Deuteronomy 6:16 commands:

> "Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God."

In Isaiah 7:10-12, God offers King Ahaz a miraculous sign, but Ahaz refuses, piously claiming:

> "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord."

Critics ask why a contradiction is seen between Ahaz's obedience to the rule and God's subsequent anger. The issue is not a contradiction in the text, but the hypocritical false piety of Ahaz. Ahaz incorrectly and disingenuously weaponized the command from Deuteronomy to mask his stubborn refusal to trust God's intervention, choosing instead to rely on a disastrous political alliance with Assyria. He was rebuked precisely because rejecting a direct, divine offer of confirmation under the guise of piety is itself an act of profound rebellion.

> Deut. 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

> Judges 6:36-40 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

Did Gideon violate Deut. 6:16, and did God just let it pass?

Let's look at the word behind "tempt" -- nacah. It has a fairly broad application, and by some of these definitions, it may be argued that Gideon did nacah God in violation of Deut. 6:16. But the key is to look at what Deut. 6:16 refers to--an event at Massah. This event is recorded at Exodus 17:1-7--

> And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

It is clear from this example that the command of Deut. 6:16 has to do with nacahing God in a very specific way: That is, by a sort of open defiance and rebellion that denies the presence of the Lord. In contrast, Gideon's request (note particularly his trepidation in v. 39, which may indicate an awareness of verging on the "testing" prohibition) was the humble request of one insecure and unsure of his place.

Indeed, as Rihbany shows in The Syrian Christ [182] this is merely an example of Oriental intimacy and unreserve, which seeks affectionate assurance even the dearest friends. "Especially when new confidences are exchanged or great favors asked, a man turns to his trusted friend and says, 'Now you love me; I say you love me, don't you?' 'My soul, my eyes,' answers the other, 'you know what is in my heart toward you; you know what the Creator knows!' Then the request is made." Rihbany points to the comparison of Peter before Christ around the fire in John 21.

So did Gideon lack faith (loyalty) here? Yes, but he wasn't openly rebelling against God's authority: he was asking for confirmation of what that authority wanted. There is no indication that he doubted that the Lord was with him, as the people did at Massah; what is indicated is that he was unsure of what the Lord wanted him to do. (Note that in Matt. 4:6-7, where Jesus puts Deut. 6:16 to Satan in reply to Satan's temptation to leap from the Temple, what is suggested amounts to an open rebellion against God's will and authority.)

-JPH

Numerous times in the gospel accounts, the Bible writers recorded statements made by Jesus while He was on Earth. Puzzling to some Bible readers is the fact that, although Bible writers frequently recorded the same statements, they are not exactly (word-for-word) alike. For example, whereas Matthew recorded that Jesus told Satan, “It is written again (palin gegrapti), ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’” (4:7), Luke wrote: “It has been said (eiratai), ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’” (4:12). Although this difference is considered minor, and is referring to the same thing (the Old Testament), Matthew and Luke still recorded Jesus’ statement using different words. Why? Why did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John not always record the words of Jesus exactly alike?

First, it is possible that some differences are due to Jesus having made both statements. It is unwise to think that every similar statement recorded by the gospel writers must refer to the exact same moment. In the example of Jesus responding to Satan’s temptation, it may be that Jesus repeated the same thought on the same occasion using different words. After telling Satan, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God,” Jesus could have re-emphasized the point (especially if Satan repeated the temptation) by saying, “It is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” Thus, Jesus could have made both statements.

A second reason why differences exist among the gospel writers’ testimony of Jesus’ teachings is because the writers’ purpose was to record precisely what the Holy Spirit deemed necessary (cf. John 16:13), but not necessarily exactly what Jesus said. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21), one writer may summarize a person’s (e.g., Jesus’) words, while another writer may quote the exact words.

Consider the variation in notes taken by honest, intelligent college students in the same class on the Civil War. At the close of the class, when the notes of the students are compared and contrasted (as the gospel accounts are) differences are evident. If one student recorded that the teacher said Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address “in November of 1863 to honor those who died in the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg,” and another student wrote that Lincoln’s speech was delivered “on November 19, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,” their notes would not be considered contradictory. Though there are slight differences in what the students indicate the teacher said, they both are faithful testimonies of what the teacher taught—one student simply chose a less definite style of note-taking (i.e., not mentioning the precise day on which the Gettysburg Address was given).

Throughout the gospel accounts, we find accurate statements that Jesus made, but not necessarily the exact quotations. Inspired summaries of what someone said does not take away from the sacredness of the God-given Scriptures, nor our ability to apply those Scriptures to our lives. What’s more, differences among statements recorded in the gospel accounts also may be the result of the statements being made at different times. In whichever category a difference among the gospel accounts falls, Bible students can be confident of the Bible’s reliability.