Temptation

I have a question for you. It may sound a bit dumb, or even self-evident, but please indulge me. Here’s the question: Have you ever been tempted before?

Why would this question be considered dumb or self-evident? Because the answer, of course, is “of course.” Everyone has been tempted. It is simply a part of life. If you have a pulse, you have experienced temptation. It is part of the human existence. Every one of us is being tempted nearly every day to … (fill in the blank for whatever is the personal temptation you predominantly face).

Maybe your personal temptation takes the form of eating food that you KNOW that you shouldn’t, but it just tastes SOO good and makes you feel SOO satisfied when you partake of it. Because it tastes so good, perhaps you justify that it is worth the extra weight you carry around as a result of consuming such things.

Or perhaps the temptation you face is to procrastinate and put everything off until the last possible moment, mainly because you simply don’t want to or don’t know how to deal with certain things. So instead of addressing them straight away, you tend to push them to the back burner, so to speak, hoping that they’ll just disappear.

Maybe the temptation you personally face is to harbor disdain or unforgiveness in your heart toward those who have hurt or offended you in some way. Or perhaps your temptation is to be dishonest, or to steal, or to covet something, or even someone, that belongs to another.

Now, some of these examples of temptation are not necessarily sinful, while others may be. The real issue with temptation is not that it is in and of itself sinful, although often it does lead to that inevitability. The problem is that giving in to temptation often leads to far worse conditions than the momentary pleasure gained is worth.

The Bible is replete with examples of men and women giving in to temptation, some sinful and others not necessarily sinful, but certainly ill-advised. One prime example of the latter is illustrated for us in Genesis 37. In this chapter we read that Jacob was living in such a way that he was being led by a seemingly innocuous temptation, but it has far reaching and significant ramifications.

“Now Israel [Jacob] loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic.” Genesis 37:3

Jacob favored Joseph because Joseph was the son of Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachel. You kind of have to identify with Jacob’s sentiments here; he never wanted to marry Leah in the first place. His heart was set on marrying Rachel, and he labored for seven years in order to gain her hand in marriage. Also, Jacob never wanted to “marry” either Leah’s or Rachel’s handmaids, Zilpah and Bilhah.

We know from Genesis 29 that upon seeing Rachel, Jacob instantly fell in love with her. We also know that Lavan, Rachel’s father, tricked Jacob into unwittingly marrying Leah, and then serving another seven years of labor for Rachel. What ensued over the next decade was a well documented sibling rivalry between the two sisters married to the same husband, resulting in multiple children for Leah, as well as for both Zilpah and Bilhah, the sisters’ handmaids. Finally, Rachel conceives and gives birth to a son, Joseph. Then, another son, Binyamin, but his birth is tainted by the death of his mother, the beloved Rachel. Given this entire set of circumstances, it is understandable how Jacob’s heart would be drawn to the firstborn son of his beloved wife.

The issue that arises here is not that the temptation to favor Joseph is sinful or inappropriate. It is that Jacob and Joseph were not living in a vacuum. They were both living with and among other family members… Family members who quite naturally felt slighted, neglected, and hurt over Jacob’s actions.

I am the father to six girls. Currently I have no sons. Imagine if my wife were to end up becoming pregnant and the result of that pregnancy was a male child. While this would be an incredibly exciting event in our household, I can easily see myself succumbing to the temptation to favor that boy, the son I have longed to have for almost two decades now. This behavior, however, could very easily lead me to develop such a tight bond with my son that I end up virtually ignoring the six daughters who came before him. While I like to think that I am above such behavior, I can also see myself falling into this pattern of behavior, should it ever present itself.

Imagine in that scenario, however, the joy my girls would have initially experienced over having a male sibling devolve potentially into bitterness, hurt, anger, and maybe even hatred over the course of time as I continually doted upon their brother instead of upon them. You can imagine how they would feel in that set of circumstances: neglected, ignored, their self-esteem brought low, and perhaps other feelings of rejection, all because I chose to favor the long-awaited son.

If this scenario played itself out in my own life, if I ended up devoting all my time, energy, and attention to my son, at the expense of my relationships with my daughters, you can understand how my daughters would experience hurt, rejection, frustration, anger, pain, sorrow, pity, and any number of other emotions. You can also understand how these emotions could potentially lead to relationship problems with everyone my daughters interacted with throughout the rest of their years.

Now you can understand exactly what is playing out in Genesis 37. The clear indication from this passage is that Jacob had done exactly this type of thing when his son Joseph was born. Joseph WAS the long-awaited son Jacob had longed for. Once Joseph was born, perhaps Jacob, by his actions, communicated to his other sons that they were no longer important to him. Perhaps his sons had so disappointed Jacob at Shechem (Genesis 34) that he basically ignored them, and turned his attentions exclusively to Joseph.

