The Trial of All Things: “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham.” Genesis 22:1. That word carries the sense of proving, trying, bringing something into the light, not planting sin in Abraham, but revealing what God had already purposed and given. There is a way of speaking about temptation that is almost always confined to one narrow idea, the pull toward sin, the inward struggle with evil. And while Scripture does speak of that, it does not stop there. There is another sense, one that reaches much further, and touches not only Abraham, but every man. Job 14:1.
We are told plainly that God did “tempt” Abraham, not to entice him to evil, but to bring him into a trial so searching, so severe, that everything was laid bare. And if that is so, then temptation cannot be reduced to a single category. It is not only the struggle against sin, but the revealing of what is in the heart in the circumstances God appoints. Deuteronomy 8:2. Seen in that light, life itself begins to take on a different shape. What we encounter is no longer seen as random or incidental, but as something appointed. Ecclesiastes 3:1. All of life comes from one source, and nothing enters our path without purpose. What is given and what is taken away are not random turns, but appointed means by which something is made known. And this is not confined to one kind of circumstance but is found across the whole range of life. Gain is not simply gain, and loss is not simply loss. Weakness exposes one thing, and strength uncovers another. Poverty tries a man, but so does abundance. Sickness is a heavy burden, yet even health is not without its dangers. Ecclesiastes 7:14. Everything we are brought into carries this same character, for no condition comes without its own temptation. And many of the things we desire for ourselves, or for those we love, are not as harmless as they appear; they could, if given, overturn us in ways we never saw coming. How often this has been seen, when men are given what they seek, and in that very gift, the true state of the heart begins to appear. Psalm 106:8-15.
The Scriptures themselves speak this way. “Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” Proverbs 30:8-9. There is something significant in that request. It does not set one condition as safe and the other as dangerous but shows that both can work against us in different ways. Deuteronomy 8:12-14. Fullness may lead to forgetting God; want may lead to dishonoring Him. Neither condition leaves us unchanged. Each has a way of uncovering what lies within. Matthew 15:18-19. And yet, there is something in us that resists this. We are always inclined to think that one condition would be better than another, that if we had more, or less, or something different altogether, we would be on firmer ground. But we do not know ourselves as we think we do. The very things we would choose may be the very things that would undo us.
And this is why we are taught in the Scriptures to pray, “lead us not into temptation,” not merely away from outward sin, but with a constant sense of our dependence upon Christ in every condition. For nothing in life proves safe in itself. What appears a blessing may undo us; what seems a burden may preserve us. The danger is not found in the condition itself, but in what lies within the heart. Jeremiah 17:9. And in all of this, one thing becomes very clear, that we have no safety in any condition, but only in the Lord who keeps us, who orders all things concerning us, and preserves us in every one of them. Psalm 121:5-7. MPJ