Numbers 21:5-9 divulges about the complaints of the Hebrews and their ill-contempt for the deliverance the LORD had promised them and had given them from Bondage.
'The people complained against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!'
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us."
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
"Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover."
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.' In this excerpt, it was the Hebrews that tempted the LORD with their arrogance and their ingratitude. They who were in bondage by Egypt for hundreds of years, whose same prayers rose to the Throne of Divine Mercy like sweet incense to be heard by The Almighty. That the Lord of Hosts sent Moses to be the deliverer of His People. Even after the miracles of the great plagues, even after the appearance of the Whirlwind of Fire that The LORD sent to hold back Pharaoh's charriots, and even after The LORD opened the Red Sea and SWALLOWED Pharaoh's Army at the same time; still the Hebrews would not stop complaining.
One here is reminded that 'tempting' the Lord Your God is by the use of words of arrogance, ingratitude, and sacrilegious actions in reference to the Divine Person.
We are reminded of this in In Deuteronomy 5, through Moses, He had rehearsed to the children of Israel the Ten Commandments. Then, in chapter 6, He told them to "love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might" (verse 5). He further told them to teach God's ways to their children, fear Him, stay away from other gods, and do "not tempt the LORD your God" (verses 7, 13-14, 16). As Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 show, God's blessings would flow to them if they were obedient—blessings that include the promise of protection.
And again in another verse;
In Matthew 4, Satan tempts Christ in various ways. At one point, he tries to get Jesus to throw Himself off the roof of the Temple, saying, "For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge concerning you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone'" (verse 6). Here Satan twists Psalm 91:11-12, which says, "For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone." God is promising protection to His people here, telling us that He will place His angels about us.
He is not telling us to attempt to hurt ourselves in a deliberate effort to see if He will come through for us.This, my brothers and sisters, is the ACT OF TEMPTING the Lord of Hosts. No One should EVER tempt the Lord, to see if the Lord Will Do or Not Do. The LORD wills things to happen because he has already seen the things that are yet to come. And came. As a Christian, all we have to do is BELIEVE and GLORIFY the LORD. Not 'tempt' him or 'test' him. In the grand scheme of things, we are but an insignificant speck in contrast to the Throne of the Divine Mercy. BUT it is in HIS GRACE that he cherishes us and LOVES us absolutely and UNCONDITIONALLY.
We are INSIGNIFICANT yet he LOVES us anyways.
We have NO RIGHT to Tempt the Lord, Our God. Only to Glorify Him. Now and Forever.
When Satan attempts to persuade Christ to jump off a building to prove that He truly is the Son of God, He answers the Devil,
"It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God'" (Matthew 4:7). Certainly, Jesus knew that God's angels were all about Him, but He also knew not to test God deliberately. Christ was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16, where hundreds of years earlier, He Himself had said this very same thing to the Israelites.
Tito Benne, The Only Bible I read is the one on my table, the Holy Bible: Catholica Magesterium
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