1st SUN LENT – A Time of Testing…

The Greek, peirazo, can be translated “to tempt” or “to test.”  There are lots of reasons to render it “to test.”  In which category would you put Jesus’ temptation/testing?

Matthew 4:1        Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 

God tested Abraham.  

Genesis 22:1f        After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

Israel tested God.  

Matthew 19:3       Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”

Exodus 17:7          He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Psalm 78:40–42        How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! They tested God again and again, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not keep in mind his power, or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;

Psalm 78:56f        Yet they tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees, but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.

Tested like gold in the fire.  

Psalm 26:1–3       Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.  Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and mind.  For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you.

Wisdom of Solomon 3:5f       Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;  like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them.

I like this third category. You?