temptation Summary and Overview

(1.) Trial; a being put to the test. Thus God "tempted [Gen. 22: 1; R.V., 'did prove'] Abraham;" and afflictions are said to tempt, i.e., to try, men (James 1:2, 12; compare Deut. 8:2), putting their faith and patience to the test. (2.) Ordinarily, however, the word means solicitation to that which is evil, and hence Satan is called "the tempter" (Matt. 4:3). Our Lord was in this way tempted in the wilderness. That temptation was not internal, but by a real, active, subtle being. It was not self-sought. It was submitted to as an act of obedience on his part. "Christ was led, driven. An unseen personal force bore him a certain violence is implied in the words" (Matt. 4:1-11). The scene of the temptation of our Lord is generally supposed to have been the mountain of Quarantania (q.v.), "a high and precipitous wall of rock, 1,200 or 1,500 feet above the plain west of Jordan, near Jericho." Temptation is common to all (Dan. 12:10; Zech. 13:9; Ps. 66:10; Luke 22:31, 40; Heb. 11:17; James 1:12; 1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12). We read of the temptation of Joseph (Gen. 39), of David (2 Sam. 24; 1 Chr. 21), of Hezekiah (2 Chr. 32:31), of Daniel (Dan. 6), etc. So long as we are in this world we are exposed to temptations, and need ever to be on our watch against them.

TEMPT or TEMPTA'TION Matt 22:18, Luke 4:13. These words are used in various senses. The ordinary import of them is allurement or enticement to sin. Hence our great adversary the devil is called "the tempter." Matt 4:3. They also denote the trial of a person's faith or obedience. Gen 22:1; Jas 1:2-3, or the trial of God's patience and forbearance. Ex 17:2; 1 Cor 10:9. The prayer. "Lead us not into temptation," Matt 6:13, does not imply that God leads us into sin, Jas 1:13-14, but it is a prayer that he may guard and protect us from temptation. When it is said that the lawyer and others tempted our Saviour, Matt 16:1; Josh 19:3; Mark 10:2; Luke 10:25, it is meant that they tried to ensnare him or lead him into the commission of some offence.