temptation

March 28, 27 A.D.  Jesus in the Wilderness – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #21

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

Week 6 ———  The Temptations

Matthew 4:3-11— Mark 1:13b  —  Luke 4:3-13

Jesus has endured 40 days in the wilderness, and now the adversary comes to him with three temptations.  

Matthew 4:2-4   And after fasting for days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

The accuser comes to Jesus in his time of greatest weakness.  He has fasted for 40 days.  But God has not yet proclaimed an end to Jesus’ fast.  Notice the accuser begins, “IF you are the Son of God.”  Jesus had just heard the voice of God himself proclaim him as the Son 40 days ago 

Matthew 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

First, the accuser will question your identity.  “If you are really saved, you would not have had that bad thought or done that bad thing.”  “If you were really a child of God, then your life wouldn’t be so hard or in such a mess.”  If he tried to place doubt in Jesus’ mind about his identity, rest assured you will face the same temptation at some point.  

Then the enemy will try to get you to question God’s goodness.  This strategy has been the accuser’s method from the beginning.  In the garden, “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  By exaggerating God’s prohibition from one tree to all, he places doubt in her mind and questions God’s goodness.  She questioned whether God was holding back something good for her.  This was Israel in the wilderness.  They were led into a place with no food, a forced fast.  Soon, they were doubting God’s goodness, asking why God brought them out of Egypt, where there was plenty of food, to a place where they would starve. This was also Jesus’ temptation.  You can almost hear the accuser saying, “Come on, 40 days of fasting is sure to be enough. You can end this fast now.  Aren’t you hungry?”  The temptation facing Adam and Eve, Israel, and Jesus is this: ‘surely your appetites are a better indication of what you need than God’s word.’  And that is the temptation we constantly face.  Will we seek to satisfy our appetites, our lusts for food, money, possessions, pleasure, power, etc?  Or will we strive to be obedient to our Father and seek first the Kingdom of God?

This was a real temptation for Jesus.  He was hungry, and he had the ability to make bread appear (even without stones) as he did in the miracle of feeding the 5000 or the 4000.  But he answers:

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, where Moses explains to Israel why obedience in fasting is essential:

“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

Our appetites should not be what controls our behavior.  Our behavior should be modeled after God’s word.  

Matt. 4:5-6   “Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

One of the secrets to understanding this temptation is a knowledge of the geography of the wilderness Jesus was in.  The Judean Wilderness is full of cliffs and wadis.  Yet somehow (whether in Spirit or physically), the accuser transports Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple.  Why was this area, with many steep cliffs, not a suitable setting for the temptation?   The difference is that in the temple in the city of Jerusalem, many people would see it.  Remember that Jesus keeps his miracles mostly in isolation in the beginning.  He tells people he heals not to tell anyone.  Other than the required feasts, he stays away from Jerusalem.  Then, in the final weeks of his ministry, Jesus purposely arranges to do an undeniable miracle in front of a crowd at Jerusalem’s doorstep.  Jesus delayed answering Mary and Martha’s plea to come and heal Lazarus, delaying his arrival until Lazarus was dead for four days.  (The thought in that day was that the spirit remained with the body for three days.  Waiting an extra day makes the miracle even more undeniable.)  Jesus forces this into the public where the religious authorities can not ignore it because “his hour has come.”  And it is this miracle that forces the Sanhedrin to decide that Jesus must die.  Had Jesus demonstrated such a public miracle before his ministry even started, he would have lost his opportunity to have that year with his disciples to teach and demonstrate the Kingdom of God to them.  That explains the ‘where’ of the temptation.

For the temptation itself, the accuser quotes Psalm 91, a Psalm about the Messiah. It promises protection, rescue, and deliverance.  But we have already discussed that putting God to the test is sinful.  Jesus’ answer from Deuteronomy references Israel testing God when they were thirsty.  Again, they doubted God’s goodness, saying he brought them there to kill them with thirst.  We easily see how jumping off a high place is a test. How is Israel testing God?

if you are thirsty and there is no water, you have two choices.  You can say:

  1. “It is okay, God is over all.  He love me and will provide for me as he always has. We got hungry and he dropped bread out of the sky for us.  He will find us water”

or 

2.     Why did you bring us here to die, Moses?  We had plenty of water in Egypt. (Here they sound like my kids when they were little on a long car trip, “I’m thirsty, I’m starving to death, I’m hot, when are we going to get there?”

Again they doubted God’s goodness, saying he brought them there to kill them with thirst.  The Bible calls that murmuring. Just before this, Israel had witnessed the beginning of the recurring miracle of bread from heaven.  And yet they doubt. 

 How many signs do you need to remember that God is good?  Apparently, ten miraculous plagues, the parting of a sea, the destruction of the Egyptian army, and raining food from the sky were not enough.  How many signs do we need that God is good?  Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, we tend to groan and complain about any hardship we face.  Bad weather, the high price of gasoline, the waits at the doctor’s office, an interruption in internet or cell phone or TV service — how quickly we forget our blessings and God’s faithfulness and murmur over trivial first-world problems.  How quick we are to test God.  

