Tempting the Lord means that someone is not truly believing in the Lord. The Bible recorded that when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness, they complained because they had no water to drink. Hence, Moses called out to Jehovah, so He bestowed the water on them. Afterward, Moses named the place Massah, which means tempting.

What happened in Massah was just a microcosm of how the Israelites tempted the Lord in the wilderness. Because of their numerous temptations and complaints, they ended up provoking God’s wrath and had been walking in the wilderness for 40 years.

This verse and the lessons of history tell us that we should not tempt the Lord. The Israelites didn’t know God’s unoffendable disposition, so they provoked God. This shows that it is crucial to know God’s disposition. We should also reflect on ourselves: Have we ever done something that tempt the Lord in real life? Have we ever complained against God when we meet with frustration or failure? If so, then we should come before God, confess and repent to Him, asking for His forgiveness.

As for God’s disposition, there is a passage saying, “God’s intolerance of offense is His exclusive substance; God’s wrath is His exclusive disposition; God’s majesty is His exclusive substance. The principle behind God’s anger demonstrates the identity and status that only He possesses. One needs not mention that it is also a symbol of the substance of the unique God Himself. … Man’s flagrant provocation of God is a severe challenge to God’s own identity and status. In God’s view, when man challenges Him, man is contesting Him and testing His anger. When man opposes God, when man contests God, when man continuously tests God’s anger—which is also when sin runs rampant—God’s wrath will naturally reveal and present itself.” After we understand God’s unoffendable disposition, we must hold God in reverence and pray more, ask God to protect our hearts, and guard our own tongue, so that we can avoid provoking God with our lips.