613 Mitzvot
Negative Mitzvot 64
Not to test YHVH

Devarim/Deuteronomy 6:16
Lo tenasu et-YHVH Eloheychem ka’asher nisitem bamasah.
You shall not test YHVH your Elohey, as you tested him in Massah.

This is reference to this event:

Sh'mot (Exodos) 17:1-7
All the congregation of the children of Yisra'el traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to YHVH's mitzvah, and encamped in Refidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moshe, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moshe said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test YHVH?" The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moshe, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?" Moshe cried to YHVH, saying, "What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me." YHVH said to Moshe, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Yisra'el with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Chorev. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moshe did so in the sight of the elders of Yisra'el. He called the name of the place Massah, and Merivah, because the children of Yisra'el quarreled, and because they tested YHVH, saying, "Is YHVH among us, or not?"

How did they test YHVH? By saying, "Is He with us or not?"

They had traveled to a place without water, but yet we see that it was YHVH that had directed them to this place. So they questioned His direction.

The next argument was " Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?" They questioned His goodness and care for them.

"They tempted Elohim in their heart by asking food according to their desire. Yes, they spoke against Elohim. They said, "Can Elohim prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, Streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people? Therefore YHVH heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Ya ‘akov, Anger also went up against Yisra’el, Because they didn’t believe in Elohim, And didn’t trust in his yeshu‘ah (salvation)" (Tehillim Psalms 78:18-22)

For one thing, they followed their own desires and spoke against Elohim, because they did not believe Him, even though they had seen the works of YHVH in bringing them out of Egypt!

Tehillim/Psalms 78:41 Yea, they turned back and tempted Elohim, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

We also test YHVH by putting limits on Him

Today, oh that you would hear his voice!
Don't harden your heart, as at Merivah,
As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
When your fathers tempted me,
Tested me, and saw my work.
Forty long years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, "It is a people that errs in their heart.
They have not known my ways.
Tehillim (Psalms) 95:8-10

They tested YHVH by hardening their hearts against His voice. Repeatedly they said, "Things are tough, we want to go back to Egypt." In other words, let us go back into bondage!

It is interesting to to note that immediately after the events in Masseh, they are attacked by Amalek (see Shemot/Exodus 17:8)

Concerning this, the Chassidic masters commented:

After all that they had seen G-d do on their behalf—the Ten Plagues brought upon Egypt to free them, the splitting of the sea, the "bread from heaven" that descended each morning to nourish them—how could the people of Israel possibly question, "Is G-d amongst us or not"?
But such is the nature of doubt. There is doubt that is based on rational query. There is doubt that rises from the doubters subjective motives and desires. But then there is doubt pure and simple: doubt that neutralizes the most compelling evidence and the most inspiring experience with nothing more than a cynical shrug.
Amalek is the essence of doubt, of irrational challenge to truth. (Thus the Hebrew word amalek has a numerical value of 240—the same as the word safek, "doubt"). Because the people of Israel had succumbed to the amalek within their own souls, they became vulnerable to attack by Amalek the nation.

Matthew 4:5-7
Then the Adversary took him to the holy city and set him on the highest point of the Temple ."If you are the Son of Elohim," he said, "jump! For the Tanakh says, ‘He will order his angels to be responsible for you. They will support you with their hands, so that you will not hurt your feet on the stones.’ " Yeshua replied to him, "But it also says, ‘Do not put YHVH your Elohey to the test.’"

Here the Adversary, hasatan, twists scripture for his own purposes. Could this be another form of testing YHVH? For it is written, "They tempted Elohim in their heart by asking food according to their desire. (Tehillim/Psalms 78:18). Was not the Adversay using spiritual food (the Word) according to his desire?

Shalom v'brakhot v'simcha,
Chizkiyah Shlomo (Carl)