This was a real temptation for Jesus.  He was the Son of God but had lived his life in obscurity.  How easy it would have been to show people all at once who he was and the power and wealth he possessed.  But that was not God’s plan.  He was to live a simple life.  For though the cattle on a thousand hills were his, he lived a life of the poor.  Though he is the power and the glory, he lived and died as the powerless and the humiliated.  At his arrest in the garden, when his disciple attacks with a sword, Jesus rebukes him, saying:

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”  Matthew 26:53-54.

It is the same temptation again: doubting God’s goodness and provision, being disobedient, abandoning God’s plan. 

The third temptation:

Matthew 4:8-10   Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.”  Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

This may be the hardest one for us to identify with.  “I would never be a Satan worshiper!” we would proclaim.  It seems this temptation is no real temptation at all.  Or is it?

First, let’s deal with the satan’s promise of power and glory, all the kingdoms of the world.  Was it his to give?  Russel Moore, in his book Tempted and Tried, says this:

“Again, the Devil’s words were partly true. Because the original human rulers capitulated their dominion to the snake, Satan is now “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4: 4) and “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2: 2). The kingdoms of the world are under his sway right now because, in sin, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5: 19). But this reign of death is illegitimate and parasitic. The cosmos itself is bucking in revolt against this dark power, groaning for the true heirs, “the sons of God” to be revealed in resurrection (Rom. 8: 19–21). Satan’s power is twofold. He incites human sin by governing people through “the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind” (Eph. 2: 3). And he stands as accuser over humanity, keeping us in captivity through fear of death and the coming judgment (Heb. 2: 14–15; Rev. 12: 10).” 1

Indeed, these kingdoms are all the accusers (temporarily) to give.  But they would all be handed over to Jesus one day (Rev. 11:15 “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”).  Jesus was the Christ- the anointed one- anointed to be King.  Moore points out:

“Satan was not just trying to tempt Jesus; he was attempting to adopt Jesus. Satan, in all three temptations, is assuming the role of a father—first in provision, then in protection, and now in the granting of an inheritance. Satan didn’t just want to be Jesus’ lord; he wanted to be his father.”2

Jesus responds again with a verse from Deuteronomy.  He prefaces it with a command for the accuser to leave him.  He will use these exact words near the end of his ministry, speaking to Peter after Peter said Jesus should not suffer and die (Matthew 16:23).  (Peter’s statement is similar to this third temptation.)  The issue is worship.  

We think of worship as singing songs or praying, but worship is ascribing worth or value.  Billy Graham said, “Give me five minutes with a person’s checkbook, and I will tell you where their heart is.”  We could say the same about your calendar or day planner.  What you value is where you spend your money and time.  There is a lot more worshipping of the kingdoms of this world than we would all like to admit.  We could all use a little more practice repeating Jesus’ phrase, “Be gone, accuser, You should worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”

You may never have a one-on-one confrontation with the satan, but you will undoubtedly face many temptations. Remember, your desires are waiting to lure and entice you.  Sin is crouching at your door.  Like Jesus, you will likely face the hardest temptations when you are at your weakest.  But Jesus, who was “tempted in all ways like as we are,” is interceding for you.  He is praying for you. Be ready for the battle.  Put on your spiritual armor.  The victory is the Lord’s.

  1. Tempted and Tried. By Russell Moore. p139.
  2. Ibid. p 136.

Just a heads up! The gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry get busy for the next five days. So look for a blog entry each day today through Tuesday. I have some tough news for those of you following Jesus with your feet. In a few days, Jesus will make the trek from the Jordan River where John was to Cana of Galilee.  It will help if you have ever run or walked a marathon.  It will be even more helpful if you have done two on consecutive days.  I’ll post an optional entry in the “Step by Step with Jesus” section of the page this weekend with information on the difficulty of determining the site of John’s ministry and Jesus’ journey to Galilee, and what he saw along the way.

February 16 – March 27, 27 A.D.  Jesus in the Wilderness – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #19

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 5 ———  Temptation

Matthew 4:1,2  —  Luke 4:1-2

Jesus is still in the wilderness.  If it seems like he has been there a long time, he has.   We are on Day 32/40 in the wilderness, and if it seems like a long time to you, remember Jesus hasn’t eaten since Feb 16.  But he is there for a purpose.  He is preparing for his year-long ministry that will end in crucifixion and resurrection.  As we near the end of our 40 days in the wilderness and approach the three recorded temptations of Jesus by the devil, it’s time to discuss the idea of temptation further. 

We have already covered how both ‘tempt’ and ‘test’ come from the same Hebrew and Greek words and how you have to understand the context to use the proper word. We also discussed how the meaning of our English words has changed over time. We will use the modern idea that a temptation is a test in which the giver of the test wants you to fail and actively encourages you to fail.

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”  James 1:13

We also briefly discussed how God can’t be tempted — God is never wrong, so how could he be enticed to do wrong?  We also discussed how God tempts no one.  Do not doubt the goodness of God as the Israelites did.  God is always good, and because he loves us, he is always for our good.  It would be outside his character to want or entice us to fail.  So, if temptation does not come from God, where does it come from?”

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  James 1:14

‘Lured’ and ‘enticed’ are both about baiting a trap or hunting.  And who is the hunter?  Who is the tempter?  Not the devil, not other people, but your own desire.  We cannot escape our desires; they are always with us.  And they are not the same for everyone. We are all lured by different things.  The same things that tempt one person may not tempt another.  Some desires we know are in our DNA.  The genes that predispose people to alcoholism have been identified.  Also, for some forms of gluttony.  But genetic predisposition is not an excuse to sin. You can’t say, “Well, that is just how I was made,” because desire is not sin.  Being tempted is not sinful.  Choosing to follow those desires is sinful.  So, the blame is primarily on our own desire. Now, other people or the devil may encourage us, but following our desires is our downfall.

“Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”   James 1:15

If you do not keep your desires in check, if you nurture them and allow them to grow, you may follow them off the path of obedience.  Giving in to our desires is sinful.  God told Cain that “sin is crouching at the door” (who is hunting now?), and all we have to do is open the door of our desire, and sin is waiting to pounce on us. Notice how desire is pictured as a living thing being born, growing, and leading to death.  They start small – a social drink, an innocent flirtation, an eye looking in the wrong direction – then it is a slow fade down the path to destruction.  

Did Jesus have desire?  He was fully human, and we are told he was tempted “like as we are.” So, he had to have desires.  And he was tempted, “but without sin”.  He never let his desires run loose.  He learned to fill himself with a different kind of desire.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”  Gal. 5:16

Notice that those ‘desires of the flesh’ are still there in a person who is walking ‘by the Spirit.’  They are just not gratified.  We need to choose to continue to follow a new set of desires. The more we seek to gratify the desires of the Spirit, the further we will get from following our fleshly desires.  

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  Ps 37:4

This is an often misunderstood verse.  No one has ever misunderstood it more than Oprah Winfrey.  Ms. Winfrey shared in 2004 that this was her favorite verse, and I will quote her: “’LORD’ has a wide range: compassion, love, forgiveness, kindness. So you delight yourself in those virtues where the character of the Lord is revealed.” She said, “If you focus on being a force for good, then good will come.”  (A very ‘karma-like’ statement.)  She ignores that ‘LORD’ is God’s actual name (Yehovah) and applies it in her very universalist ‘all gods are god’ manner.   The usual misunderstanding of this verse is not much better, thinking the verse is saying that ‘if we enjoy God, he will give us whatever we desire.’  But the word used for ‘desires’ here is the Hebrew “mishala” which comes from the root ‘shaal’ which means ‘to ask’ and is frequently used in the OT in asking God for guidance.1  First, we must ‘delight in Yehovah’ or, as the JPS puts it, “Seek the favor [delight] of the lord.” How do we seek the delight of Yehovah? How does a nine-year-old seek the favor of her mother?  By being obedient, cleaning her room, being nice to her brother, and talking respectfully.  If we are obedient, he will give us that “desires transplant” we desperately need.

This brings me to the worst advice I have ever heard anyone give. It was a young pastor counseling a member facing a difficult decision.   The pastor said,  “Just follow your heart.”  Why is that bad advice?  

In the culture of the Bible, the heart is seen as the place of our emotions, decisions, thinking, desires, and choices.  (Modern medicine tells us all these things happen in the brain, but our culture still refers to the actions of the heart in a similar fashion to ancient civilizations.)

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick”  Jer. 17:9.

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander.”  Matthew 15:19.

Our hearts cannot be trusted.  Our hearts are so damaged that surgical repair is insufficient. We require a heart transplant.  Fortunately, God has that covered, and Ezekiel foresaw that long ago.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”   Ezekiel 36:26-27

So God will give us a new spirit and heart with new desires.  But we still exist in a fallen world.  We can still choose to follow the wrong desires and the wrong path.  One day, our redemption will be complete, this fallen world will be no more, and this struggle will end.

So please don’t advise anyone to“follow their heart.”  Perhaps we should still be wearing tassels like Jesus did.  We still need that reminder.

If you watch “The Chosen,” you can’t miss the tassels hanging on the corners of Jesus’ and the disciple’s (and any other Jews’) clothing.  One episode (Season 3, Episode 5) features the story in the scripture where a woman is healed by touching the tassels on Jesus’ garment (the story is in Mark 5:21-34.)  Why do Jesus and his disciples (and other devout Jewish people in “The Chosen” wear tassels?  They are commanded in the Torah for this reason:

“And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.”  Numbers 15:39

These tassels brush against your leg every step you take.  Should you decide to wander off the path of righteousness, they remind you to be obedient to God, to fix your eye on Him, and not to be led astray by the desires of your heart.  Now, let’s look at another essential passage about temptation:

“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,…”  1 Corinthians 10:13.

If you stop the verse here, you get the good news that God will not tempt us beyond our ability.  From this, many incorrectly state, “God will not put on us more than we can bear.”  But the scripture makes it clear that God will purposely put more on us than we can bear. 

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”   2 Cor. 1:8-10 

  Why does God put us in situations that are “far beyond our ability to endure”?

If He only allowed what we could bear on our own, then we would have no need for God to help us.  “Never mind, God, I don’t need your help. I got this,” we might stupidly say.  No, he puts more on us than we can bear so that we will learn to put our trust and faith in him.  Life is much more than we can handle at times.  We need to learn to seek his help.   So the verse doesn’t end there.  

Let’s read a little more of that verse:

“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,…”

If the verse stops there, we get the idea that God will rescue us no matter how hard things are. He will allow us to escape the awful trial or temptation. He will open a door for a way out of the dark valley.

But the verse doesn’t end there…..

“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, that you may be able to endure it.”  1 Corinthians 10:13

God’s escape plan is not the removal of the temptation but reinforcement to resist the temptation.  When walking through the valley of the shadow of death, God does not send a helicopter to airlift you out of your trouble.  Instead, he joins you in the valley and walks with you so you can endure it. (See Psalm 23)  Why?  Because if we don’t endure it, we will not get the full benefit of the trial.

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  James 1:2.

You are going to need God’s help when you are tempted.  If you try to fight temptations yourself, you will get into trouble.  Jesus is there interceding for us so that we may not fall prey to temptation (Hebrews 2:18).  Like his example, we can refute temptation by our knowledge of scripture.  Why do we memorize scripture?  Psalm 119:11 says we hide the Word in our hearts so we may not sin against God.  And we can be accountable for others.  We need friends who are willing to challenge us when we wander.  (As Leonard Smart said, “Everyone needs a Nathan.”2)  And finally, the best way to avoid temptation is to flee when you see it.  

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. (2 Tim. 2:22)

We must run away from temptation as Joseph did from Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:7-12).   But Paul tells us to run away from sin and toward righteousness, faith, love, and peace.  We need to fill our lives with the things of God so that we will not feel the need to fill our lives with other things.

Remember to seek joy in all your tests and temptations today. The Bible says to “flee idolatry,” “resist evil,” and “endure tests.”  Get your verbs in the right place:  Don’t flee tests, don’t endure idolatry, etc.

Please see my Bibliography for recommended books and links to obtain them.

1.  Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. p. 891. (1999).

2. 11: Indispensable Relationships You Can’t Be Without. Sweet, Leonard. (2012)

February 16 – March 27, 27 A.D.  Jesus in the Wilderness – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #18

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

Week 4 —— Testing

Matthew 4:1,2  —  Luke 4:1-2

So last time, we delved into the meanings of ‘tempt’ and ‘test,’ how the definitions of those words have changed over time, and how we must be careful, or we will get some pretty wrong ideas reading scripture.  Don’t miss the fact that any event can be a test and a temptation.  God placed the tree in the garden as a test.  The Accuser used it for temptation.  God tests us for our good so that we can grow in our faith; he never tempts us.  We are tempted by our own desires and by evil forces to entice us to sin, and those temptations may come into play during testing.  Now that we understand the words, let’s look at the concept of testing in the Bible.

Any 6th grader will tell you that teachers give tests to punish students.  Unfortunately, many Jesus followers feel the same way about God’s tests.  Why do we have tests?  I had a science teacher in high school who gave tests at least weekly.  She said, “I can’t help you know what you need to know if I don’t know what you don’t know.”  I am not sure I appreciated that idea then, so imagine my surprise when I heard those words coming out of my mouth one day while teaching Harvard medical students how to examine babies.1

Testing is an integral part of many stories in the Old Testament.  The tree in the Garden is a test for Adam and Eve.  It is revealed to the reader of Genesis (but not Abraham) that he is undergoing a test with his son, Isaac. Judges 2:22 tells us that God tests Israel’s obedience by not driving out the Canaanites who are still in the land.  

James tells us the purpose of tests:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  James 1:2-4

The former 6th grader in me has a little trouble with James’ attitude towards trials or tests.  But, let’s be honest, most 6th graders don’t think the goal of going to school is to learn — their real goal is to have fun. This is the secret to understanding what James is saying.  What is the goal of living on this earth? If you are a citizen of the United States of America, your Declaration of Independence says that all men are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  So, the Continental Congress says that God gave us the right to pursue happiness.  (How very ‘6th-grader’ of them.)   If Paul of Tarsus had been sitting in the Pennsylvania State House in 1776, he might have had a different opinion about our God-given pursuit.2

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:13-14

The goal is Jesus —conformity to Jesus, thereby bringing glory to God (see Eph.4:22-24, Rom. 8:29, Phil. 3:21).   Paul would argue with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams (and I’d like to see that debate).  God gave us a goal to pursue — it is not happiness but holiness.  I am afraid this is not well understood.  My wife does marriage counseling, and it is not unusual for a spouse considering divorce to say to her, “But I know God wants me to be happy…”  It is about this time I would reveal myself as a terrible counselor because I would interrupt them and ask them to open a Bible and show me where God values our happiness over our obedience.

God wants us to be joyful; indeed, joy is not optional — it is commanded over and over in the Bible.  (For example, see Matt. 5:12, Rom 12:12,15, 2 Cor 13:11, 1 Thess 5:16, and Philippians 2:18, 3:1, and 4:4.)  But how do we have joy in the midst of pain, trials, or suffering?  We have joy not based on the changing circumstances of our lives but on the unchanging goodness of God.  Author David Mathis says, “Not that we’re dull to the multifaceted pains of life in this age, but in Christ we have access to subterranean joy that is simultaneous with, and deeper than, the greatest of our sorrows — we are “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).3 Our joy in Christ will only grow as we conform more to him.  Holiness is the goal, joy is found on that path, and testing is a part of the path.  And testing brings joy because we know it brings us closer to our goal.

So now we know why we are tested and why we get joy from being tested. Jesus adds more about testing in the prayer he taught his disciples.

Matthew 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

So we have our usual Greek word ‘peirasmos’ that you remember can be translated as ‘test’ or ‘temptation.’  As noted in the previous blog entry, the King James Version almost always translated it as ‘temptation.’  That is because ‘tempt’ in the early 1600s had the definition ‘to prove or put to the test’ and not the idea of enticing someone to do wrong.  We will learn next time that James 1:13 tells us that God doesn’t tempt anyone.  So Jesus is well aware that God will not lead anyone into temptation. So why does he have us pray and ask God not to do something that the Bible says God never does?

 The idea of ‘periasmos’ here must be a test, not a temptation.  So the King James Version is correct if you read it with the King James era definition of ‘temptation.’  If you read it with a modern-day definition of ‘temptation,’ then you are saying God is responsible for tempting us. So it should read:

Matthew 6:13  And lead us not into a test,…

So, of course, when they released the New King James Version in 1982 with contemporary English, they changed that to the modern ‘test’ and not ‘temptation,’ right?  No, they left it the same.  All the modern translations of the Bible continue to translate it as ‘temptation’ — except a very few, one of which is the Good News Translation: “Do not bring us to hard testing”(for why they do this, see the footnote).4  

The Hebrew version of Matthew5 says, “Do not lead us into the hands of a test.”  This is also the phrasing seen in the Peshitta, an ancient Aramaic version of the New Testament still used in the East.  The Talmud, the teaching of the ancient Rabbis, has this prayer which is still prayed by Orthodox Jews daily: “Do not bring me into the hands of a test, or into the hands of shame.”  Now, whether Jesus is borrowing this phrase from a traditional Jewish prayer (which he does a good bit) or the Rabbis got it from him, I don’t know.  But I know God isn’t leading me into an enticement to sin.

So Jesus is telling us to pray and ask God to hold back from testing us today.  This idea is seen elsewhere in the Bible as in Proverbs 30:7-9, where Agur urges God not to test him with riches “lest I be full and deny you” or with poverty “lest I be poor and steal and then profane the name of my God.” 

When Jesus teaches us to pray that we not be tested, he speaks from the experience of recently enduring a 40-day test in the wilderness. He knows how difficult testing can be.  He will later sweat drops of blood in an agonizing test in a garden. Jesus understands the harshness of tests, and he has compassion for us.  Most of the tests we face are ones we stumble into while walking in the wrong direction.  God rarely leads us to tests, and according to Jesus, it is good to ask God not to lead us there. (Of course, asking God not to lead you anywhere presumes that you are someone who is following his directions already.  He won’t lead you anywhere if you are not following him.)

 So you can say the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ the way you always have but know that you are talking about testing, not tempting.

Now, we must discuss the idea that it is sinful to test God.  I was talking with a friend about God testing us and how it is not okay to test God, and my friend asked me, “Then why was it alright for Gideon to test God with the fleece?  (If you don’t know the story, read Judges 6.)  First, don’t read every story and get the idea that just because a hero in the Bible did it, it is good for you.  No, God did not intend for you to have multiple wives like Jacob, to commit adultery or murder like David, or to be a complete lecherous, reprobate jerk of a bully like Sampson.6  There are a lot of examples in the Bible of how not to act and what not to do.  God had already been very clear with Gideon, so Gideon’s fleece was a lack of faith and a hesitance in obedience. 

Ex. 17:2-3 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD? But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

God led Israel specifically to this place without water so they could become thirsty in this wilderness.  This was a test for them.  How would they react?  Would they endure the thirst, knowing that God would not let them die of thirst because he has promised to bring them to the promised land?  They fail.  Like Gideon’s fleece, this is a lack of faith.  They even question God’s goodness, saying he brought them there to kill them.  Their experience parallels Jesus’ first two temptations, which we will discuss more fully in a few weeks.

The Spirit leads Jesus to a wilderness where there is no food.  The first temptation is to create bread from stones, acting independently of the Father and outside God’s will to be fasting.  Jesus refused to believe God led him there to die.  He passes where Israel failed.  The second temptation is for Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple and expect God to rescue him.  Once again, Jesus doesn’t act outside of the Father’s will.  There were plenty of cliffs in the wilderness to do this test, but he was taken to this very public place for a reason.

Many would have seen this undeniable miracle at this location, and that was not God’s timing of how the Messiah was to be revealed. Jesus’ ministry was initially to be very low-key in Galilee to allow time to teach the disciples before the authorities in Jerusalem dealt with him.   In the last two weeks of his ministry, Jesus does a miracle in front of a group of people just outside of Jerusalem.  He purposely makes sure the miracle is undeniable (he waits until Lazarus is four days dead), and this leads the religious leaders in Jerusalem to seek his death.  Had he done such a public miracle in Jerusalem in front of the religious leaders, his ministry would have been cut short before it began.  Jesus waits until “his hour has come” and then orchestrates his own demise.

I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.  John 8:28 

Jesus always submitted to the Father’s will.   His answer to the devil at the second temptation is, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” In other words, stay in the Father’s will and not ‘jump’ ahead of God.  God sets a path before us.  To stray from the path is a lack of trust in God. 

 Finally, there is a verse where it seems God is inviting you to test him.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.  Malachi 3:10

Some people have explained that God makes an exception to his rule of testing because it’s about tithing, and tithing is ‘special.’  That’s convenient, but I don’t think that’s right.  Remember the occasions when it was sinful to test God; it was because you were demonstrating a lack of faith or a departure from God’s set path for you.  But in Malachi, if we participate in the test, we give as God commanded, demonstrating faith. So that is obedience, not sin.  We are being faithful, and God is proving his faithfulness to us by opening up the windows of heaven.  Every day we live, God demonstrates his faithfulness to us.  You know that because of those verses in Lamentations that you memorized (and didn’t even know you knew.)  It is one of the reasons I love the old hymns.

“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”   Lamentations 3:22-23 (KJV)  

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
there is no shadow of turning with Thee;  (James 1:17)
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
as Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning, new mercies I see;
all I have needed Thy hand hath provided:
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!7

This is the secret to passing tests— remember this verse (or remember these lyrics).

Israel is escaping from Egypt, and they are camping out on the shore of a sea. Then, the Egyptians come after them.  And God gives them a test.  He doesn’t tell them to attack the Egyptians; he tells them just to stand firm where they are. He doesn’t ask them to fight that vast army of chariots of the Egyptians, He doesn’t ask them to part the waters, just stand firm.  They had a choice: they could run for their lives or stand there, believing God would be faithful to what he said and watch God fight for them.  They passed.

Later, Israel was in the desert with no food or water. Should they worry, complain, and yell at Moses? No, because God is good. God’s Faithfulness is Great. He has promised to bring them to a new land. He will not let them starve. 

Abraham’s great test would be whether he would be willing to give up his only son. Would Abraham have the faith to believe that God is good, that God is faithful, and that God would keep his promise to raise up a great nation through his son, even if he were sacrificed?

In the Garden, before he goes off to pray alone, Jesus tells his disciples,  “Pray, for we all face a great test”…  one he knew the disciples would fail. One Jesus passes. Would Jesus have enough trust in God’s faithfulness to suffer and die? Would he believe God’s promise not to forsake him but to resurrect him? 

God may never lead you into a test. But if you are like me, you will stumble into enough on your own.  When you do, when things are brutal or bleak, don’t grumble and complain, don’t jump ahead of God, and don’t run away.  Just stand firm and believe that God is Good. You don’t have to fight the enemy, and you don’t have to part the waters because God is Faithful. He loves you and promises to work all things for your good. 

Please see my Bibliography for recommended books and links to obtain them.

  1. Let me take a moment to thank Mrs. Puckett, Mrs. Holder, Mr. Dempsey, Mrs. Clements, and Mr. Ehman, who instilled in me a love for science and would be very surprised to know that the smart-mouthed kid became a medical doctor.
  2. Of course, Paul would not claim citizenship here anyway.  “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
  3. David Mathis, “Joy Is Not Optional: Why Your Happiness Matters to God” February 3, 2016, www.desiringgod.org
  4. So why do most modern translations continue to use “Lead us not into temptation” even though our current understanding of ‘temptation’ is different and leads to contradiction?  In 2017, the Pope suggested changing it from ‘temptation,’ and it caused quite a stir.  It seems people become very defensive of the traditional wording of the prayer they have said all their lives.  Even when faced with sound reasoning and facts, people don’t want to let go of what they have always been taught.  Jesus had this same problem with the Pharisees, refusing to let go of their traditional interpretations, even when God himself tried to teach them better.  He said, “So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God”  (Matthew 15:6).  Please don’t let your traditions trump scripture.
  5. Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, George Howard, 1995.  We have multiple copies of Matthew in Hebrew. None are Matthew’s autograph, of course.  The one quoted here is Shem Tov’s Hebrew Matthew, translated by George Howard.
  6. Contrary to what you learned in your 5-year-old Sunday School Class, you should not want to grow up to be like Sampson.  If you want to read a great book explaining how God can use this mess of a man, here it is:  Make Your Mark: Getting Right What Samson Got Wrong, by Brad Gray.  (2014).
  7. “Great is Thy Faithfulness” lyrics by Thomas H. Chisholm, music by William Runyan 1923.

February 16 – March 27, 27 A.D.  Jesus in the Wilderness – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #17

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

Week 4 ———- Temptation or Test?

Matthew 4:1,2  —  Luke 4:1-2

Is it a temptation, or is it a test?  You have to look at a calendar to know. (Fair warning: This post is background information for the discussion on testing and tempting in the Bible. So it is a little tedious, but bear with me, words are importatnt.)

Words change over time.  For example, “awe” in Old English meant “fear, terror, or dread”. By the mid-1700s, ‘awe’ took on the idea of ‘reverential fear’ or ‘fear with respect,’ a meaning we use today.  Four hundred years ago, two words based on that root had the same meaning: ‘awesome’ and ‘awful’ (which meant, literally, ‘full of awe.’)  But by the early 1800s, ‘awful’ began to take on our present meaning of ‘very bad.’1  ‘Awesome’ went in the other direction and, by the mid-1900s, meant ‘impressive,’ and the early 1980s added the idea of ‘enthusiastic approval’ (thanks, “Valley Girl”).  If you want to know if ‘awful’ or ‘awesome’ is a good or bad modifier, you have to know the date of the writing.  If you read literature from the 1600s (I am talking about you, King James Bible), you had better be willing to do your homework on word meanings, or you might get it backward.

Thus our problem with the word ‘temptation’ in the Bible.  The Hebrew word is ‘nasah’, and the Theological Workbook of the Old Testament says, “In most contexts ‘nasah’ has the idea of testing or proving the quality of someone or something, often through adversity or hardship. The rendering tempt, used frequently by the Authorized Version [King James Version], generally means prove, test, put to the test, rather than the current English idea of ‘entice to do wrong.’”  For example, David tried on Saul’s armor and sword before his confrontation with Goliath, but decided not to use them “for he had not tested them” (1 Samuel 17:39).

Now, let’s look at a verse that could cause some confusion. “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham” (Genesis 22:1 KJV).  If you read the King James Version with our 21st-century definition of ‘tempt,’ you get the idea that God entices Abraham to do wrong.  More modern translations use ‘test’ to fit our current word use.  For example, the  ESV says: “After these things, God tested Abraham.”   I would hate for someone to get the idea that God wants us to fail when I believe God is doing everything he can to help us succeed.2

In Exodus 17:2, Moses asks the people, “Wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? (KJV).   (The ESV is “Why do you test the LORD?”)  Again, if you read that in 1611, there is no conflict with James 1:13: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”  But if you read a 17th Century version of Exodus with our modern definition there is confusion.  In Kohlenberger/Mounce Hebrew, they add to the definition of ‘nasah’: “to test God implies a lack of confidence in his revealed character, thus is wicked.”

In the New Testament Greek, ‘periazo’ is the verb form that carries the modern meaning to test or to tempt (entice to do wrong.)  In most current versions, when the verb is an activity of Satan, it is translated as ‘tempt.’  When used of people it is translated as ‘test’.  In the King James Version, it is almost always translated as ‘tempt.’  This has led to an understanding of the Pharisees as having evil intent when they question Jesus, as they are ‘tempting’ him.  Let me insert my personal opinion here.  Asking probing, challenging questions is how Jewish rabbis have always learned from each other.  If you were in a room where rabbis were discussing a difficult passage of scripture, you might get the idea they were enemies.  But they say that debate with disagreement is the best way to learn. Athol Dickson quotes a rabbi who was having trouble generating discussion about scripture as saying, “Come on, people! Somebody disagree with me! How can we learn anything if no one will disagree?”3 I think the Pharisees were initially testing Jesus to see if he was following a particular interpretation of scripture.  Near the end of his ministry, though, the Bible clearly shows they were trying to trap him.  So when the ESV translates John 8:6 as “This they [the Pharisees] said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.” Their intent makes the King James translation more accurate as it says, “This they said, tempting him.”  (And yes, I just said the King James translation is the most accurate here.)

It is about this time that my friend Mark, in our Tuesday morning Bible Study, would be commenting that he felt like he had just sat through a seminary lecture or a Grammar class.  (Don’t let him fool you; he is a serious student of the Bible.)  But God’s message to us is composed of words.  We have to cross barriers of translation and thousands of years of language changes to get His meaning, so we do not insert our own. The Bible is worthy of us using all of our heart, mind, and spirit to study it.  We must connect to the scriptures with emotion, intellect, and the Holy Spirit.  Now that we have waded through this word study, we are ready to discuss testing and temptation in the Bible next time.

Please see my Bibliography for recommended books and links to obtain them.

1. As an exception to our modern use of awful having a negative connotation, it has been occasionally used as an intensifier, as in “She is awful pretty.”  That reminds me of how my friends from Boston use another usually negative word, ‘wicked,’ as in “That Lobsta’ is wicked good!”

2. I love to read the King James Version, especially the poetic nature of the Psalms and other songs in the Bible (thanks, W. Shakespeare.)  But I don’t use it to study due to the problems with changing language and because our modern versions have the advantage of better source documents and a better understanding of language and the culture of the day.  It is fine to use, but for study, at least read it in parallel with a more modern translation to help you catch the potential language traps.

3. Dickson, Athol, The Gospel According to Moses (2003)  as quoted in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. Spangler’s and Tverberg’s book is an easy read and a great introduction to Jesus as a Jewish Rabbi.

February 16 – March 27, 27 A.D.  Jesus in the Wilderness – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #13

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , , ,

Week 2 Going where you don’t want to go

It is getting time for the evening meal, and you don’t want to eat at home.  Then comes the classic question, “Where do you want to eat?” with the classic answer, “Anywhere is fine with me.”  This must be very common because all across the country, restaurants have sprung up with names like “Anywhere,” “Anything’s Fine With Me,” “I Don’t Care,” and, of course, “It Doesn’t Matter”1.  When we have a group deciding on a restaurant, and no one has a preference, we then do eliminations: for example, ‘I ate at Applebee’s last week, so not there’ or ‘I don’t feel like Italian food tonight.’  This seems to be more productive.  Sometimes it is easier to know where you don’t want to go.

There is some discussion in the commentaries about whether Jesus fasted for 40 days and then was tempted or if he was tempted the entire 40-day period and then had the final three temptations that Matthew and Luke discuss.

