1. The word “tempt” which is found here in the Authorized Version is now misleading. For to tempt has, in modern English, acquired the sense of provoking or enticing a person in order that he may act in a particular way, but the Hebrew here is a neutral word, and means to test or prove a person, to see whether he will act in a particular way (Exo_16:4; Jdg_2:22; Jdg_3:4), or whether the character he bears is well established (1Ki_10:1). God thus proves a person, or puts him to the test, to see if his fidelity or affection is sincere; and men test, or prove, Jehovah when they act as if doubting whether His promise be true, or whether He is faithful to His revealed character. The Authorized Version, in the former application, uses always “prove,” except in this passage, which (on account of the change in the meaning of “tempt”) is rightly in the Revised Version altered to “prove”; in the latter application it uses always “tempt,” which does not at all express to modern readers the meaning of the Hebrew, and would have been far better altered in the Revised Version to “put to the test (or proof).”
When God tempts a man, it can be only for the one purpose which God has in all He does. In all His dealings with men He aims exclusively at bringing them nearer to Himself, at drawing them more deeply into His love, that He may pour out upon them more abundantly the riches of His grace. That this may be possible, they must be empty of self; they must part with self, and must do this afresh at every stage of life. Only the heart that loves God beyond all else can fully taste of His love. When God, then, lays heavy trials upon men, His first purpose is thus to make evident to them their own inward condition. Next He would bring them to an entire decision for Himself, and an inexorable separation from all that stands between themselves and God. Then He will Himself bestow upon the sincere, i.e. upon those who first of all love and seek Him, the strength for such a decision.1 [Note: O. Funcke, The World of Faith and the Everyday World, 267.]
2. God proved Abraham-tested his faith. It was to test whether Abraham really held fast the conviction which broke out in his intercessions for Sodom and Gomorrah,-“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Was Abraham really sure that God was Supreme, and that the highest duty and blessedness of man lay in obeying Him? Was Abraham certain-absolutely certain-that God would be true to His promise that by Abraham's descendants through Isaac all nations would be blessed? Was he certain that God would be true to it, even though Isaac were offered as a sacrifice on the altar?
Abraham was asked, in effect, two questions. He was asked whether he absolutely resigned himself to the Lord's ownership. He was asked also whether he absolutely trusted his Owner's truth and love. The two questions were not identical, but they were closely intertwined. And the response of Abraham to both questions, by the grace of God in his heart, was a glorious “Yes,” an “Amen” which sounds on for ever through all the generations of the followers of the faith of Abraham. He so acted as to say, in effect: “l am Thine, and all mine is Thine, utterly and for ever.” And this he did, not as merely submitting in stern silence to the inevitable, but “in faith.” He was quite sure that He was faithful who had promised. He was sure of this because he was sure of God's character; because he knew Him and loved Him. So he overcame; so he received the crown; so he was blessed himself, and became a blessing to the world.
3. The ways in which God tests whether we really acknowledge Him as supreme are many and varied. The great tests, no doubt, come seldom. They are the memorable moments of life, the turning-points, the crises, in which we are judged-judged not finally, but with a judgment that often extends over many years, and has a large effect for good or evil on our whole subsequent history. The test is sometimes in secret, and how we have borne it is known only to God and ourselves; we have stood it, and are greatly the stronger for it, but we win no human honour; we have horribly failed, and shall suffer for it for years, but we incur no open disgrace. Sometimes the test is imposed in a form that reveals us to others as well as to ourselves-ruins us or makes us.
But these great crises come rarely; the way in which we meet them is largely determined by the way in which we stand tests of a more ordinary kind; and these are constantly recurring. For us is God supreme? The test has been imposed on us today. It will be imposed to-morrow, and every day in the week, and when we lie awake at night. It will be imposed in our business. God will be proving us from hour to hour to test whether our chief desire is to please Him. When men say and do things that would naturally provoke us to harsh and bitter words, He will be testing us. When we have the chance of getting undue advantage for ourselves out of another man's ignorance, helplessness, poverty, He will be testing us. When impure thoughts are suggested to us by something that we see or hear in the street or read in a book, He will be testing us. When we have done wrong, or made a mistake, and can easily hide it by a lie, He will be testing us. When we have the chance of being idle, without any one knowing it in the house where we are hired for working, He will be testing us. Always, everywhere, though at some times and in some places more than others, God is proving us-is testing whether He is really our God. And if we find that He is not-that we are continually thinking thoughts, saying words, doing deeds that would be checked and prevented if He were really our God, it is clear that we have reason to be troubled, not merely by the particular offences which may show it-they may seem to be very trifling matters, things to be passed over by the Eternal and forgotten; but we have reason to be troubled by what they show; and if they show that God is not really God to us, this is fatal. Everything is wrong-wrong now; and if not remedied before it is too late, everything will be wrong for ever.
The analyst has a quart of water taken from the water-supply of a great city; he tests it, discovers clear indications of sewage poison. How minute is the quantity of poison in that quart of water! Surely no one need be alarmed about it. Not alarmed? It may mean death to thousands of men and women. As soon as it is discovered the city should be ready to spend hundreds of thousands-millions if necessary-to avert the danger.1 [Note: R. W. Dale.]
4. God's great proof of us is in a manner the precise opposite of that to which He subjected Abraham. God proved Abraham by testing whether he had sufficient faith in God to sacrifice his son at God's command. God proves us by testing whether we have sufficient faith in God to believe that He loves us well enough to sacrifice His Son for us.
How many of us admire-really admire-the beauty and grace of our Lord's character and the depth of His teaching? Ah! but admiration is neither the first feeling nor the last that we ought to feel for Christ. It is too cold, too remote. The spectators on the shore who see a fisherman leap into a rough sea to save a drowning man, imperilling his own life to rescue the life of another-they may admire; but the drowning man himself who is saved feels something different from admiration, and far deeper: he owes his life to the man who has rescued him. And we, when once we see that the Eternal Son of God has died for us, feel something far deeper than admiration, we see how awful must have been our peril, and we confess that we owe our eternal life to Him. The Gospel of Christ proves us, tests our belief in the love of God. The Gospel of Christ proves us; it proves whether we believe that our sin is so awful a thing that even the infinite mercy of God may not be able to forgive it without sacrifice; and it proves whether we believe that, notwithstanding our sin, the mercy of God is so great that the sacrifice has been offered.
I have heard one dying,
Not in sorrow, or in sighing,
In a misery of moan on moan,
In an anguish to be laid so lone,
With the blood that stoppeth slow,
With the cold, cold dark a-blow,
With the flesh that murmureth
Currish little cries of death:
I have heard one dying so …
To Gethsemane I go-
Christ, of God Thy sweat did win
Pardon for this rebel sin.
Sprinkle with these precious drops
Till the accusation stops;
And Thou openest Wound on Wound
For this soul of Thy compassion swooned.1 [Note: Michael Field, Mystic Trees (1913), 99.]
