Presumptive Grace

“And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” (Lu 4:12 AV)

 

This verse has puzzled me for a long time.  The Devil attempts to try entice the LORD into putting a biblical promise to the test.  The promise is one directly promised to the Messiah by the Father.  Satan uses the word of God in a way for which it is not intended insinuating the Son of God could claim a promise when He could not.  The puzzling thing is, we often teach people to put the promises of God to the test.  The “name it and claim it” generation.  This is a bit different.  The promise of divine protection given to the Messiah only applies if the will of the LORD put Him in danger and not He Himself.  He was not to orchestrate circumstances of His own making just to put the promise of the Father to the test.  One has to wonder if we seem to do this even if we are unaware.  Do we make choices of which God would not approve and then seek His divine intervention based on a promise in scripture?  Do we get ourselves in a fix and then claim God’s intervention because we believe He is required to do so?  Or, do we deliberately put ourselves in a situation to manipulate the love of God and His benevolent hand?

A little pernicious and adventurous boy explored his world with little regard for the consequences.  He would crawl into enclosed spaces without thinking of how to get out.  He would climb high heights without looking to see how he would descend.  He would race as fast as he could without planning how his race would end.  Why?  Because he knew dad would always be there to bail him out.  This led to some very hairy situations.  There was a time Dad had to rescue his son from a lake with thin ice.  There was another time Dad had to climb well above his comfort zone to bring his son out of a tree.  There was a time when his son was stuck out on an island because he never tied his rowboat down.  There was a time when he went with his friends to the mall and they abandoned him.  He had no way home.  Dad was not a bad father.  He simply came to his son's rescue whenever he needed it whether he created the situation or not.  Dad was always there.  One afternoon, after one of those phone calls, Dad realized he was being used.  His son was not growing up to be responsible.  He would not think things through and plan a responsible course of action.  So, when the time came, instead of rescuing his son one more time, he ignored the plea.  He told his son he was on his own.  His guidance, protection, and provision were not going to be presumed.

I was going to use a different example because I think it aligns more with what we do.  At least in my generation, anyway.  God is a perfect Father.  Our earthly fathers are not.  Some were raised by fathers who took little interest in their children unless they needed to be rescued.  Even from their own bad behavior.  In doing so, they have trained their sons and daughters that the only way to get his attention is to act out.  To put themselves in harm's way so that Dad will come to the rescue.  When they become a child of God, they treat the LORD the same way.  They make poor decisions because that is the only way they know to get the attention of an authority figure.  Their want to be rescued is a narcissistic way in which to be the center of their universe.  If they can be the damsel or dude in distress, then the knight in shining armor will come and rescue them.  This is presumptuous.  This is exactly what Jesus speaks.  He will not treat the Father this way.  He will not deliberately put himself in harm’s way to force the Father to prove His love.  We can ask ourselves why we do the things we do.  God doesn’t need our manipulation to love us.  He loves us more than we could ever understand.  We simply have to accept it.