TEMPTATION



    Temptation is a blessing when endured and sometimes a 
curse when misunderstood. James in his general Epistle says
James 1:12

         "Blessed is a man that endureth temptation:
         for when he is tried, he shall receive the         
         crown of life, which the Lord hath promised
         to them that love him."

Please take notice of the words," when he is tried " . Some-
times there is quite a bit of confusion about where this
" TRYING " comes from. Some will say God others just plain
don't know. James set's the record straight about God being
the source of it in James 1:13

         "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am
         tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted
         with evil, neither tempteth any man."

Well that gives us a sound idea that God is not the source
of trials and temptation. Then who is and how does it come
about ? Again referring to James, James 1:14

         "But every man is tempted, when he is 
         drawn away of his own lust and enticed"

James says something here that needs some extra considerat-   
ion "drawn away", The question is from what? The because is
explained only too clearly in the next few words " of his
own lusts and enticed." If not for the word "enticed" the
blame for temptation could well fall on man. But that word
enticed changes the whole picture.  
    Now we are ready to return to our question drawn away  
from what and by whom. Lets consider the words of John in                
his book; IJohn 1:7

         "But if we walk in the light as He is in
         the light......."

Here is where I believe we can find out the answer to part 
of our question. The words " if we walk in the light " give
us the clue. What does these words mean ? Can we say it is
living within the knowledge of right and wrong that God has
provided us through the reading of His Word and the person
of the Holy Spirit. 
                                      
I used the word knowledge and this is what God given light
is. It sets up very definite bounds for those actions that
please and displease God. In the O.T. the Law was the light
that the people of God had to lead them. However in the N.T.
a whole new concept is opened up. We not only have the Law
but the person of Holy Spirit and Jesus living within the
believer to guide us. The writings of many in the N.T. 
confirm this. Here is just one example IJohn 2:7,8

         "Brethren I write no new commandment to
         unto you, but an old commandment which
         ye had from the beginning. The old comm-
         andment is the Word which ye have had
         heard from the beginning. Again, a new
         commandment I write unto you, which thing
         is true in Him and in you: because the
         darkness is past, and the true light now
         shineth."

John is talking about the spoken Words of Jesus, and the 
beginning is the beginning of the new. Now lets conclude
or summarize what we have said this far, We now have light
,knowledge from God, and when by our own lusts we wander
from it's guidance we open the door for temptation and sin
to come in. 
    
    But what about this word "enticed" we have seem to 
passed over. The scene in the Garden of Eden, between Eve 
and the serpent has about as good an example as we can
get. Both the words lust and entice are clearly described
We can see the lust in the fact that Eve saw through her
eyes that the tree was to be DESIRED. Then all it took was
the enticement of the serpent to convince her to disobey
God's command not to eat of the tree. It is quite plain
that the desire to eat of the tree was not a violation of
God's command. But when this desire was nursed by the ser-
pent in his conversation with Eve the TEMPTATION of both
cause Eve to sin. Had she put her desire in the proper place
as being a departure from what God had said they could do.    
The serpent would have never had a chance to entice her. 
    We might want to take a look at one other example of 
where temptation and eticement were involved. Lets turn to 
the story of Job. By the way this should also help us in 
understanding where temptation comes from.


    First off I think we need to consider the piety of Job.
He had a certain amount of light on what please God and what
was required of him by God. It the way Job went about his 
life that was important. The first area was his devotions.
They were family wide and were expensive in his day. 
Secondly, we need to consider the time "in the morning"
preceding the labors of the day. And lastly the word that 
described his regularity, "continually". Nothing could ,and
please take note of the next word, DRAW him away from them.
No pressing labor, nor busy season, could interfere with 
them. If I may use the word religion, it was important to
him and occupied FIRST place in his life. We will see where
this gave Job extraordinary strength latter on when he needed
it.

    Now lets consider the heavenly scene at the beginning of
his problems. It all starts on what is described a day in      
which the Bible say a number of persons had came to present
themselves to God. Job 1:6--22. I am not going to type out 
this Scripture due to space limitations. So please follow
me in your Bible as we proceed. The first thing we want to 
note is that satan was among them. Job 1:6,7 Secondly note
how satan answers God's question, "Whence comest thou" His 
answer lends much support to the warning of I Peter 5:8
The next thing we want to note is the words of satan in Job
1:10 "Hast thou not made a hedge about him", this question
of satan to God describes God's reward for Job's faith-
fullness to Him. and satan's excuse for not being able to get
to him. The next point is important for it may well define
what could be the beginning of what we might call Job's test.
Job 1:12  Please note the limitation that God imposed on  
satan, "all that he hath is in thy power" God granted this
much but He also restricted satan, "only on himself put
not forth thine hand. " Consider the impact of these words
and those of the limitations to come in light of I Cor 10:13
,14 Also consider those limitations with in the words of
Heb 2:18. The next point is all the horrible things that 
happened to Job. We should consider first, Where or who did
they come from ? and secondly what was their FIRST purpose ?
The first question has already been answered "satan" The 
second is just as easy "to DRAW Job away from his daily
devotions and routine". This didn't work and satan never had
a chance to ENTICE Job into denying God. This process is 
repeated over and over again in the testing of Job. It might
be well said it happens over and over in our lives. The 
first of that drawing away and then the enticing work of 
satan.

     It is my hope that the end result of reading this is a
better understanding about temptation and trials which we
have. So that we too might be able to say as Paul did in
II Cor 7:4
   
     ".......I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding
     joyful in all our tribulations"