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Testing God
ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
For over 400 years, the people of Israel had lived in Egypt, much of that time in a bitter slavery. But that was over. In a unique and remarkable way, God revealed His presence to them in the pillar of cloud that led them by day and the pillar of fire to light up their night. And all along the way, the Lord provided for them. He fed them with manna. He protected them against the many perils of their journey. Still, their courage failed them frequently. They became disheartened and put God to the test. Why this change of heart toward God? Why did they begin to question God’s wisdom, mistrust His guidance, and discourage one another? Why did they become despondent and test God?
Why do we do the same? We, too, are God’s people. By the grace of God, we are making our journey from this earthly home, which seems so often like a kind of bondage, to our eternal home. God is gracious to us for the sake of Jesus. He daily and richly forgives all our sins; He guides and protects us and provides for us. In many perils, even some we don’t recognize as perils, He graciously preserves us. Through His holy Word and blessed Sacraments, He preserves and strengthens our faith. As we weekly gather here where His Word is proclaimed and taught to us, we also pray for grace and for guidance. As the Small Catechism says, “For all this…we thank and praise, serve and obey Him.”
But at the same time, there is no day in our journey to heaven in which we are not confronted with the danger of testing God. There is no experience in life—no joy or sorrow, no success or failure—that does not lead us to put God to the test. The devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh frequently entice us to test God. However disguised and clever the sin of testing God may be, however timid or bold it may be, however learned and courageous it may even appear to be, its consequences bring only ruin. The result described in our text is as certain as it is sudden.
“The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.” This response of God reminds us of the words of the apostle Paul: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.” It clearly shows that God is jealous and protective of His honor, and that this unusual way of dealing with the sin of testing Him is to be a warning, even to the end of days. But God, who warns us in His Word against testing Him, also graciously provides the necessary tools against testing Him. We can and should use these tools daily.
The people of Israel said to Moses: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.” The children of Israel repented of their sins. True repentance is a tool in our struggle against testing God. When we sincerely repent of the sin of testing God and seek His mercy and forgiveness—which He gladly and freely gives—there is also the implication that we intend to amend our sinful lives, to carefully watch over our hearts in regard to this sin. Repentance is responding to the pleading of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God. It must not simply be put off.
Again, our text says: “And Moses prayed for his people.” Moses did this at the urging of those people that he pray to the Lord to remove the serpents. As He anticipated their need, God had told Moses to make a fiery serpent and lift it up on a pole, and promised healing and life to all that were bitten if they would but look at the uplifted serpent. Prayer is another tool in our struggle against the sin of testing God. In our prayers, we ask God for help and strength. In times of severe affliction or trouble, we ask Him for a special measure of His grace. And we also pray for others, knowing that others, too, are in danger of testing God.
Just as Moses’ proclamation to Israel was to look to the serpent on the pole and receive healing, so too we are to look up in faith to the Christ lifted up on the cross. Faith is the only way to lay hold of the blessings of our Lord’s work of salvation: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Faith grabs hold of these promises as a blessed possession. Faith in God’s mercy was what Israel needed then; it is what we need now so that we may have the peace and the strength to resist the sin of testing God.
In our present age, the mockery of things holy and righteous, the ridicule of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, reaches new heights almost daily, it seems. And it is fearfully easy to succumb to the feeling that God is abandoning His world, and us, as well. Resisting the sin of testing God is, therefore, increasingly more difficult. The only answer, the only hope that we have, is to look to Jesus, to behold again what He has done to redeem us from sin and death, to know that the only way to resist the sin of testing God is to acknowledge that sin. Our only hope is to receive again the forgiveness Jesus has provided through His cross and His glorious resurrection. Thanks be to God for this priceless gift! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
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