ARE YOU TEMPTING GOD?

Almost everyday now, I read in the news or in a tweet about someone seriously ill with, or who has just died from, COVID. The stories are strikingly similar in many cases: “…man of faith…chose not to get vaccine…sorry now that he did not…moved to a ventillator…wife and children left behind…Please pray…” Some of these unfortunate people were politicians or candidates, others were media personalities, some were pastors or political activists, but most were just ordinary people who in many cases, did not wear masks or avail themselves of vaccines during the pandemic, depending instead on God to save them from the consequences of their nonfeasance. Sadly, even some people today who have been vaccinated, die from COVID as well, if their overall health is not good. This is why we should all be prudent–to protect not just ourselves, but our family and neighbors as well.

May God have mercy on the souls of all who have died from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“Don’t try to make God do tricks for you.”
Ron Julian

When I was a baby Christian living in Dover, DE, my mentor USAF Chaplain Captain Carl T. Hawkins told me of an incident before he joined the Air Force, when he was a missionary in what was then called the Belgian Congo. There were some missionaries in the village from another denomination, and their small child was bitten by a poisonous snake. He said that they prayed and prayed over the child, but the child just got worse. Finally, Carl ran over to them, scooped up the baby and said “I’m taking the baby to a doctor.” I don’t know what happened to the child, but what Carl did seemed to me even then, to be the prudent thing. I’m not sure why the parents of the child did not do this themselves. Did they want a supernatural miracle to validate their faith or their preaching to the villagers? Did they not trust doctors? Did they hear an inner voice saying the child would be healed without a doctor? I just don’t know.

The word “tempt” in secular Greek means “experiment, attempt, make trial of.” In the BIble, it or its noun form (πειρασμός) is used to describe how God put Abraham to the test in the matter of sacrificing Isaac (Turner: 441, 442.) When linked to its Hebrew equivalent, it means “to test or try a person in order to see which way he will act,” or “whether his character is firm.” This the same word is used to describe occasions when Satan tempts us (e.g., he puts our character to the test as he did with Job.) I’m sure my unmasked, unvaccinated brethren would say that when they “stand on the promises of God in faith,” they don’t mean that they are asking God to prove Himself to them, but in a sense, they unwittingly are. And this is displeasing to God. We’ll see why shortly.

“To test God means much more than trying to get Him to do a miracle; to test God is to insist that He prove that He is trustworthy.”
Ron Julian

in Matthew 4:7, the author uses ἐκπειράζω (Vine: “Trying or challenging God.”) In this verse, Satan transports Jesus to a pinacle of the temple and encourages him to jump, stating that the angels will catch him before he reaches the ground. In reply to the devil, “Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test,’” Jesus was referring to Deuteronomy 6:16. The Jews were in the desert, having been miraculously delievered from Egypt, and now they were grumbling, complaining because they were hungry and thirsty, and demanding that Moses do something about it. As Ron Julian writes:

“Israel had seen God do great things in the past. He saved them miraculously out of Egypt; He parted the Red Sea; He sent them manna to eat. God also had promised to do great things in their future. He promised them all the blessings of Abraham; He promised to take them to a land of peace and abundance. The problem for Israel was the present. They were in the middle of the wilderness, and they had no water.”
https://gutenberg.edu/2001/02/testing-god/

Julian then places his finger on the crux of the matter:

“This helps us understand what “putting God to the test” means. Each Israelite looked around at the bleak wilderness and asked, “Why has God brought me here?” God clearly was not to be trusted; look at the scary and dangerous place to which He had brought them. However, if God were to apologize and come through with some water, maybe they would be willing to forgive Him and follow Him again.
“Notice how Exodus describes it: “…they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us, or not?’” The lack of water caused them to question whether God was really on their side. All that He had done in the past didn’t count; all that He had promised to do in the future didn’t count; what counted was the frightening present. God couldn’t really be there, couldn’t really be powerful and trustworthy, if He would bring them to a barren wilderness.”
https://gutenberg.edu/2001/02/testing-god/

