 17:7, the word “test” is nasah.
In the negative sense, to test God means:
In Exodus 17:7, the people “tested” the Lord with the question:
“Is the Lord among us, or not?”
They are not honestly inquiring; they are accusing. After all God has done, they now say: “We are not satisfied. Show us again, or we will not believe that You are truly with us.”
So when the song says:
> “Do not test the Lord your God—
> trust His word, stand on His promise.
> He is faithful, He is true—
> don’t demand a sign from Him.”
It is capturing this Hebrew idea:
Do not make God prove Himself again and again before you will believe.
### 2) “Grumbled” – Hebrew: לון/לוּן (*lun*)
In Exodus and Numbers, a frequent word used of Israel is lun—to murmur, complain, lodge, remain.
Grumbling is not just expressing distress; it is settling into an attitude of complaint against God and His appointed leaders.
Psalm 95 interprets Massah this way:
> “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
> as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
> when your fathers tested Me,
> they tried Me, though they had seen My work.”
> — Psalm 95:8–9
Grumbling leads to hardening of heart. Testing God is not neutral; it changes us. It forms a pattern of unbelief.
This deepens the force of the lyric:
> “Remember how your fathers grumbled—
> trust Him fully without doubt.”
The opposite of grumbling is trust. The opposite of testing is resting in who God is, regardless of visible evidence at the moment.
Let us now walk through the themes in the lyrics and connect them with the whole counsel of Scripture.
---
### A. “Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Here the song begins exactly where it should: with Jesus.
He is not merely quoting Scripture; He is modeling the right way to relate to God.
Notice:
1. Jesus is the Son of God. If anyone might claim the right to demand a spectacular sign, it would be Him. Yet He refuses.
2. The devil’s temptation is not simply “jump”; it is “prove who You are by forcing God to act on Your timetable and in Your way.”
3. Jesus counters not with personal opinion, but with Scripture: “It is written…”
This establishes a key principle:
Our relationship with God must be governed by what is written, not by what we demand.
Even the promises of protection in Psalm 91 must be understood in the context of obedience, not presumption. Psalm 91 is for those who:
It is not a license to stage dramatic tests of God’s faithfulness.
---
### B. “Do not test the Lord your God—trust His word, stand on His promise. He is faithful, He is true—don’t demand a sign from Him.”
Here we see a direct contrast:
Scripture clearly teaches that God does give signs, miracles, and confirmations:
But there is a critical difference between:
1. God sovereignly giving signs as confirmation of His Word, and
2. Man demanding signs as a condition for belief.
Jesus rebukes a whole generation for this attitude:
> “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.”
> — Matthew 16:4
Why “evil and adulterous”? Because seeking signs in this way is spiritual unfaithfulness. It says, in effect:
“Your Word is not enough. Your character is not enough. We need more.”
Faith says:
> “God has spoken. That settles it. I stand on His Word because He is faithful and true.”
The song rightly grounds our trust in His nature:
> “He is faithful, He is true—
> don’t demand a sign from Him.”
God’s faithfulness is not proved by whether He performs on our schedule. It is established in:
To demand a sign is to shift the center from who God is to what I want now.
---
### C. “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. Remember how your fathers grumbled—trust Him fully without doubt.”
The lyric here directly quotes Deuteronomy 6:16 and ties it to history: Massah.
What did Massah reveal?
1. Unbelief despite evidence:
“They tried Me, though they had seen My work.” (Psalm 95:9)
2. Short memory: They forgot the Red Sea, the plagues, the manna.
3. Distorted view of God: “You brought us out to kill us” (Exodus 17:3).
4. Demand for proof of presence: “Is the Lord among us, or not?” (Exodus 17:7).
This is not honest wrestling or crying out in weakness. Scripture is full of honest prayers of distress (Psalms, Lamentations). But Massah is different: it is accusatory unbelief after abundant revelation.
Hebrews 3 applies this directly to us:
> “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
> ‘Today if you hear His voice,
> Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,
> as in the day of trial in the wilderness,
> where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,
> and saw My works for forty years.’”
> — Hebrews 3:7–9
Then the warning:
> “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”
> — Hebrews 3:12
Testing God is the outward expression of an evil, unbelieving heart. It leads to falling away.
So the lyric is not sentimental; it is a very serious exhortation:
> “Remember how your fathers grumbled—
> trust Him fully without doubt.”
“Fully” means: based on His Word, not on visible circumstances.
“Without doubt” means: I settle this in my heart—God is who He says He is, regardless of what I see.
---
### D. “Trust His heart, obey His voice—do not put the Lord to the test.”
Here the song moves deeper: beyond signs, beyond external proofs, to the heart and the voice of God.
Two key phrases:
1. “Trust His heart”
This speaks of God’s inner nature, His intentions toward us.
