“And he called the place Massah
and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord
saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Exodus 17:7
In a previous blog entitled Already There, I told the story of a Pass it On card which, to this
day, I believe God gave to me. The
message on the card was, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, God is already
there”. Last June I spoke at a women’s
retreat in Pennsylvania and, since I was going to tell the story of that card,
I decided to take it with me to show them.
When the retreat was over, I remember putting it in my purse so that I
wouldn’t lose it, and after that I have a very hazy impression that I was
afraid it might fall out of my purse, so I moved it; but, the fact of the
matter was, when I got home I couldn’t find it.
I took everything out of my purse and wallet, twice. I looked through my suitcase and my car. I
looked through my Bible, which is full of old class notes, pictures and
mementos, but to no avail. I was just
sick to think that it was gone! I
finally comforted myself with the thought that, if it had fallen out somewhere,
maybe someone else who needed it had found it and the Pass it On card had
actually been passed on; but every time I thought about it I had a pang of loss.
I’ll get back to this
story and what it has to do with Jesus’ second temptation in a minute, but
first I want to talk about the temptation itself. For the setting of the second temptation,
Matthew says in chapter 4 verse 5, “Then the devil took him [Jesus] to the holy
city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.” What strikes me immediately are the words,
“took him” and “had him stand”. This was
obviously not a situation where Satan asked Jesus whether he would be willing
to go with him to the temple, he just took him and had him stand where he
wanted him. This was only the case
because God allowed it to be so. These
temptations were an integral part of the plan for Jesus to “fulfill all
righteousness” for us. Jesus had been
led into the desert initially for the express purpose of being tempted by the
devil (Matthew 4:1) and Jesus was obediently submitting to the test. And so, we find the still hungry, weakened
Jesus standing on the pinnacle of the temple awaiting Satan’s next attack.
Satan begins with the word “If” once more. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, throw
yourself down,” and then, with a new strategy, he justifies this request with
scripture taken from Psalm 91: “He will command his angels concerning you, and
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot
against a stone.” Initially this
temptation confused me. What would be
the benefit to Jesus in jumping off the pinnacle of the temple, which would
make this suggestion tempting to him at all?
Is it likely that he would be enticed by the thought of a circus-like
spectacle literally jump-starting his messianic career?
It wasn’t until I delved into Jesus’ response that the real
temptation began to emerge. “Jesus
answered him, “It is also written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.””
(Matthew 4:7) If we accept the premise that Jesus might actually have been
tempted by the idea of a temple dive/angel rescue show, then his answer would
simply mean that it is wrong to try to force God’s hand by intentionally
putting yourself in danger and expecting God to rescue you; and, there is
nothing wrong with that lesson! However,
the scripture Jesus was quoting from is found in Deuteronomy 6:16: “Do not test
the Lord your God as you did at Massah.”
And the story of what happened at Massah, or Meribah, suggests a slightly
different interpretation.
This story is found in Exodus 17. It had not been long since God had brought
the Israelites out of Egypt and rescued them from Pharaoh as he pursued them,
by parting the Red Sea. They were being
led every step of their journey to the Promised Land by the Lord himself in a
pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.
In chapter 16 we have the story of how God miraculously provided first
quail and then manna for them to eat.
Never, since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, had there been such a
tangible demonstration of God’s power and presence in the earth. In chapter 17 we find that the Lord had been
leading the Israelites from place to place, and they had just arrived at Rephidim,
where we are told in verses 1-3, that “…there was no water for the people to
drink. So they quarreled with Moses and
said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why
do you put the Lord to the test?””
In the desert…no water to drink…The Israelites make a
seemingly reasonable complaint and Moses calls it “quarreling” and asks why
they are putting the Lord to the test.
What is really going on here? The
answer is, with all of the visible, tangible evidence of God’s presence and his
ability and willingness to provide for them, the Israelites still didn’t trust
God. They looked at the outward
circumstances and became fearful, and angry that God had put them in that
position. Rather than waiting to see how
God would provide, they demanded their right to water! They demanded that God prove himself, by
giving them what they wanted.
Now, let’s go back to Jesus on top of the temple. Both the scripture which Satan quoted and the
story behind the scripture that Jesus quoted, deal with trusting God to
provide. With that as the key, I see Satan
saying to Jesus,” If you really are who you say you are, God’s Son, then surely
God would save you if you jumped from here.
If you aren’t willing to jump, it is either because you are a fraud, and
therefore you know God wouldn’t rescue you, or, you don’t really believe that God
can be trusted.”
And, I see Jesus’ response as saying, “I know who I am, and
I have complete faith in God. He has promised to give me whatever I need, and
he is faithful. I would never demand
that he prove himself.”
And, finally, back to my Pass it On card. As I was preparing to write this blog, I was
flipping back and forth through the scripture passages in my Bible when
suddenly the pages fell open and there tucked snugly in the crease of the
binding, was my precious card! I gasped and stared in dumbfounded amazement at
the familiar picture of a rainbow, and the words, “Don’t worry about tomorrow,
God is already there.” My first response was overwhelming gratitude! But, can you guess what my second response
was? Fear. Why is God giving this message to me
now? Is something about to happen? Of course, I immediately saw how incongruous those two responses were, and yet how typically human.
When I read stories about the Israelites’ lack of trust in
God after all that he did for them to demonstrate his love, it is easy for me
to take a haughty attitude and wonder how they could be so outrageously stupid;
and yet, we are the same. How grateful I
am that, on that temple pinnacle, Jesus won the victory for all of us who have
repeatedly forgotten all that God has done for us, and have been afraid and doubted
him, and demanded that he prove himself once more.
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