You may have heard that the Pope wants to change the Lord’s Prayer. Since our passage deals with the issue so clearly, I thought that I should at least mention it.
What you see in Daniel 3 is the Lord leading Daniel’s three friends into temptation and also then delivering them from evil.
There is nothing wrong with saying that God leads us into temptation. After all, in Matthew 3, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted! And the Holy Spirit is God. So if God the Holy Spirit led God the Son into the wilderness to be tempted, then we should not be surprised when God leads us into temptation.
Ad that is exactly the point here in Daniel 3. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are confident that God is leading them. They have been praying “Lead us not into temptation” – but then temptation comes.
And that does not cause them to doubt God! Indeed, they trust God to deliver them – but even if he doesn’t, they will still obey the LORD their God, even unto death.
Why does God lead us into temptation? Why does he lead us into testing?
The apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:6-7 “In this [salvation] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
God leads us into the temptation in order to test the genuineness of our faith. Will we trust him? When we face the fiery trial, will we stand firm?
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