these days I’m reading Deuteronomy and stopped on Deuteronomy 6:16, where Moses says not to test God in the midst of talking about obedience to God’s commands. In this passage, it seems as if testing God means not following his law.

This passage was cross referenced with Exodus 17:2, where the Israelites complained to Moses and asked for water. Testing God here is defined as saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

That didn’t seem like such a bad thing to say. Why would that be considered a “test” and not just simple doubts like John the B or Thomas after the resurrection. Also, look to Jeremiah 2:8.

Now, Ex 17 does mention that they tested God and quarreled with one another, so maybe that’s the difference between testing God and doubting or disobeying.

Of course, in one of his temptations, Jesus resisted with the reason, “don’t test God.” I have some questions about that, but will wait until I do further study.

speaking sculpturally, what does it mean to test God? I’m not looking for a clever statement that sounds good in a message, but specifically what the Bible has to say.