DOES GOD TEMPT PEOPLE?

Genesis 22:1  And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. (KJV) II Samuel 24:1  And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. (KJV) Jeremiah 20:7  O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. (KJV) Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (KJV) James 1:13  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: (KJV)

We need to keep in mind that there are two different definitions for 'tempt'.  To 'tempt' can mean to test someone's loyalty, or it can mean to urge someone to do evil.  God can and does test our loyalty, as he did with Abraham.  But God never urges us to do evil, as James says.  For example, God might test a married man by allowing a beautiful woman to make a pass at him, but God would never urge the man to take her up on her offer. Some might argue that, in the Genesis passage,  God was urging Abraham to do evil, since God had asked him to offer his son as a sacrifice, but God had no intention of letting Abraham go through with it. In the 2 Samuel passage, satan is doing the actual temptation (see S15), but God is allowing it to happen. In the Jeremiah passage, the prophet is falsely accusing God of deceiving him. The Matthew passage is simply asking for God's help in keeping us from temptation. It in no way accuses God of tempting people. Not a contradiction. For a fuller explanation of this 'contradiction', go to http://www.tektonics.org/godtempt.html