God Gives Us Opportunities to Trust Him

Deuteronomy 8:2-3: "Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."

When we look back at the wilderness journey of the Israelites during the time of Moses, we can see that God tested them to see if their hearts were inclined to Him and would trust Him as their Lord. In fact, it was not long after they had experienced the supernatural deliverance from the Egyptians and had crossed the Red Sea in miraculous fashion that their first test was introduced. They had traveled just three day's journey into the desert when they began to thirst for water. Instead of remembering that the Lord recently had intervened in Egypt and rescued them, they now looked to their circumstances and lacked faith that God would meet their present needs. These Israelites began to grumble against the Lord, and this complaining spirit would be a pattern for many years to come. In fact, Exodus 15-17, which records the Israelite's experiences during this period, is one of the most concentrated sections of complaining in all of Scripture. God placed the presumed obstacle in their way to see if they would trust Him (see Exodus 15:25); sadly, these Israelites would be more inclined to take their eyes off the Lord and look rather at their abysmal circumstances. Complaining was a necessary product of such a lack of faith. Not only did this displease the Lord (Hebrews 11:6), but it also resulted in a loss of blessing that accompanies one's trust in Him.

What is particularly telling is the way that the Israelites responded a few months later when they were hungry and had no bread to eat. The newness of the freedom that they had enjoyed had now worn off and the hardships of wilderness life had set in. Now the covenant people complained against Moses, wishing that they had died in captivity in Egypt. They even conjured up false memories that they had enjoyed the choicest of food while in bondage . . . something that was not true (they were lucky to get the scraps from the Egyptians). Despite the Israelite's grumbling, God promised to provide supernatural bread from heaven, again to teach His people that man must put his trust in the promises of the Lord in order to live. By performing this miraculous act, the Lord would show His people His glory; He would proclaim to the Israelites that He could intervene and bring deliverance no matter what the circumstances seemed to show. Whereas by all physical observations the Israelites should have died of starvation in the desert, by God's Divine intervention they would be saved. God desired that His people put their faith in Him and praise Him for His triumph over their deplorable circumstances. God tested them in this situation so that in fully trusting Him, they would be able to "know that (He is) the Lord (their) God" (Exodus 16:12).

Whereas the Israelites were only to collect enough manna to provide for their necessities and trust that each day the Lord would provide again for their needs, some of the people collected more and tried to store up the excess provision just in case God did not come through for them. What they would find the next morning was that the heavenly food had rotted to the point that it smelled profusely and was full of maggots. God would not allow His people to think themselves self-sufficient and thus not be in need of the Lord's daily provision. He forced them to trust His Providential care so that they continually would be reminded that only by faith in the Lord can a people be saved from otherwise hopeless circumstances.

Years later, Jesus would be tempted by Satan to use supernatural powers to satisfy His physical needs. Satan wanted Jesus to think that God would not meet his needs while he wandered for 40 days in the wilderness, and He wanted to get Jesus to take matters into his own hands to provide for himself. Satan wanted Jesus to lose faith in God and look to His own abilities for personal rescue. Jesus quoted the passage from Deuteronomy above to remind Satan that man ultimately must put His trust in God, no matter what situation he sees before him. When a man takes his eyes off the Lord and starts to be consumed with himself, he loses the faith that is needed to experience the blessedness of the Lord.

There is a tremendous word for each of us in this passage. We are presented with tests to see if we truly will trust that the Lord will provide, even though our circumstances would tell us otherwise. We must remember that our purpose for existence is not to become self-sufficient but to fully rely on God as our Provider, Redeemer, and Sustainer. When we take our eyes off of the Lord, we begin to consume ourselves in selfish introspection and we permit our circumstances to dictate our motivations. In fear and self-centered consumption, we fall prey to the notion that the purpose in life is to get all that we can to consume all that we can to satisfy ourselves. What we must do is renounce such sinful pursuits and permit the tests of the Lord to reaffirm to us that God is in control and will intervene in our behalf if we would simply trust Him. In the end, our trust and obedience in the Lord will result in our blessedness. We will be able to see that the Lord has been maturing us in our faith in Him as our Sovereign Provider.