To make matters worse, Jacob goes to great lengths to make sure that EVERYONE knows that Joseph is the favorite, even to those who aren’t part of the family. He does so by making Joseph a special tunic that identifies Joseph as special, treasured, unique, and important. By definition, then, one could conclude that Jacob’s other sons were considered to be anything BUT special, treasured, unique, and important.

It’s with this in mind that perhaps we can better understand verse 4,

“His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.”

I’m fairly certain that if you and I were in the position these sons of Jacob were in, we would likely feel the same as they did:  overlooked, disregarded, unloved. All these emotions would take a major toll on our lives.

This illustrates how it wasn’t just Jacob who was giving in to temptation. We can understand how it would be natural for Jacob’s sons to feel neglected. But Joseph himself didn’t seek out special treatment. It was thrust upon him. It wasn’t Joseph’s fault that Jacob loved him more than all his siblings. The other sons of Jacob should have had an issue with their FATHER, not with their brother Joseph.

But one of the most basic, innate, fleshly temptations we face in life is to displace our emotions. Nothing is ever OUR fault. It’s always SOMEONE ELSE’S fault. So we project our loathing for our circumstances upon the person, place, or thing that we can most easily rationalize as the most logical guilty party, the perpetrator of all our ills. As an example, if I am walking through my house in the dark, and I stub my toe on something, my natural reaction will be to blame someone or something else for my pain. I may blame the person who left the item I stubbed my toe on in the pathway I was walking. Or I may even blame the inanimate object itself for getting in my way. This is natural, fallen human behavior.

So along those lines, Joseph’s brothers displaced their anger onto him and projected their frustration with their father’s behavior onto their brother. This then leads us further into chapter 37 where Joseph is instructed by his father to go seek out his brothers, who are grazing the flocks. Away from the safety of their father’s home, Joseph is seized by his brothers. In this passage, we see that the brothers are faced with numerous temptations. They are tempted to kill Joseph, to steal his clothing, and to make illicit financial gain by selling him as a slave to traders. And in truth, the brothers gave in to each one of these temptations.

But wait, you might say, the brothers didn’t actually kill Joseph. But didn’t they? In fact, a few chapters later, when the brothers go down to Egypt in order to procure food during the famine, they thought Joseph was long since dead. In their minds and in their hearts they had killed him, even if they hadn’t physically carried out the act.

At the point when the brothers went down to Egypt, they had already been living with the consequences of their actions for years. Through the process of giving into the temptations to kill, steal from, and make illicit financial gain at their brother’s expense, these men had spent the last decade with a miserably depressed father, who had his spirit crushed upon learning of Joseph’s “death.” In ironic fashion, the brothers’ plot to oust their brother didn’t result in their father resuming his attentions and devotion upon them; instead it just made Jacob intolerably depressed, which ended up making everyone miserable.

The good news is it’s not all bad news. In chapter 39 the story turns back to Joseph, now a servant in the household of Potiphar, a high-ranking aristocrat in the Egyptian government. But it wasn’t just Joseph and Potiphar living there…

“Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?’” Genesis 39:6-9

FINALLY we have an example of someone REFUSING to give in to temptation! Can you imagine? It says that she approached him “day after day” (verse 10). In other words, this wasn’t an isolated event, or a momentary fleeting thought. Joseph was confronted with this temptation continually without cessation! When she finally does corner him, he “left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside” (verse 12).

Take note of Joseph’s response to being tempted. He responds with a question that reveals his heart: “How shall I do this great evil and sin against God?” Further, he did not stand there and attempt to overcome the temptation, he FLED from it.

Just like Joseph, we also have a choice to make when we are tempted. We basically have 4 options, which really come down to 2 options.

Option 1

Just give in. Do what feels right. Gratify your flesh and its desires. The problem is, however, that the good feeling you get by giving in doesn’t last long. The author of the book of Hebrews rightly labeled that feeling as the “passing pleasures of sin.” After it quickly fades, you are then faced with a feeling of guilt. Why? Because your spirit longs to be in communion with Adonai, but it is prevented from doing so when sin dominates your life. This is why Adam and Eve hid from Adonai in the garden after they had sinned. Shame and guilt are co-conspirators who will work together to hold you down in everything you do. This is why Option #1 really shouldn’t be an option at all.

Option 2

Dwell on it. Think about it. Consider it. Ultimately, if you think about it long enough, you’ll eventually find a way to rationalize or justify giving in to the temptation. That’s the tricky part about temptation; the longer we gaze at it, the more desirable it becomes. It’s inevitable.

We often end up justifying our giving in to temptation as if it’s on a scale. What will I gain from this? It’s a false premise. The scale will ALWAYS be tipped to one side. The heavier side will always be the consequences. They are also far longer lasting than the pleasure.

