Vicarious Victories Part 2: Is The Lord Among Us or Not?

“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.