The Lord's Prayer - final teaching

Today we will look at “And do not put us to the test, But deliver us from evil.”

There are several possible translations:
Aramaic, can be causal or permissive. Causal would translate it as above. Permissive would translate it as “and do not let us go into temptation but deliver us from evil”

There is also a belief that this is a “litotes” which is a figure of speech which expresses something by negating the contrary – not a few = many. Lead us not into temptation, into temptation is negated by not = lead us into righteousness. The phrase comes right after the forgiveness prayer and could be asking God to forgive us and lead us away from all that comes with unforgiveness.

Or reflecting on Jesus and the Israelites it can show how he resisted temptation. An ancient Jewish evening prayer: “Lead my foot not into the power of sin, And bring me not into the power of iniquity, And not into the power of temptation, And not into the power of anything shameful” The prayer has in view God’s permission which allows things to happen. It is not a prayer to be preserved from temptation but to be preserved in temptation.

Or reflecting back to the Exodus it can be translated as “not to put God to the test” or “do not let us put God to the test”. We see that the Israelites tested God repeatedly and thus didn’t enter into the Promise Land because of their sin.

“To test God is to examine him to see if he will keep his obligations, challenging him to demonstrate his fidelity to the conditions of the covenant. It is usually a query raised by the covenant son, a demand that God should show by a powerful work, by a "proof" ... or "sign" ... that he really is the god of his people, is in their midst, is active as their saviour, protector and provider in accordance with his covenant promises. The action is condemned in the Old Testament as a very serious offense against God. What the sin consists of can scarcely be defined in one simple formula, but broadly speaking it is a violation of JHWH's divine honour for man to dictate to him; man is demonstrating his suspicion and unbelief in not regarding JHWH as trustworthy, reliable, faithful to the covenant. To test God is thus the opposite of believing in him and therefore a very definite violation of the covenant bond. According to the Old Testament JHWH reacts in anger to exterminate his people”

The Israelite tested God in the wilderness
The background again is the Exodus and God’s promise for His people in the new land He was taking them into.
· There is a promise of divine protection in the wilderness wanderings. God set before his son Israel a blessing and a curse (Deut. 11:26 ff.; 27:14-30:20; cf. 8:14 ff.).

To the blessing promised protection from all kinds of danger. If Israel kept the covenant, this protection was his. Deut. 32:10 ff. and Exod. 19:4 ff. speak of Yahweh bearing Israel on eagles’ wings. His foot is said not to have swollen during the forty years (Deut. 8:4; 29:4; cf. Neh. 9:21). Yahweh is said to have borne his people as a man bears his son (Deut. 1:31; cf. Num. 11:12 f.; Isa. 46:3 f.; Hos. 11:3).

“a test designed to discipline the children of God and to reveal what lies in their hearts.

Israel failed with this test and showed their true characters; They craved all that they had left, they were filled with discontent, doubt, and unbelief. They grumbled because they wanted a different kind of food to the manna God gave them. Their hearts were revealed by what they were saying and what they longed for.

Jesus was also tempted but didn’t fall
· In the NT accounts of Jesus temptation we see that he didn’t give in and didn’t turn against God.
He was tempted to turn His back on God by (Luke 4: 1-13):
1. Doubting God’s provision
2. Giving him power – which was his anyway
3. Doubting God’s protection

The three forms of the temptation focus on the three areas of life which were vital to Israel as the covenant pilgrim people seeking the promised land:
1. sustenance,
2. protection and all that the land symbolized in terms of prosperity
3. security.

· He answered Satan using scripture. Luke 4:12 Jesus views the giving in to the temptation as “putting God to the test”

· Israel failed the test but Jesus passed it by not turning to false ways of achieving what God had already promised was his.

· Where Israel had failed to show that they were the children of God Jesus proved it by living the word of God.

· We turn evil away by living God’s word.

· Greek thought v’s Hebrew thought

Translation:
"prevent us, Father, from putting you to the test by doubting your ways and renouncing all that you have deemed fit for us to follow and do not let us engage in anything that displeases you but give us the ability to say "Father, ...not my will, but yours be done".

Application
How do you put God to the test?
How do you grumble at His provision?
What do you long for? Is it Godly?
Give over control to God of your provision, security and protection.
Do you believe God’s promise to you?