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful more than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” In other words, if we are left to our own devices, we will all devolve into a “Lord of the Flies” society, doing whatever feels right at the time, regardless of the consequences. This is why it is essential to our walk of faith that we not dwell on temptation, nor should we mull it over. We should be “taking every thought captive” (2 Cor 10:5) and driving these thoughts from our minds. How do we accomplish that? By following…

Option 3

Stand firm against the temptation. Paul says in his letter to the church at Ephesus,

“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” Ephesians 6:13

In order to live this out, we must first become immersed in the word. If you read on in Ephesians chapter 6, Paul goes into great detail describing the aspects of our faith that make up this armor. Among them is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Without this sword in hand, you may be very well armored, but you will lack the ability to defend yourself, and the Adversary will just continue to beat on your armor until it fails. We need to immerse ourselves in the word, consuming it daily, making it our meditation, so that we hide it in our hearts as David spoke about, that we might not sin against Adonai. Without this daily immersion into His word, we will eventually fail. We need to come to the battle we face every day equipped with our swords.

James echoed this sentiment in his letter to all the dispersed believers abroad.

“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  James 4:7

So we can see here that both Paul and James are admonishing us to draw near to God, and in so doing, resist temptation. The closer we are to Him, the more distasteful sin will become in our sight. Thus, the more we are in His presence, the less likely we are to give in to temptation.

This principle is in evidence in Matthew chapter 4, when Yeshua is fasting in the wilderness of Judea and the Tempter approaches Him with several different enticing offers. To each temptation, Yeshua answers by quoting Scripture. Yeshua came prepared with His sword!

Now, most of us are not so immersed in the word that we can simply and quickly rattle off Scripture verses when temptation comes a-knocking the way Yeshua did. This is why we are probably best advised to pursue…

Option 4

Paul told his protégé, Timothy, the following, “flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.” (1 Tim 6:11) He also said to Timothy, “flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those who call on Adonai from a pure heart.” (2 Tim 2:22)

Paul also reminded the church at Corinth,

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”  1 Corinthians 10:13

Some people only take the first part of that verse and mistakenly claim that they will never be tempted above their ability to overcome that temptation. But they completely miss the second part: He will also provide a way of escape, that you may flee it!

This is exactly what Joseph was doing when he ran away from the wife of Potiphar. He had such a high level of integrity and respect for Adonai that the moment temptation reared its ugly head, Joseph literally took off and ran!

This is why James said these words,

“Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”  James 1:14

Temptation is the first step towards separation from Adonai, which is precisely the Adversary’s goal; to separate you from Your Creator.

The enemy of your soul eagerly desires to force a wedge between you and Your King. If he can tempt us and we entertain the temptation, our flesh will ultimately overcome our spirits and we will be led to sin, which brings separation. Then that evil one will heap on the guilt and shame in order to deepen the gap that has now been created between us and Our Father. If we can stop this process at the beginning, we will find our greatest success in breaking this pattern.

Ultimately, there will be times in our lives that we, like Joseph, will find ourselves challenged by circumstances that seem brutally unfair. We, like the sons of Jacob, can become very bitter and jealous. That jealousy can lead us to give in to the temptation to murder someone, even if only in our hearts.

Likewise, we could also be tempted to commit adultery, even if only in our hearts. Will we entertain such thoughts and thus commit adultery in our hearts, or will we take every thought captive and flee from those temptations, even if it requires sacrificing our valued possessions in the process?

Each of us is familiar with temptation and what it does. Each of us has been tempted many times to do things we know are wrong and are not in line with Adonai’s will. Often, when we attempt to stand up to these temptations in our own strength, we end up failing. The guilt and shame that accompany that failure can be spiritually debilitating.

Even when we are attempting to do the right thing, there’s still a chance we might fall into the traps the Adversary lays for us in order to ensnare us. The life of some believers is like a roller coaster, with spiritual highs followed by lows that come after failing some test or giving in to temptation of some sort. As frustrating as that roller coaster ride can be at times, we can rejoice in the fact that we have an Advocate, Who suffered through the same types of temptations we face and He gave us the example to follow on how to overcome temptation.

Because He can identify with our struggle, He is uniquely qualified to not only lead us by His example, but also to gently chide us when we fail, as well as to encourage us to continue walking as He walked. Yeshua told us to pray in this fashion…”lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt 6:13). This should be our daily prayer.

In addition to the example Yeshua set for us on overcoming temptation, Paul admonishes us with these words,

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8

If we can manage to take Paul’s advice and to allow our minds to dwell on the beauty of what Messiah has done for us on our behalf, then we will find that “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard our hearts and our minds in Messiah Yeshua” (Philippians 4:7). When we walk in that kind of peace, we will not fall into temptation. Instead, we will resist it and flee from it.

“If we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16) Let this become the very motto of our lives; to walk by the Spirit, to submit our flesh to the One Who created us, and to overcome the temptations of this world by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.