Does God Tempt People? with Todd Tomasella and Travis Bryan III

Redemptive Withdrawal in James and Gen 22

1. God never "tempts" anyone.  James 1:13, KJV.  But God will WITHDRAW and allow Satan to tempt people, especially good people.  Satan is always the tempter, the temptress, and the tempest.  It was Satan who was allowed to "tempt" Abraham with a cruel trick involving a child sacrifice scenario in Gen 22.  See Gen 22:1 for use of word "tempt."  God takes the blame in Gen 22 for what the "angel of the Lord" actually does.  See Gen 22:1, 10-14.  
2. God allows this for a good and REDEMPTIVE purpose: to allow Satan to try us in a furnace of circumstances and thereby grow our faith and bring much blessing to us out of the situation.  Gen 22:17-18.
3. God SUFFERS with Abraham, Isaac, Job and us when Satan is allowed by Him to tempt and try us.  James 5:10-11.
4. There was an AIKIDO-like self-destructive symbolic end for Satan when the ram was "caught in the thicket by his (own) horns" then substituted and destroyed on the same altar the angel meant for Abraham's son, Isaac.  Gen 22:13.  This substitution is symbolic of Satan and his power destroyed on the same cross he killed God's Son on.  Heb 2:14.  God never plays cruel child-sacrifice-tricks on anyone.  God is love always, every time, for all time!