James 1:13
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:
Genesis 22:1-2
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.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
The Bible says that God doesn't tempt people, but earlier it states that God tempted Abraham. Also, in the Lord's Prayer, we pray "lead us not into temptation" (Matthew 6:13, Luke 11:4). How should we understand these passages in light of one another?
James 1:13 is in regard to being tempted to break God's Law, which we see by including the context:
James 1:13-15
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:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
The passage in James states that God doesn't tempt anyone to sin, do wrong, do evil, etc. My paraphrase of the second part of verse 13 would be: "Just as God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does He tempt any man to commit evil".
"Tempt", like thousands of other words, has more than one meaning.
Was God tempting Abraham to sin when He told him to offer Isaac his son upon the altar? Well, since sin is defined as breaking God's Law (1 John 3:4), it would be impossible, by definition, to obey God's directive and sin.
The word "tempt" in Genesis 22:1 is synonymous with "try", as we learn from the retelling of the event in Hebrews 11:17:
Hebrews 11:17
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
Abraham's faith was being tested. He was not being tempted with evil.
The same is the case for the use of the word "temptation" in the Lord's Prayer. We are praying to not be put through trials and suffering. This would be a prayer to not be chastened as much as you deserve for sin (Psalm 6:1, 38:1, Hebrews 12:6-8, etc.). It could also be a prayer to deliver you from collective judgment that God may have for your nation, town, company, etc. Finally, this could be a prayer for God to miraculously intervene if there was going to be a long Winter, or famine, or natural disaster, and so on.
In either case, God is never tempting mankind to break His Law, which is what James 1:13 says He would never do.