What is evil?When we say something is evil, we mean that it is lacking morality. If we say a person is evil we mean that they are not as moral as most people. But when Scripture speaks about “evil”, it is more specific than just morality. If a person is in an “evil circumstance” it means that they are in dire straits, a very difficult situation that destroys them physically, emotionally or spiritually. When Scripture speaks of someone—like Satan—as being an “evil one” it does not mean that Satan is lacking in morality. It means that he puts people in difficult—seemingly impossible—circumstances. This is like Job, the righteous man of the Old Testament. Satan killed his children, destroyed his wealth, destroyed his property and gave him a plague on his body. This is what the Bible calls “evil”—terrible, devastating circumstances. When we are praying for God to deliver us from “evil” or “the evil one”, we are asking God to get us out of terrible circumstances—oppression, sickness, persecution, not having enough for our needs, sorrow, death, etc.
How is this “tempting”?
But evil circumstances aren’t just uncomfortable, they have a spiritual componant to them. Most everyone has been through such a terrible trial that it has led them to doubt God’s existence, or His goodness. This happened to Job as well—his difficulties were so hard that he questioned God’s justice. Some trials are so hard that they cause us to doubt our faith. The Greek word that is translated “temptation” would probably be better translated, “a difficulty so bad that it makes us question our faith.” Difficulties in our lives can lead us to do things we know are disobedient to God. Trials can cause us to turn away from God—sometimes in practice, sometimes in our belief. Suffering can make it so that we no longer trust God. When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we are asking God not to put us in these kinds of circumstances.
Does God lead us to this kind of evil?
The fact is, God, at times, DOES lead us to difficulties to test us. God tested Abraham’s love of Him. God tested Israel in the wilderness with hunger and thirst. The Father tested Jesus by sending him to Satan. And God allowed Jesus to suffer through the ultimate test: willingness to die on the cross for us. Frankly, Jesus begged and pleaded for God to take him out of that circumstance. But God put him into it anyway.
This does not mean that God tempts us to DO evil. Yes, God places us in difficult, even terrible circumstances, sometimes. But what we do in those circumstances is our own choice. We can choose to obey God, even if it hurts us. We can choose to trust God, even if we see no way out of a terrible situation. We can love God, even though He allowed people to hurt us. We can have our hope in God, even though God gave permission to Satan to take away our health. If we sin, if we do evil to others, if we give in to our dark impulses, we were not tempted by God, but tempted by our evil desires.
What if we don’t deserve it?
There are some people that God punishes because they have sinned before God, disobeying Him, and He is training them, or others, not to do that. But God allows everyone to have circumstances like that, sometimes. Some more than others. For some, this is punishment. But people who are right before God are also put into trials that test their faith, like Abraham, Job and Jesus. Why does God do this? Because God wants to see and display his people’s true character.
How do we know who we really are? Not by what we say—we deceive ourselves too readily. Not even by what we normally do—society can form us and make us what we are not. Who we truly are is seen when we are in difficult circumstances. When we are sick, when we are persecuted, when we are hated, when we are publicly humiliated, when we are physically torn apart—those are the times we show what we are really made of, what our real character is. What God is testing is how far He is in us. If He is firmly planted in us, then when we are going through difficulties, He will show through. But if our Christianity is just a farce, just a façade, then our true nature will show itself—our complaining, our anger, our hatred, our lust, our greed and all the other things that come with human nature. So God sometimes leads us into evil circumstances to test our faith.
How can we not be led to this trial?
Sometimes it is just our time to be brought into testing. This is the case with Jesus, who escaped many deaths and difficulties, until it was his time to be tried, and then, no matter what his pleading, he wouldn’t go into trial. But at the time of Jesus’ trial, he was telling the disciples what to do to not enter into the trial. It wasn’t their time, it was his, and so they didn’t have to suffer with him yet. How could they have avoided this? Jesus told them, “Keep watching and praying that you do not enter into temptation.” (Mark 14:38). If it isn’t our time to enter our test, then we need to do two things—First of all, we need to be alert to the circumstances as they are coming our way. The disciples were sleeping, they weren’t paying attention. Peter said later “Be alert for Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8). Secondly, we need to pray that God wouldn’t allow us to be tested when it isn’t our time. We need to recognize our weaknesses, and we need to beg God that He not test us when we aren’t ready for it. This is what Jesus commanded his disciples to do—both on the night of his test, and in the Lord’s prayer.
How are we delivered?Sometimes, however, we weren’t alert. Sometimes we didn’t pray. Or sometimes it is our time to be tested. But that doesn’t mean there is no hope. God always grants us hope—and that hope is deliverance. When we find ourselves in the circumstances that we cannot handle, we can ask God to deliver us out of them. God gave Abraham and Job a way out of these trials. Jesus’ way out was through resurrection. But everyone can have an opportunity to escape the difficulties they are in—through healing, through justice, through freedom, through mercy by a follower of God. But, again, we need to ask. This is what Jesus told us to do. Ask God for deliverance from evil. And then trust Him to do what is right.
In this way, the Lord’s prayer guides us to know what to do when we are in the worst times in our lives. It tells us to trust God, to plead with Him for help, to ask Him not to put us in these terrible circumstances in the first place. Ultimately, we are placing our hands at God’s disposal, trusting that He will pull us through, eventually.
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