Lead us not into temptation …

Lead us not into temptation.

^{Lk 22:31} “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.

Do you feel like this is happening to you? You may know, in the very next verse - Jesus says He prayed for (Simon) Peter.

³² But I have prayed for you, Simon ...

But - do you remember / know what Jesus prayed for?  Or what happened next?

Lk 22:31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

You may be thinking that Jesus prayed for Peter - so all's going to be well. Based on that - we may think that if we pray to Jesus - asking Him to also pray for us - that everything will be well for us too.

However - that's not what happened.  Not even close. 

How can that be? We pray, as Jesus said

^{Mt 6:13} And lead us not into temptation,

and we expect that nothing bad is going to happen.  If we ask for that - God will deliver - right?

The problem may be that we haven't really understood what's being asked for.  If we look at the word temptation, depending on context, it's really got different meanings, including -

So we see that, in context, some of these temptations come from God and some don't.  It's also important to note that temptation, by itself, isn't the problem.  It's when the temptation actually has it's desired results (from Satan's point of view) that we have a problem.  And, let's not forget that succumbing to temptation isn't necessarily the "end" either.  God will forgive us - if we ask.  It's the point at which we turn away from God forever that we really truly have failed - big time.

Lead us not into temptation

Notice -

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.

This is something that Satan has asked for - not that God did to Peter.

So when we hear Jesus say

But I have prayed for you, Simon ...

It's not reasonable to assume that Jesus would pray for this sifting as wheat would not take place.  Why would Jesus pray for the exact opposite of something that the Father has just permitted to happen?  He wouldn't!  This sifting is going to take place.  And just like it took place with Peter - it will take place with us.  At least it will if Satan asks for it.  And if we give Satan a reason - we can be pretty sure he will be asking for us to be sifted as well.  Evidence of this comes from the word "you" in verse 31.

In English, we can't tell the difference between the singular and plural from the word you.  It has to come from context.  It's not unreasonable, based on the wording of these verses, to assume that Jesus meant "you" to be singular - meaning only Peter.  But this begs the question, what about the other disciples?  Didn't Satan see them as worthy of sifting as well?  Was Peter the only one that was a problem for Satan up to that point?  Was Satan assuming that the rest of the twelve were going to just passively live out their lives?

Actually - no.  Not at all.

Looking up the original Greek, we find the meaning below -

a reference to the receptors of a message, whether oral or written  ²Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 813). New York: United Bible Societies.

It's plural.  To that end, the 2011 version of the NIV now translates the verse as -

31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.