On Testing God?

One of the big questions this week was on testing God, as there's some seeming contradictions and things that muddy the water.
Here's some thoughts:

1) God tests people - so it's a known concept - see Genesis 22 & Exodus 15 for more on this.

2) But...shortly following that in Exodus 17, this happens:

At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded.
“Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?”

And it's this incident God brings up when he gives the instruction to not test him in Deuteronomy 6:16.

3) In 1 Kings 18, Elijah tests God in a very public way - this is one of my favourite stories in the whole bible! Have a read! In short, Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to that well-known game of 'who can get their God to set fire to the chopped-up ox on the alter first'. Here's the best bit:

About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”

4) In Judges 6, Gideon gives God multiple tests!

5) Just before that, in Judges 4, when Deborah (a judge) has told Barak to go and defeat Israel's occupiers, he is not totally confident in it, and only agrees to go to war if she comes with him. Her response:

“Very well,” she replied, “I will go with you. But you will receive no honor in this venture, for the Lord’s victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.

And the outcome is victory, along with the delightful incident where Jael (a woman) kills Sisera by hammering a tent peg through his temple and into the ground.


Hopefully you can see a few things from these incidents:
God would rather we didn't test him, but his grace is bigger than our insecurity. We may not gain so much in the end, but God's outcome will prevail, and he will still get the glory.
The danger is if we constantly test God, we never achieve anything, or if we just test God for our own glory.
God loves to be tested by people putting their faith in him, and seeking to do amazing things for the Kingdom of God. In a sense, every time we exercise our faith, we test God. And he invariably comes through for us.