Daily Devotional For Monday, October 21, 2024
Well, it is Marvelous Monday and most of us are back to either work and/or school. If you have been following up, we are making our way through the most famous sermon ever – Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. You can read this in Matthew 5, 6, & 7 and we have finished Matthew 5. We are currently in Matthew 6 making our way through what is traditionally called The Lord’s Prayer. Many scholars call this prayer The Disciples’ Prayer.” In this prayer, we are now in Matthew 6:13, ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (NASB).
The Greek New Testament word used here for “temptation” is [πειρασμός, peirasmos]. Unlike our English word for “temptation,” which refers to inducement to evil, this word is different. The root meaning has to do with “a testing or proving or trial,” and from that meaning are derived the related meanings of trial and temptation. Here it seems to parallel the term evil, indicating that it has in view enticement to sin. It seems sort of odd that Jesus would encourage us to pray, asking God not to lead us into temptation. But that is not what He is doing?
God’s holiness, godliness, righteousness and sinlessness all prohibit God from doing this. That is the point of James 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (NASB). This seems right but also ironic since James had just used the same Greek New Testament word [peirasmos] in James 1:2-3, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials [peirasmos] (3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (NASB).
Due to this, some Bible scholars fill in Matthew 6:13, the word should not be “temptation,” but the word “trial” or “testing” because as James 2:13, God does not tempt us, but He does test us for our own sake. For example, we read about how God tested Abraham with the demand to sacrifice the son he had waited for almost 100 years on an altar. We read this in Genesis 22:1-2, Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. (2) Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you” (NASB).
Most of us are publicly all in for God until we find our faith being tested. It is easy to praise God when all is great, but what do you do when God asks you to kill the child (son) you have which is supposed to be a covenant child to begin the eventual 12 tribes of Israel and the future promised Messiah? We know from Genesis 11:27, that Abraham was originally from Ur of the Chaldeans. Ur was located in what we would eventually call in the Bible Babylon. The people living there worshiped idols, specifically Baal and Molech.
We know from the Old Testament that the worship of these pagan god sometimes required the sacrifice of one’s children alive in fire. Growing up there, it is possible Abaraham was aware of this and if so, what the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob required of him was exactly what Baal and Molech required. I am not implying this would have made it easier, but only saying that God pulled something from Abraham’s past pagan culture to use to test him. This test was a test of faith. A trial no parent ever wants God to put them through, but sometimes He does in different ways. God puts parents who are Christian to the test when He calls their children to become missionaries in another country or pastors or ministers in another state. Either way, Abraham, whose family would have worshiped Baal and Molech, now a worshiper of the only true God, passed the test or trial of faith. We read this in Hebrews 11:17-19:
“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, (18) even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” (19) Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death” (NASB).
So, why ask God to do what He would not do anyway? What may help us with this theological and interpretative problem is to read the works of some of the earliest church fathers as they were called. These live in the first through the fourth centuries and passed down what the disciples had taught their own disciples. I like what author and pastor John MacArthur says about this:
“Chrysostom (around 350 AD-407 AD) said that the solution to this issue is that Jesus is here not speaking of logic or theology but of a heart desire and inclination that cause a believer to want to avoid the danger and trouble sin creates. It is the expression of the redeemed soul that so despises and fears sin that it wants to escape all prospects of falling into it, choosing to avoid rather than having to defeat temptation.” (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 395).
While this may solve one problem, it also creates another problem. We know from Scripture that trials are a means for our growing spiritually, morally, and emotionally. Yet, we do not want to be in a place or position to cause sin to increase. We see this in Jesus’ darkest hours in the Garden when He prayed this in Matthew 26:39, “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, `My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will’” (NASB). Jesus was terrified to take all the sin upon Himself, but He was willing to do it to make possible our salvation.
In this line in The Lord’s Prayer of The Disciples’ Prayer, Jesus tells us to plead to God our Father for that which we do not have. We are asking God to be a sentinel for us: for our eyes, our ears, our thoughts, our desires, our hands, our feet and our heart to keep us from going into any kind of sin. We can relate to Joseph in the Old Testament when he said this to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (NASB).
