In Part III of this series we considered some examples from the Scriptures of trials, testings, and temptations brought about by the people around us. These included trials by those who told lies, complained, criticized, or committed acts of aggression and hostility. We conclude this series with a few more examples of trials from the people around us.

4. Temptations or Trials from Acts of Slighting and Despising

In 1 Samuel 24 we find David displaying a most gracious attitude toward King Saul. While Saul was pursuing David with the purpose of killing him, David had a perfect opportunity to turn the tables and slay Saul himself. But instead he mercifully spared Saul out of respect for his being the “Lord’s anointed.”

However, the next thing we read about David is his readiness to put to death an entire household of innocent men. How did this come about? David and his men, while seeking to stay out of Saul’s clutches, happened to spend some time with the shepherds of a rich, but ill-tempered, man named Nabal (1 Samuel 25). David and his men provided help and protection for the shepherds and their flocks; but when David sent some of his men to Nabal to ask for some food, Nabal stubbornly refused to give them anything. Now Nabal had not made any previous agreement with David, and so did not have any obligation toward David. But David became furious when told of Nabal’s refusal to help, and vowed vengeance upon Nabal and his household. He who had recently been so gracious to the one who had forced him to be a fugitive, was now vowing vengeance upon one who merely slighted him by refusing to help him. What inconsistent beings we humans are! Thankful to say, David was spared the disgrace of mass murder through the intervention of Nabal’s wife, Abigail.

Now what about ourselves? How have we responded to the slightings of others? David gives us the justification for his fury: “Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he has requited me evil for good” (25:21). Have we ever helped or shown some kindness to another person, only to be ignored and never thanked, or never having the favor returned? In such instances, do we continue to show love and goodness to the person, or do we proclaim, self-righteously, “I am never going to do anything for that person again!” If we are to “love [our] enemies, bless those who curse [us], do good to those who hate [us], and pray for those who despitefully use [us] and persecute [us]” (Matt. 5:44), how much more are we to continue to love, bless, do good to, and pray for those who merely slight us or fail to return a favor.

David showed a far better, quite Christ-like, attitude on a much later occasion when, dethroned by his son Absalom and fleeing Jerusalem, he encountered the mocking, cursing, stone-throwing Shimei. David restrained his bodyguard from taking off Shimei’s head. Note the wonderful contrast of David’s attitude here compared to that with Nabal: “Let him curse; for the Lord has bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day” (2 Sam. 16:11,12). May the Lord by His grace enable us to respond to insults, offences, slightings, and despisings as David did to Shimei, and not as David did to Nabal.

Earlier in this series we considered the severe trials that Job endured. In the course of a single day he experienced the loss of his oxen, asses, sheep, and camels (numbering in the thousands), nearly all of his servants, and worst of all, all ten of his children (Job 1). On top of that, he was afflicted with “sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown” (Job 2:7). And what was his response to all of this? “In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (2:10).

But then Job faced a trial of quite a different character. Let us listen to the story: “Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place … to mourn with him and to comfort him…. They sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great. After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived….” (2:11-3:26). What was it that caused Job finally to break down and curse his existence? I believe we learn from subsequent “words of comfort” of Job’s three “friends” that their seven-day silence was a silence of condemnation, assuming that he must have committed a terrible sin to warrant such trouble from God. There are two lessons for us to consider here. First, even the silence of another can prove to be a severe trial to us, and we need to be seeking the grace of God in this as much as in a trial of open hostility. Second, the imputation of evil to us by another, when we know we are not guilty, can be most trying to us. There is a tendency, in the flesh, to defend and justify ourselves and to retaliate to such a degree that if we were not guilty as originally charged we soon become guilty of sins that exceed the original charge. How we need to cast ourselves upon our blessed Lord Jesus Christ “who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23), and who prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

