READER QUESTION:
When praying "the Lord's prayer" - the one The Messiah taught His disciples - the usual translation includes the words, “... and lead us not into temptation...”
My two-point question: The Father would never tempt us, so why would He lead us into temptation? Surely, isn't there a better translation of what that line might more accurately be translated?
Thank you!
OUR RESPONSE:
Excellent question, and you are correct. Why would He lead us into temptation? Perhaps a better understanding of Matthew 6:13 is "And not bring us into trial, but deliver us from the evil one,..."
The Aramaic word here in the verse which is usually translated as "temptation", is more appropriately "trial". We are often "tested". YHWH does test people. Deut. 13:3-14; Job 1:7-12; James 1:13-14.
It is, therefore, the "evil one" who temps us, YHWH, on the other hand can certainly "test" us!
Yeshua wasn't "tempted" to be beaten and crucified, but he was certainly led into "trial" – “tested” to the limits of human understanding … and so we mere humans who live in a fallen world should definitely not expect any less. (And boy, do we get it spades sometimes!)
Does not trials refine us,how should one go through the refiners fire.
ReplyDeleteHow can one be purged if not refined like gold.
EXACTLY! We are definitely refined and purged through trials.
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