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“Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matt. 4:5-7).  What does it mean to tempt God? (Deut. 6:16).  Tempting God is exemplified in the Old Testament period of the Wilderness Wanderings referred to as the Provocation (Heb. 3:14-19).  Tempting God is when we challenge God to prove Himself faithful.  Tempting God is when we provoke God to act in a way that is not in harmony with His perfect character or expressed or unexpressed Will.  His expressed will is given in the Bible and His unexpressed will is manifested through Divine Providence and in answer to prayer.  Tempting God violates the sovereignty of God.  We must not and we cannot coerce God to do anything.  God acts freely based upon His own sovereign will and His love.
The Provocation (Heb. 3:14-19)
The Israelites tempted God.  “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?” (Exodus 17:2,7).  “And he called the name of the place Massah (temptation) and Meribah (chiding), because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, and said, Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7).  God had already proven Himself in the miracles of the Exodus.  God’s presence among them was not a matter of doubt.  However, their words indicated unbelief (Heb. 3:14-19).  Out of this unbelief, they demanded that God act to provide them water.  They directly challenged the faithfulness of God to them.  But it is not the place of the people to dictate to God how He is to express His covenant commitment to them.  They were dissatisfied with God’s provisions for this.  This is ingratitude.  Unbelief and ingratitude are often joined together in the human heart.  Disbelief, demands, and dissatisfaction, seem to be at the heart of the problem which involved them in tempting God.
“Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice” (Num. 14:22).  “Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah” (Deut. 6:16).  Jesus quoted from this passage in Matt. 4:4-7 in response to Satan’s temptation.  “And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.  Yea, they spake against God; they said, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” (Psa. 78:18, 41, 56).  They challenged God to provide for their own lusts of the flesh.  God provided manna for a little more than 40 years.  They were not satisfied with God’s sufficiency (His grace).  “How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel” (Psa. 78:41).  You cannot put God in a box!  God cannot be limited or controlled by man’s desires.  “Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies.”  Unbelief leads to disobedience.  The Israelites challenged God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises.  This act was actually a denial of God’s faithfulness.  If they trusted in God’s faithfulness, then, they would have accepted God’s provisions for them.  They would have been grateful for the measure of God’s grace that was supplied.
The Temptation (Matt. 4:4-7)
One of the temptations of Jesus by Satan involved challenging God to keep His covenant promises.  Satan quoted scripture (Psa. 91:11-12).  “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Satan challenges Jesus to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and force God to keep His promise to protect Him.  Satan gives too broad an interpretation/application to this Psalm.  God is faithful to His covenant promises.  But, God’s promise does not mean that we can foolishly put ourselves at risk and force Him to act.  This is tempting God. Jesus answers Satan’s misinterpretation of Scripture with Scripture (Deut. 6:16).  Scripture forbids us from tempting God.  Another aspect of this temptation is Satan’s attempt to produce confusion between trusting God and tempting God.  Jesus trusted God.  However, Jesus knew the difference between trusting God to act according to His promises by His own sovereignty and demanding God to keep His promise by risky behavior.
Challenging God’s Redemptive Work (Acts 15:10)
“Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers or we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10).  Acts 15 contains the historical information of the Jerusalem Conference.  This conference was convened to address and settle the question as to whether or not Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised and  keep the Law of Moses.  To tempt God in this context meant that they were demanding God to act in a way that was not in harmony with His Will (expressed or immediate revealed Will).  Some were making a law that God never made and binding it on others.  God is true to His Word, but not to the traditions of men.  God never said that Gentile Christians had to be circumcised or keep the Law of Moses (Acts 15:2, 24, “to whom we gave no such commandment”).  The Law of Moses and the Law of Christ cannot be in force at the same time (Rom. 7:1-4).  They were tempting God to set aside the gospel of Christ and bind the Law of Moses.  This could not be done and was not in harmony with God’s Will.
Tempting God or Trusting God?
Tempting God involves provoking God to act in a way specified by us in order to fulfill His covenant promises to us.  Tempting God violates God’s sovereignty.  It challenges His faithfulness to His Word.  Finally, it usurps His authority and puts us in the place of God.  We must not put ourselves at risk and, then, call upon God to deliver us because He said He will never fail us or forsake us.  This is tempting God.  Trusting God is permitting God to act according to His Will and His purposes and believing that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).