But for Joseph, it took time for him to see God’s hand of providence and sovereignty in his life. From age 17-30, as sold as a slave by his brothers, Joseph lived as a slave, sometimes as a prisoner. It took time for Joseph to be submissive and dependent on God to be where God wanted him to be. Due to the famine in Egypt and Palestine, God’s covenant with Abraham would have died due to the famine. Joseph’s brothers, who would eventually make up the 12 tribes of Israel, would have died, thus making God a liar.
Like Joseph, we must learn to trust God in His promise to us in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (NASB).
Therefore, this part of the prayer is for us an acknowledgement that we are unable to do this for ourselves. We are not self-sufficient in this protection, but we are only to be self-dependent upon God for our protection in this. Jesus told us in this world we would have troubles, but because He had overcome the world, so could we through Him (John 16:33). Instead of submitting to the trial or temptation, we are to submit to God. Look at James 4:7, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (NASB). How do we do that? We submit to His word. Look at Psalm 119:11, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You” (NASB).
In such a fallen and sinful world, we need to be delivered from the sin that so surrounds us. Look at the words of New Testament scholar Bruce Barton:
“Sometimes God allows his people to be “tested” by temptation. But this testing is never without a purpose: God is always working to refine his people, teach them to depend on him, and strengthen their character to be more like him. How he does this differs in every person’s life” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, The Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 116).
This verse in this prayer parallels Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26:36-46. The Lord’s Prayer affirms the will of God and then asks God to help us and protect us from trials such as Jesus did in His prayer to the Father. Jesus prayed that God the Father would remove this cup from Him, but He also said, “Not my will, but Your will be done.” Jesus knew life would test us and we would be vulnerable to give into temptations that come from unwanted and unmerited trials and tests. New Testament scholar Douglas Sean O’Donnell writes:
“The idea here is not, “Lord, please don’t bring us to the place of temptation,” or “don’t allow us to be tempted.” We know from 4:1 that God’s Spirit brought Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. So what is being asked here is rather, “Lord, don’t let us succumb to temptation,” or “don’t abandon us to temptation.” Here we find a petition for utter dependence on God’s providence, protection, and power. It is a prayer of a weak person to a strong God” (Source: Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Preach The Word, “Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth,” p. 171).
Believers who pray these words realize their sinful nature and their need to depend on God in the face of temptation, trials, and testing. Some scholars suggest that these words may also include prayer regarding the coming final conflict between God and satan. If so, the believers’ prayers are that they may be spared from the trials surrounding it.
Questions To Consider
- What tests or trials do you believe God has put you through and how did you fair? Did you see it being from God or did you view it as life coming at you?
- James 1:13 is clear that God never tempts us. Have you ever attributed a temptation to God rather than to the real source – the devil or yourself? Why or why not?
- In Matthew 26, we cannot even imagine the temptation Jesus had to walk away from the cross, but He didn’t. Why do you think He didn’t give into that temptation? When you are tempted, is it possible Jesus’ reason for not surrendering to His temptation could also be your reason? Why or why not?
- We cannot imagine the struggle Abraham had to do what God tested him to do – to sacrifice his only son on an altar. But Abraham’s experience was Jesus’ experience. God the Father did sacrifice His only Son on the cross for us. What other parallels can you think of between these two stories that help you and why?
- The best way to deal with any temptation or test or trial is by using Scripture. This was Jesus’ favorite weapon of defense. What are some of your favorite Scripture verses you hopefully have memorized that helps you get through temptations, trials, and tests?
Scripture To Meditate On: 2 Thessalonians 3:3, “But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, thank You that You do not send temptations to me for me to see how I will handle them. But I know You do allow various trials and tests to come for me to work on making my character more like Your character. I know You are more interested in my character than in my comfort. Thank you that no matter what comes my way, You are always there to help me with it. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly