Ready To Be Spent

Matthew 6 : 9-16

New Living Translation (NLT)

9 Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,

may Your name be kept holy.

10 May Your Kingdom come soon.

May Your will be done on earth,

as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today the food we need,

12 and forgive us our sins,

as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,

but rescue us from the evil one.

James 1:13 says, "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).

That’s true. But the Bible also says, "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matthew 4:1).

This line (In Matthew’s version of the Lord's prayer) has never made sense to me, although I continue to recite it since this is the way it is usually translated; but I cannot really appreciate it as is. Sometimes, it is translated "do not put us to the test" (In Luke’s version), which still seems strange and problematic. Why would God "lead" us into temptation or "put us to the test" to begin with? Is human life an obstacle course, a testing ground? Are we all on trial? I thought God’s usual job was to lead us away from temptation! Why would we need to ask God to NOT lead us INTO temptation?

Understanding the Old Testament Background

I began with a word study on the word 'peirasmos' as it appears throughout the Bible. The word 'peirasmos' in the Old Testament is most commonly the name of a place, Massah. This place is named in Exodus 17:7. 'Massa' is simply the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word 'peirasmos'; it seems to be derived from the word 'piel', a feminine singular participle of 'nasah', meaning to test or put to the test, hence place of putting to the test. In the OT, Massah was the paradigmatic place where Israel’s relationship with God was fractured and God became somewhat distant from them, despite His covenantal commitment just recently demonstrated in Him delivering them from Egypt.

In Exodus 14-15, God had saved the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, taking them through the Red Sea. Exodus 14: 30, 31 states "Thus the LORD delivered ('errusato') Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses."

But no sooner had God delivered Israel from the Egyptians, then they began to grumble and complain against God their deliverer. They had been delivered through two walls of water 'into the wilderness', and their first act on being delivered was to complain about the lack of water (Exod 15:24). They seemed to think that the God who had just parted the Red Sea couldn't give them a few mouthfuls of water in the desert! From that time on, God's relationship with the Israelites was a relationship characterized by 'testing'. God gave them water, but in doing so He 'tested' Israel to see if they would obey His commandments (Exod 15:25). Next, they complained about food, so He gave them bread, but even the bread-giving included a 'test' from God, a command not to gather too much (Exod 16:4)—which many failed (Exod 16:20). Then, once again, in Exodus 17 the people complained about lack of water. Moses ominously describes this complaint as 'putting the Lord to the test', that is, 'testing' God to see if He really loved them and cared for them (Exod 17:2). God again gives them water, but the place is named from that time on Massah, the place of testing (Exod 17:7).

Exodus 17:7 "And He called the name of the place Massah ('peirasmos') and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested ('peirazein') the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

"God had delivered them from Egypt because of His love. But He had then led them into 'testing' in the wilderness, the place where God tested their commitment to Him and where the people tested God's love for them. Later on, just before the people are about to enter the Promised Land, they again 'tested' God. God had promised them the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey to be theirs. But the people didn't believe Him. They were afraid of the previous inhabitants of the land, they suspected that God didn't love them and they didn't trust God. They didn't enter the land. As a result, God told them they would not inherit the land for forty years. This 'test' was the final straw for God; His people didn't trust Him and so He banished them to forty years' wandering in the wilderness (Num 14:22-23). Throughout the rest of the OT, Massah is referred to as that terrible place of testing, the place where mutual suspicion entered into the relationship between God and His people (which was not God’s fault of course, for He was always faithful to His promises. They had no right to test God). The law and the prophets began to refer to Massah, the 'place of testing', as if it applied to the whole wilderness experience, from the crossing of the Red Sea until the entry into the Promised Land 40 years later. (Deut. 6:16, 8:2, 9:22, 33:8; Psa. 78:18, 78:41, 78:56, 95:8-9, 106:14) In the end, Israel emerged chastened and humbled by the whole 'testing' experience (Deut 8:16). But even then, the people still had a problem: they did not fully trust God, and so the testing continued throughout Israel's history. God tested them to see if they would obey Him (Deut 13:3; Judg 2:22, 3:1, 3:4; 2 Chron 32:31) and they generally failed; for their part, the people tested God to see if He really cared for them and loved them and would keep His promises (Judges 6:39). In the light of the OT, Matthew 6:13 literally means Don't lead us into Massah. That is, it is a prayer asking God to make sure that we don't relive that desert experience of Israel, where they suspected God of foul play, and God (quite rightly) suspected them of ungrateful and disobedient hearts.

Testing and God’s Redeemed People

God never tests His people in the NT like He did in the OT. Christians certainly do undergo 'tests' in the NT, but these 'tests' are not an act of God 'testing' us to see if we will obey Him, like a distant examiner or a suspicious husband. Christians never undergo special 'tests' such as God gave His people in the wilderness, but simply the 'trials' that are common to humanity (1 Cor 10:13), or the temptations of Satan (1 Thess 3:5). God always provides a way of escape from these type of trials (1 Cor 10:13, 2 Pet 2:9). They are described like a refiner's fire, proving our trust in God and our willingness to follow Jesus (1 Pet 1:6, 4:12). In all these things, God's attitude to us is always as a loving heavenly father, never as a 'suspicious heavenly examiner'.

The book of James provides an extended commentary on the theme of testing, applying the 'testing' that Jesus mentions in His prayer to a Christian's everyday life with all of its economic inequalities - (modified ESV):

James 1: 2 - 15 "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet testings ('peirasmois') 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. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under testing ('peirasmon'), for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tested ('peirazomenos'), 'I am being tested ('peirazomai') by God,' for God cannot be tested ('apeirastos') with evil, and He Himself tests ('peirazei') no one. But each person is tested ('peirazetai') when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

Applying Matthew 6:13

Hence the prayer of Matthew 6:13 is a prayer of confident trust, asking God to keep us trusting His loving care for us. It is a prayer that God our Father will keep our focus firmly on His ultimate act of care and provision for us: the deliverance from sin provided by Jesus' death on the cross. It is a prayer that, in the midst of the common trials of this life, God will help us remember that He is not distant from us, He is not standing back and testing us to see if we will obey, He is not inflicting these things on us as a test; but that He is lovingly refining us and making us more like His Son Jesus Christ. It is a prayer asking God to 'give us our daily bread', not to test us to see if we will obey Him (as He did when He gave bread to the people in the wilderness), but simply to provide us with what we need as our loving heavenly Father. It is a prayer to deliver us out of the clutches of Satan, who lies to us, who tells us that God does not have our best interests at heart in the midst of these trials, who wants us to become suspicious of our Father and forget how much He loves us. The evil one wants us to think that we know best, and that God doesn't love us as much as we love ourselves. We may not know exactly why we are suffering; like Job, we may never find out the precise reason for it until the Lord returns – all we may know is that God is compassionate and merciful in our suffering (James 5:11). But that is enough!

When would you need to pray, ‘Lead me not into temptation’?

Maybe you have accepted that Jesus died for you and brought you into heaven … But you still think your life is a desert wilderness, and you need stuff to fill up the void. You suspect God because you don't trust that He will give you what you need. So instead of generosity and love, your life is about greed and holding on to things that you don't really need. Satan is just as active in material things as he is in spiritual things. You then need to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

Maybe you are tempted when it comes to your relationships. Maybe you're unhappy with whatever relationships you have, or unhappy because you don't have a relationship that you long for. You may be single, widowed, divorced, married, friendless, unappreciated, just tired of giving. And you know that God has saved you from sin, and given you eternal life. But you suspect that He doesn't really have your best interests at heart when it comes to these human relationships. And you think He's being mean; He's saved you from the greatest enemy of all—sin and death—but He's just brought you into a dry desert wilderness and He's not going to give you anything to drink.

Of course, that can lead to disaster, can't it? You are tempted to look for other ways to gratify your desires, ways that God hates. You join in with your mates when they drink too much so you’ll be accepted by them. Or you look for cheap thrills. But you don't care because God doesn't seem to care for you. You then need to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one', trusting God's goodness, even in the desert.

Addiction can be a form of temptation too, can't it? When you start to feel that some thing can look after you, or ease the pain, because you think that God doesn't care. Whether it's alcohol or pornography or sex or even food.

Of course, it might be helpful to take some active steps to remove these temptations from your life. Don't watch the TV shows that provoke you to greed or lust. Put porn blocking software on your computer. Whatever it takes to keep yourself for the Lord! But the most important thing you can do is to pray.

And do you know, this prayer is quite an amazing prayer? Because the act of praying it is itself part of the answer to the prayer! If you ask God to not lead you into temptation, to help you to trust Him, that prayer is itself an act of trust. When you talk to God, you trust Him. And the more you trust, the less you suspect Him of being mean, and the less you are tempted; because you know that God is good to you, even in the hard times.

You may not know why your life seems like a desert now. You may never know until the end of time. But we do know that God is our Father. And God is our Father because Jesus has died for us and made us God’s children.

As Paul says in Romans 8:34-39 - So God does not do the tempting—He does not put evil desires in our hearts (for He can have no evil desires in His heart) - but He does allow us into the presence of many tests and temptations. "A man's steps are from the Lord." (Proverbs 20:24).

In fact, every step we take is a step into the presence of temptation. There is no moment of your life that is not a moment of temptation - a moment when unbelief and disobedience is not a possibility.

The Lord's prayer does not teach us to pray against that kind of sovereign guidance.

What it teaches us to pray is that the temptation does not take us in. Don't lead me into temptation. Deliver me from this evil that is set before me.

Today we stand before innumerable temptations. That's what life is: endless choices between belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. But, O mighty God, forbid that I would yield. Hold me back from stepping inside the temptation.

"And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one."