Scripture reveals His heart:
To trust His heart is to be persuaded of His goodness even when His dealings are severe or mysterious.
2. “Obey His voice”
This is central to biblical covenant:
Obedience to His voice is the proper response to revelation.
Testing God, by contrast, says: “I will obey only after You meet my demands.”
Spiritual warfare is involved here. Satan’s strategy, as with Eve and with Israel, is to question God’s heart and God’s word:
When we yield to that voice, we begin to test God rather than trust Him.
The Holy Spirit’s work is the opposite. He writes God’s law on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10). He reveals the Father’s love (Romans 5:5). He enables obedience from the heart (Romans 6:17).
So the lyric captures the proper sequence:
This is how we walk as mature sons and daughters, not spiritual children always asking for more proof.
This is not just doctrine; it is a daily issue. How do we move from testing God to trusting God?
I will outline four practical steps, each with a clear proclamation.
### Step 1: Recognize and Renounce the Attitude of Testing
First, we must honestly ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts.
Questions to consider:
These are forms of testing God.
We must call it what Scripture calls it: unbelief and hardness of heart, not merely “struggle.”
Then we deliberately renounce that attitude.
Proclamation 1:
“I renounce every attitude of testing God. I lay down every demand that God must meet my conditions. I refuse to say, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not?’ I choose to trust His presence, His Word, and His character.”
---
### Step 2: Anchor Your Faith in the Written Word, Not in Signs
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
Faith does not come by seeing signs; signs may follow, but they are not the foundation.
We must decide:
“God’s Word is final authority, not my experiences or lack of experiences.”
When Jesus was tempted, He did not seek a personal, fresh sign to counter the devil. He stood on, “It is written.”
So we must fill our minds and hearts with the Scripture that reveals God’s nature and His promises, and say:
Proclamation 2:
“God’s Word is enough for me. I choose to stand on what is written. I do not need to see before I believe. I believe, and then I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
---
### Step 3: Replace Grumbling with Thanksgiving and Praise
Grumbling opens the door to testing God. Thanksgiving shuts that door and opens the way into God’s presence.
Practical action:
Proclamation 3:
“I refuse to grumble against the Lord. I choose to remember His works and give Him thanks. With my mouth I will praise Him, even in difficulty. I confess: the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever.”
---
### Step 4: Choose Obedience Before Understanding or Visible Provision
The key difference between testing God and trusting God is this:
**Testing says, “Show me, then I will obey.”
Trust says, “I will obey because You have spoken, whether or not I see.”**
Abraham went out “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
Peter cast the net again “at Your word” (Luke 5:5), even after a fruitless night.
In many areas—finances, relationships, holiness, ministry—we are tempted to delay obedience until God gives us some sign. This is subtle unbelief.
Practical step: identify one area where you know God has spoken through His Word, but you have been waiting for some further sign or confirmation as an excuse for delay. Then obey.
Proclamation 4:
“I choose to obey the voice of the Lord without demanding further proof. Where His Word is clear, I will act. I walk by faith, not by sight. My obedience does not depend on signs, but on His authority as Lord.”
### Proclamation (Confession of Faith)
Say this aloud, thoughtfully and deliberately:
“I declare that Jesus Christ is my Lord and my example. As He refused to test the Father, I also refuse to test the Lord my God. I will not demand signs or proofs as a condition for my faith. I remember Massah and refuse the unbelief of that generation.
I renounce all grumbling, complaining, and hardness of heart. I reject every thought that says, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not?’ I affirm that the Lord is with me. His Word is true. His promises are sure. He is faithful and He is good.
I choose to trust His heart and obey His voice. I anchor my life in what is written in the Scriptures. I walk by faith and not by sight. I will not put the Lord my God to the test. Instead, I will trust His Word, stand on His promise, and live as a faithful son/daughter in His house. In the name of Jesus. Amen.”
### Prayer
“Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I come to You. I acknowledge that at times I have doubted You, questioned Your presence, and demanded that You prove Yourself to me. I confess this as sin. I ask You to forgive me and cleanse me from an evil, unbelieving heart.
Holy Spirit, search me and expose every hidden attitude of testing God. Break the patterns of grumbling and complaining in my life. Write Your Word deeply on my heart. Reveal to me the faithfulness, the truth, and the goodness of the Father.
Lord Jesus, I look to You as my pattern. As You stood in the wilderness and answered, ‘It is written: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test,’ give me that same steadfast heart. Teach me to trust the Father’s heart and obey His voice, even when I see no outward sign.
From this day, help me to live not by demands, but by faith; not by sight, but by Your Word. Strengthen me to be faithful without demand, trusting that You are always with me. I thank You for hearing me. I receive Your grace to walk this out. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
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