What Julian is saying is that those who spurn traditional solutions in favor of signs and wonders actually have a lack of faith. Returning to Jesus in this case,

“Jesus knew that jumping off the temple would not demonstrate faith; instead it would be a gross act of unbelief. God hadn’t asked Him to jump off the temple; to jump would not be obedience, but presumption. Why would He want to? Because it would force God’s hand. Because it would make the Father prove that He indeed was on Jesus’ side.”
https://gutenberg.edu/2001/02/testing-god/

Writing in a series called “Purely Presbyterian,” William Perkins lists five different ways that a Christian can tempt God:

We Tempt God When We Demand the Time, Place, or Manner of God’s Help.

God had promised the Israelites to be with them on their journey to the Promised Land. Yet, on various occasions they whined and asked “Is God among us or not?” [Ex. 17:7]. David (Ps. 78:19) relates that on one occasion they asked “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?”

We Tempt God When We Demand a Sign from Him.

Perkins notes: “God is tempted when men require a sign at His hands. Thus the Pharisees tempted Christ: “Master, we would see a sign of thee” (Matt. 12:38), meaning thereby to be certified whether He were the Messiah, and Luke says, “they tempted him” (Luke 11:16). Another memory I have from the first year or so into my faith is a small column in Christianity Today or some other magazine stating that a young man’s body–he was my age–was found in the desert after he traveled there to pray. Why the desert? Did God lead him there? Or did the enemy draw him to his death?

We Tempt God When We Continue in Sin.

When we sin, we make “needless trial of God’s justice, mercy, and patience” (Perkins.) We presume on his grace. Sometimes, we ask God in advance to forgive us for a sin we haven’t even committed yet!

We Tempt God When We Impose the Ceremonial Law on the Church.

What Perkins means here is that sometimes churches impose law on areas we’ve already received grace in. Perkins quotes Peter: “Why tempt ye God to lay a yoke on the disciples’ necks, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10). Observing certain restrictions that are nonbiblical and attempting to bring Christians into bondage over them are examples.

“When God has afforded unto men an ordinary means for their help and safety, they are not to refuse the same, and to seek for safety from God extraordinarily.”
Williams Perkins

We Tempt God When We Neglect the Ordinary Means of Preservation. “When God has afforded unto men an ordinary means for their help and safety, they are not to refuse the same, and to seek for safety from God extraordinarily.”

God has provided a sophisticated and advanced health care sytem in America for our benefit. If there was no COVID vaccine, no medication or mechanical aids to breathing to assist our lungs and hearts, then we would have to trust on God entirely for our deliverance, having done all else possible. That’s not to say that God is a last resort. But, says Perkins: “When God has afforded unto men an ordinary means for their help and safety, they are not to refuse the same, and to seek for safety from God extraordinarily.”

If, while on the fifth floor of a building I need to leave the building, I can jump out of the window and depend on God to catch me, or I can take the elevator. There is no shame, sin or disgrace in using elevators. How many of you would jump in this situation? I thought so. Daniel was locked up in a den of lions, but he eventually emerged without a scratch, thanks to God. Would you be so fortunate if you tried it?

Some may object to the vaccines because they’ve read on Facebook or received a text from a friend that human fetuses were used in the production or testing of the vaccines. I’ve covered this in great detail in my continuing (news) post on the pandemic and I’ve included it below for the reader’s convenience. There are valid concerns as far as the Astrozeneca vaccine goes, and somewhat valid concerns with the Pfizer vaccine. But in the case of the Moderna and the J&J vaccines, there is no issue or prolife exception there.

Nor is this a civil liberties issue. You may choose whether you want to risk infecting yourself by not wearing a mask or getting vaccinated, but that does not give you the right to risk the health of your friends and family.

Just sayin’…