5. Trials Induced by the Pride of Others

As noted in Part II of our series, Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, resisted temptations that appealed to the lust of the flesh (the attempted seduction by Potiphar’s wife) as well as to the pride of life (the opportunity to avenge his brothers’ cruelty to him). Many positive qualities are found in Joseph and we are hard put to find any deficiencies in his character. But there is one rather negative quality that we find in Joseph as a teenager—cockiness and pride. It all seems to stem from Jacob favoring Joseph over his older sons “because he was the son of his old age” (Gen. 37:3). His ten older brothers probably considered Joseph to be a spoiled brat, and “they hated him.” It seems that Joseph played up this situation whenever he had opportunity. So when he had a dream that seemed to symbolize his brothers bowing down to him, he had no hesitancy to tell the dream to his brothers. And of course they hated him all the more for it (37:5-8). Insensitive to the effect he was having on his brothers. Joseph proceeded to tell them of a second dream in which “the sun and the moon and the eleven stars” bowed down to him (37:9). The cocky, prideful attitude of Joseph was a real trial to his brothers, more than they could bear. And his brothers responded by selling him to some foreign merchants and telling their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal (37:12-34). No doubt most of our readers have been tested by the proud, self-confident boastings of another, and perhaps have often yielded to the temptation to put the boaster in his place. May we learn to be more like the Lord Jesus who, when Peter was boasting, “Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison and to death” (Luke 22:33), was praying for Peter that his faith would not fail (22:32).

6. Temptations to Seek Personal Pleasure

In Part II of this series we considered temptations by the attractions of the world. What we have before us now is something similar, but where other individuals are actively encouraging us to seek our personal pleasure. Naomi seems to have been guilty of such a thing with her two Moabite daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah. When the husbands of all three of them died while they sojourned in Moab, Naomi decided to return to her home in the land of Judah. “And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother’s house…. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband” (Ruth 1:8,9). Both Ruth and Orpah responded, “Surely we will return with you unto your people” (1:10), upon which Naomi earnestly tried to persuade them that they would have a better chance of finding husbands among their own people. What a test! Ruth and Orpah were being encouraged to choose that course most likely to bring them personal pleasure, rather than that which would bring them into the land where Jehovah, the one true God, was in the midst. Orpah yielded to the temptation and remained in Moab. However, Ruth chose the better path, saying, “Entreat me not to leave you . . . for where you go I will go … your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (1:16). And the rest of the book of Ruth shows us how Jehovah richly rewarded Ruth for her faithful choice, allowing her to be the great-grandmother of David and thence in the line of ancestry of the Messiah. Likewise does the Lord reward us for following, not the path of least resistance or of greatest human comfort, but of greatest faithfulness to the Lord and His Word.

Daniel and his three friends were among a number of bright young Jewish captives in Babylon who were appointed a daily provision of the king’s meat and wine while they were being taught in all of the wisdom and knowledge and skills of the Babylonians. No doubt the diet itself sounded very tempting, and it would have been easy to rationalize that, after all, the King himself appointed it. However, Daniel and his three friends remained faithful to a higher authority, Jehovah of Israel, who had prohibited the eating of some of the meats appointed by the King of Babylon. They did this even at substantial risk to their own well-being, but Jehovah was with them and made it possible for them to receive a diet that was in accordance with the dietary laws given to Israel. And at the end of the training period the King “found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm” (Dan. 1:20).

The Lord Jesus Himself was tempted by Satan to minister to His own personal pleasure—first to obtain bread from stones and feed Himself, second to gain a reputation for Himself by throwing Himself down from the roof of the temple (and having the angels catch Him at the last moment), and third to gain all the kingdoms of the world and their glory for Himself (instead of waiting to inherit them as a result of His death and resurrection). Satan sometimes tempts us in similar ways. May we have such love for and nearness to our Lord that we will respond to such temptations as vehemently and definitely as He did.

7. Temptations to Turn Away from God

Back in the book of Daniel, we read that Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were not only tempted but commanded to fall down and worship a golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up (Daniel 3). Later on, Daniel Himself, who then occupied a very high position in the kingdom, was confronted with a decree (designed by men who were jealous of his high position) that prohibited prayer to any God or man other than the MedoPersian King (Daniel 6). Still later, coming to New Testament times, Peter and others of the apostles were commanded by the authorities in Jerusalem not to teach in the name of Christ (Acts 5:28). In each case the ones thus tested remained staunchly faithful to the Lord. Note the response of Peter and the other apostles: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (5:29). May the Lord help us likewise to be staunchly faithful to Himself.

This completes our study of biblical examples of trials, testings, and temptations: first, those that come directly from God; second, those that issue from the world and appeal to the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; and third, those produced by the sinful people all around us. May we learn to recognize these trials and temptations for what they are, and may we learn to look always to the Lord for the needed strength to resist the temptations and to respond to the trials in a positive, Christ-honoring manner.

FRAGMENT There is a God above all adverse circumstances and undesirable influences. And our path of power is in letting patience have its perfect work…. Trust Him. He has power to work where we least expect it.      J. N. Darby