25 March - A very expensive miracle

Readings:
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95

When Jesus was tempted in the desert he resisted the devil by appealing to the Law, saying that you may not put the Lord your God to the test (Dt 6:16). What did he mean by that? The direct implication is that if Jesus jumped and expected / trusted / hoped that God would come to his rescue, it would have been to put the Almighty to the test. Expecting / hoping / trusting is pretty much on the operational side of faith as well. Could it be that faith, either misplaced or applied for the wrong reason, would have constituted the outlawed testing of God?

Faith, it turns out, is proved empty if it doesn't translate into action. (James Ch 2. Blast!). To live by faith means to believe against appearances, and to subsequently put yourself at risk by acting on your conviction - even in deviance of common sense - in trust of God. It is to live beyond your own means and capacity, thus putting God into motion. Faith means that you live in such a way that if God doesn't come through, you'd be in great big twang. Now to me it seems like the line between living by faith and putting the Lord to the test could be precariously thin.

We all know the old 'faith' scripture about it basically being the assurance of what we don't see (Heb 11:1). You can pore over that scripture for years, write a book about it and still be dabbling in the shallow end of the mystery of faith. We don't get it, but it doesn't mean we're completely left in the dark. To me there appears to be something very simple about faith, as well as something very tricksy:
Simple: Faith is basically about trusting God.
Tricksy: The object of faith is basically to trust God (not to get stuff out of him).

Israel's temptation to put God to the test also came about in a desert, just like Jesus centuries later. The nation was already living in some serious faith. They broke camp and wandered back into the desert at God's command. To live in the desert is to live at fairly radical risk. When times became tough though, and they faced an immanent crises, they doubted whether they were actually in God's will or not. The Bible says they grumbled against Moses, threatening to stone him. They were thirsty and felt at risk. Israel asserted its cumulative voice, demanding water from Moses. They unionized, and it worked for them. They got what they wanted; water. I wonder if they ever realised that in the process they lost much more than they ever gained.

The Lord says, "Do't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, 

as they did at Massah in the wilderness. 

For there your ancestors tested and tied my patience, 

even though they saw everything I did. 

For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,'

'They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. 

They refuse to do what I tell them.'

So in my anger I took and oath:

They will never enter my place of rest.'

Ps 95:8-11