God Will Not Rescue You From Your Bad Choices

Luke records, “And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time thou shalt dash they foot against a stone’” (Lk. 4:9-11). In his temptation of Jesus, Satan was quoting Psalm 91:11-12 in an effort to get Jesus to prove who He was. Jesus’ response? “It is said…” (KJV). The Greek states that whatever Jesus was about to say had been uttered in the past and still stands in the present. “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” That is a reference to Deuteronomy 6:16 where God through Moses was warning Israel about forgetting Him and turning to idolatry. That warning was followed by an admonition to faithfully adhere to all God had said (Deut. 6:17-25).

Psalm 91 is about God being a “refuge and fortress” for those who put their trust in Him during even the most difficult times (Ps. 91:5-7). The Psalm was written about deliverance from enemies and the security that could be trusted (Ps. 91:14-16). The Psalm was not about intentionally putting oneself in a dangerous situation and waiting to see if God would do something. You don’t tempt God’s goodness! Scripture is full of reassurances that God is good and will not forsake His people. However, we cannot say “I am going to do ‘X’ and see if God will deliver me if things go wrong.”

“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Heb. 13:5-6). That appears to be a quote of Psalm 118:6: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me?” Similar to Psalm 91, chapter 118 is about a time of distress (v. 5), being surrounded by enemies (v. 10-12), and pushed by violence (v. 13). God was there for the psalmist! God is described as good and merciful (v. 1), a helper (v. 13), and a source of light in dark times (v. 27). The author of Psalm 118 was in no way proposing that he could intentionally put himself in dark times just to see if God would act. That would be testing God.

James wrote, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers” (Jam. 1:13-16). Trials and temptations come to us all. Notice - tempted, lured, enticed by desire, and sin. First Corinthians 10:13 also assures us that when temptation does come, God will provide a way of escape. Neither of those passages are suggesting that a child of God can deliberately make bad choices that will put him in harms way and then expect God to “do something.” Satan was misappropriating Psalm 91 and the goodness of God in an effort to entrap Jesus in sinful behavior.

God will not save you from your bad decisions. He didn’t stop Judas from betraying Jesus. He didn’t stop Peter from denying Jesus. He didn’t stop Ananias and Sapphira from lying to the apostles. He didn’t stop Peter and Barnabas from being hypocritical. We each have choices to make. Sometimes we make the wrong choices and have to face the consequences of such. All of that being true, however, does not mean that we cannot repent of sin and be forgiven. David sinned terribly, was forgiven of the sin, but had to face the horrific consequences of his selfish and sinful choices (2 Sam. 11-12). The Christian is warned not to sin, but if we do, we have “an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 Jn. 2:1-2). While forgiveness is extended, there may still be temporal consequences to face. Do not tempt God!