Numbers 14:11 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
The human response of provoking God is a serious matter. How do we provoke God? God Himself defines it as not believing. He is longsuffering and has long patience, but eventually it wears thin, and righteous wrath takes over. Holiness demands just punishment. The punishment for sin is death and all its manifestations during a lifetime of misery.
The cause of sin is unbelief (“Yea, hath God said?”) Sin causes death (“The day you eat of it, you shall die”). Death causes mental and physical pain and suffering of all kinds, the little deaths we experience daily. God did more than enough signs to point the people to God and draw them to His Life. But they continued in disbelief, complaining and provoking.
In the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ God did way more than enough signs to point us to Jesus, to believe in Him, and so have eternal life. Instead, the human response is to resist, doubt, provoke, and disbelieve. The Word and the Spirit shows us our sin and leads to repentance; the Word and the Spirit shows us our Savior and leads us to faith and life. The love of God overcomes our resistance and unbelief through the Gospel. The newly created faith response receives the forgiveness, life and salvation of God.
Even genuine, born-again believers in Christ still entertain doubts from the devil, the world, and the flesh, thereby provoking the Lord. God is not always pleased with us (we grieve the Spirit), but He is always pleased with His Son and with those who believe Him. The Lord loves so much that we do not want to provoke Him with doubt, fear, and worry. And so we live, at times provoking Him with doubt and unbelief while He is ever and always faithful to us.