Dealing with Temptation – Foundations of a Worldview

Dealing with Temptation
Foundations of a Worldview

“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways and to fear him.” Deuteronomy 8:6

As would have been evident through Israel’s experience in the wilderness, temptations to forget the Lord and to turn from Him would always confront the people of God (v. 17). Some of these would come from the surrounding pagan nations. Some would come from their neighbors in Israel. Some would arise within their own hearts. God would allow temptation to come to His people as part of His discipline in seeking to draw them more closely to Himself.

Temptation is not sin; temptation is the advance notice that sin lies ahead and is to be avoided. Israel had certain responsibilities to fulfill when confronted with temptations, and they would need to master these provisional disciplines if they were to grow through temptation to greater degrees of righteousness, rather than fall through it into sin.

First, they must recognize temptation as such. In order to do this, they would have to be firmly grounded in the Law of God, understanding all that it requires as well as whatever it forbids. When the opportunity to sin presented itself, an Israelite well-grounded in the Law of God would immediately recognize that he had encountered temptation in his path, and he would then be in a position to deal with it effectively (Prov. 1:17).

Further, dealing with temptation meant resisting the invitation to stray from God’s path and renewing oneself in the way of the Lord (cf. Ps. 119:59, 60). In addition, to whatever extent it was possible for Israelites to remove the source of temptation they were to do so, even if that source were a prophet, a family member, or one’s close friend.

Temptation is not sin, and God allows temptations to come as aspects of His Fatherly discipline. Through temptation He heightens our understanding of righteousness and sin, warms our hearts to deeper devotion, firms up the values and priorities of our consciences, and leads us on along the path of righteousness for His Name’s sake.

We may prefer not to have to deal with temptation; however, the Lord uses temptation to help us realize the full benefits of His covenant love. By mastering the appropriate disciplines called for when temptation arises, we may find the way of escape from it and gain the benefit God intends (1 Cor. 10:13).

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. Follow T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes by downloading the free, weekly studies available in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click here to see the weekly studies available thus far.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).