Mark 1:12-13   The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Our English version seems clear that Jesus was tempted for the entire 40 days, and the Greek version even more so.   Matthew and Luke then record the 3 specific temptations, but Mark does not.  It’s not hard to imagine 40 days of temptations.  We are told to expect trials and temptations.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  1 Peter 4:12

We are told that this is the norm.  God told Cain that “sin is crouching at the door”.  Peter says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8).  We are surrounded by trials and temptations — that is the fallen world we live in,

So the Spirit “drove him out into the wilderness”.  The Greek verb is very forceful.  ‘Ekballo’ means to ‘throw out’.  This is the verb used when Jesus drives out the moneychangers in the temple, or when Jesus ‘cast out’ demons, or when Stephen is ‘cast out’ of the city and stoned.    It is the same as when the people in his hometown of Nazareth throw him out of town and then take him to throw him off a cliff.  This was not a friendly suggestion to Jesus by the Spirit to go to the wilderness.  This was no gentle nudge.  The Spirit forced Jesus to go where he did not want to go.

As we have discussed, the wilderness is not a place many would choose to go.  On a trip to Israel in 2016, the bus stopped at the edge of the Judean wilderness, and we were instructed to go off by ourselves for 40 minutes.  It was oppressively hot and dry.  There were no trees, no shade, almost no vegetation, and no signs of water.  40 minutes was long enough.  I could not imagine 40 days.  And in Jesus’ day, it was dangerous.  Mark tells us, “he was with the wild animals.”  That seems an odd detail to throw in a short passage.  That area used to be home to large and small predators.  (We were told the large ones (like lions) were no longer there.)  But this is not a place you choose to be day and night alone. I wonder if Mark was painting the wilderness as an anti-Eden place — Eden was a place of abundant vegetation and fruit of all kinds, the wilderness was desolate.  Eden had abundant water, “there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground” such that a river flowed out of Eden, but the wilderness was dry.  The animals in Eden came to man without fear, but the animals in the wilderness are “wild.”2  But both were a place of testing and interestingly, Adam and Eve’s temptation was about something to eat, just as the first of Jesus’ temptations by the devil.

No one would choose to go to a place of testing, with an encounter with the devil after 40 hard days.  Jesus was forced there at the beginning of his ministry.  He will be forced to go somewhere else he doesn’t want to go at the end of his ministry.  

Matt. 16:21   From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is “greatly distressed and troubled.” He prays and asks if there is any other way to accomplish God’s plan of redemption.  The way of the cross was not the way anyone, including Jesus, would want to go.  But praying in the garden, Jesus makes a choice that Adam and Eve should have made. 

God asked Adam and Eve, “Will you be obedient to me about the tree?”

“Will you follow my will or your own will?”  Adam and Eve fail at the tree of discerning good and evil.

God asked Jesus, “Will you be obedient to me about the tree?”

And Jesus answered, “Not my will, but your will be done.

  Jesus is obedient about the tree.

“They put him to death by hanging him on a tree”  Acts 10:39

God sent Jesus somewhere he didn’t want to go, as he did other Bible characters.  Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh, Moses didn’t want to go back to Egypt, Ananias didn’t want to go pray for Saul.  Abraham left his home, having no idea where he would end up. And then there is Peter.

 Jesus tells Peter, “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18). Then Jesus gives Peter the same instruction he gave him at the beginning, “Follow me.” I have been to Rome and have seen the spot where, 34 years later, Peter was led, a place where his arms were stretched-out and nailed to a cross. Peter had learned to be obedient, to be faithful to go somewhere he didn’t want to go.  I believe at some point in all of our lives, God will ask us all to go somewhere we do not want to go.  It may be to minister to an enemy or to people who don’t like you; it may be leaving your home to unknown places, or it may be to a place of desolation or testing. It may be to martyrdom. 

Jesus followed God in everything, even to desolation and death.  

The one who restores our soul may lead us through paths of righteousness that look to us like the valley of the shadow of death. There are some dark valleys in this world.  Some of you have walked in the valley. Some of you are walking there now.  There is the valley of pain; there is the valley of depression, the valley of despair, the valley of illness so severe it is the shadow of death, the valley of grief over a loved one.  We all will walk through those valleys — places we don’t want to go.  And on that day, may Jesus remind us:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

There they are, the most common command in the Bible (“Do not fear.”) and the most common promise in the Bible (“I will be with you.”).  They are inextricably linked.  As God told Joshua before they entered the land:

Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”    Joshua 1:9

The same promise is given to the disciples right after Jesus tells them to go into all the nations.  Jesus’ last words in the gospel of Matthew:

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.  Matthew 28:20

Jesus willingly went into the wilderness and willingly went to the cross with no fear, knowing God would be with him.  God promises to be with us in the deepest, darkest valleys of death, comforting, healing, and feeding us with cups running over with goodness and mercy. 

Jesus continues to say, ‘Follow me’.  If we follow him, we know he is there with us.  And if we follow Jesus, we are sure to end up going somewhere we would have never thought about going.  But we will never go alone. Are we willing to go where we do not want to go?  Have you been to the wilderness this week?

1. I have heard the “It Doesn’t Matter Family Restaurant” just below Montgomery, Alabama is a great place.

2. Talking about the ‘wild animals’ in Mark, Skip Moen said, “This sinful world into which Jesus enters to accomplish his mission is less like a pristine garden and more like Jurassic Park.”  Yikes!