Luke 4:9-13
Wednesday Evening Bible Study
August 2, 2000
Brownies with a Difference (by Annette Nay)
Many parents are hard put to explain to their youth why some music, movies, books, and magazines are not acceptable material for them to bring into the home, for their youth to see, or hear. One parent came up with an original idea that was hard to refute. He listened to all the reasons his children gave for wanting to see a particular PG-13 movie. It had their favorite actors. Everyone else was seeing it. Even church members said it was great. It was only rated PG-13 because of the suggestion of sex. They never really showed it. The language was pretty good. They only used the Lord’s name in vain three times in the whole movie. The video effects were fabulous and the plot was action packed. Yes, there was the scene where a building and a bunch of people got blown up, but the violence was just the normal stuff. It wasn’t very bad. Even with all these explanations for the rating, the father wouldn’t give in. He didn’t even give them a satisfying explanation for saying, “No.” He just said, “No.” It was a little bit later that evening, that this same father asked his teens if they would like some brownies he had prepared. He explained that he had taken the family’s favorite recipe and added something new. They asked what it was. He calmly replied that he had added dog poop. He stated that it was only a little bit. All the ingredients were gourmet quality. He had taken great care to bake it at the precise temperature for the exact time. He was sure the brownies would be superb. Even with all the explanations of the perfect attributes of the brownies, the teens would not take one. He father acted surprised. There was only one little element that would have caused them to act so stubbornly. He assured them that they would hardly notice it if at all. They all held firm and would not try the brownies. He then explained that the movie they wanted to see was just like the brownies. Satan tries to enter our minds and our homes by deceiving us into believing that just a little bit of evil won’t matter. With the brownies, just a little bit makes all the difference between a great brownie and a totally unacceptable product. He explained that even though the movie people would have us believe the movies which are coming out are acceptable for adults and youths to see, they are not.
The idea is that if we’re walking in God’s ways, then He’ll protect us.
You can’t have Yahweh being your refuge and then go out and do the things that Satan tells you to do.
This is not necessarily an “evil” word by itself. In fact, most of the times it is used in the Old Testament, it is used to describe how God “tests” or “proves” us:
Ex
16:4 Then said the LORD unto Moses,
Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and
gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove (nacah) them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
When God called Gideon to deliver Israel from the Midianites, Gideon put out these little tests, his “fleece” before the Lord, in order to be sure he was doing what God really had asked him.
Jud
6:39 And Gideon said unto God, Let not
thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove
(nacah), I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let
it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.
God did not rebuke Gideon for “testing” Him. Instead, He did what Gideon asked. Gideon needed reassuring, and God was willing to oblige.
There is even one instance of nacah where King Ahaz is asked by Isaiah to ask God for a sign, and he refuses to ask for a sign saying he doesn’t want to “tempt” (nacah) God (Isa 7:12). But Ahaz is rebuked because God was offering to give him a sign.
There is even a sense in which God wants us to “prove” Him. He wants us to know how wonderful He is. David wrote,
(Psa 34:8
KJV) O taste and see that the
LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
(Exo
17:1-7 KJV) And all the
congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin,
after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in
Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. {2} Wherefore the
people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink.
And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt
(nacah) the LORD? {3} And the people thirsted there for
water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that
thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our
cattle with thirst? {4} And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do
unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. {5} And the LORD said unto
Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and
thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. {6}
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt
smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may
drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. {7} And he called
the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the
children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD
among us, or not?
chide – riyb – to strive, contend; to make complaint; to quarrel
It seems that there is almost the idea of pushing a person’s patience. The people had seen God’s great power at the Passover and in crossing the Red Sea. So why should they go on complaining? Why should they be doubting whether God was with them or not? They were “pushing it” with the Lord. But notice, God did what they asked. The problem was that they didn’t stop “pushing” at the Lord.
(Psa 95
KJV) O come, let us sing unto the
LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. {2} Let us come
before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with
psalms. {3} For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. {4}
In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his
also. {5} The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
{6} O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our
maker. {7} For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the
sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, {8} Harden not your heart,
as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the
wilderness: {9} When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. {10}
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people
that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: {11} Unto whom I
sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
provocation – m@riybah – strife, contention
temptation – maccah – despair, test; proving, trial. The word is based on nacah.
I get the feeling that the people were constantly “testing” the Lord. And they really had no reason to be “testing” or “challenging” the Lord.
Sometimes I see in relationships this “testing” going on where a person’s love and commitment are constantly being challenged. One person will say to the other, “You don’t really love me. If you really loved me you would do “this” for me.” What ends up happening is that one person ends up manipulating the other in order to keep “proving” their love over and over again.
The nation of Israel saw God work in incredible ways to deliver them from slavery in Egypt. How could they be questioning whether God was real or whether He cared about them? Yes, they had no water, but if you think about it, why didn’t they just ask God for water?
David said that we face a choice: Hard Hearts or Praising Hearts.
God is willing to put up with our lack of faith by giving us “fleeces” like Gideon’s. But there comes a point where God wants us to stop “testing” Him and start “trusting” Him.
If we are trusting Him, we will be praising Him.
(Psa 34:8 KJV) O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
Wiersbe: “When a child of God is in the will of God, he can claim the Father’s protection and care. But if he willfully gets into trouble and expects God to rescue him, then he is tempting God.”
Some oddball churches have a practice of drinking poison or handling poisonous snakes to show that God is with them. It’s one thing to see God’s protection in a situation when you were unexpectedly put in danger, but it’s another to put yourself in danger just to see if God is real.