The Danger of Entering Temptation
Satan is shrewd. He knows that his victories come mostly by wearing us down. It is at these times that the temptation in our minds will be so severe that unless God does provide the way of escape, and we take it, then we will have entered into temptation.
9 “Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]
Matthew 6:9-13 (LSB)
In this post we will look at the danger of “entering temptation.” There is no doubt that most believers walk in defeat in this battle much of the time. On top of the guilt and self-abhorrence that are natural products of Christians sinning, there is also the battle fatigue that comes upon them which results in more guilt simply for being “tempted” in the first place. Of course, much of this can be blamed on faulty theology and an extreme drought in the area of teaching the Biblical truth about sin and temptation from our pulpits and Bible studies. To understand the danger of “entering temptation” we must first understand what it is and what it is not.
First, to our great relief, it is not merely to be tempted. Temptation will be our lot as long as we live in this age. It is impossible that Christians can be insulated from it that they would never be tempted. Satan is the god of this age. Within his power, the world is consumed with lust. Therefore, as long as we live in these bodies in this age, we will be tempted. Even our Lord Jesus Christ was tempted in every way that we are while in His earthly body. This made Him one like us except without sin. As hard as it is to grasp at times, the temptation we go through in this life is designed to conform us unto Christ’s likeness. In Luke 22:28 our Saviour called His ministry a time of trials or temptation. The Word of God in no place gives us a promise of absolute freedom from temptation. The best we have is found in the Lord’s Prayer that I placed at the top of this post. He commanded that we should pray for God to, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Instead of praying not to be tempted we are commanded to pray that we not “enter into temptation.”
Entering into temptation is something more than the ordinary work of Satan combined with our own lusts. We deal with this every day of our lives. No, entering into temptation is something out of the ordinary that is not in our every day walks before the Lord. It is something that comes upon us characteristically of being seduced unto sin, on one account or other, by the way of allurement or fear. I suppose those few sentences caused your spiritual ears and eyes to go wide open for this is not what we usually hear about the nature of this battle is it?
Entering into temptation is more than merely being conquered by a temptation or to commit sin. We may “enter into temptation” and yet not fall under temptation. Our great God can make a way of escape for us, when we are in it. He can break the snare as he makes Satan flee. He can build up our hearts to be more than conquerors even though we have entered into temptation. Our Lord Jesus Christ entered temptation, but was not in the least defeated by it. So what is the “danger of entering temptation? The danger comes when we are in it and become entangled.
9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.
1 Timothy 6:9 (LSB)
When we are “entering temptation” to the point of compromising our walk so as to get what we desire it as a man falling into a pit where there are traps and snares that entangle him. Think of an insect that is allured into a Pitcher Plant. The deeper it goes into the flower the more danger it is in. At some point it will reach a point of no return where the angle of the tube of the flower is too steep. It will then tumble into bottom of the plant where there is accumulated rain water where it will drown and be digested. It becomes entangled. In our case, when we fall into the pit full of traps and snares in trying to feed our desire we are not quickly killed or destroyed, but we will soon find that we are entangled and can no longer free. We will be clueless as to how to become free from what is holding us. We have become enslaved to our own flesh.
13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (LSB)
What a comfort this statement is! Even though we have become entangled and cannot find a way out in our own abilities, God knows how to deliver us. When we allow a temptation to enter us then we have entered into it. When it is alluring us we are still free from it. All temptations begin small. They may even appear benign, but are full of poison. When we partake of the allurement then the bargaining begins to go deeper. It may even continue small, just a small compromise, not a big deal…yet.
-
Brother, Sister—Don’t Lose Your Home to a Passing Storm
Above the passing sands and unsettling storms of time—God stands true. Cultural moments come and go, but only a life founded in the words and work of Jesus Christ can truly stand—not just the storm of opposition but the final storm of divine judgement.
Brother in Christ, sister in Christ, I implore you: don’t lose your home to a passing storm. At present your pressing temptation to alter or abandon your faith feels final and inevitable, a logical and irresistible imperative to fall back or fall away which doesn’t carry options or off-ramps—and that is hard to bear. Some movement or cultural moment is storming your conscience or your core beliefs, laying siege ramps to your certainties, cutting off supply lines to the city of your soul, and somewhere you have come to believe that resistance is futile. Brother in Christ, sister in Christ, I implore you: don’t lose your home to a passing storm.
As you consider deconstruction, deconversion or even the moral dereliction of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, may I offer to you four facts that might anchor the home of your heart and might help you to stand firm when drifting back or away feel like a foregone conclusion:
1. Now is not absolute.
Believers of all ages, but particularly young Christians are vulnerable to the tyranny of “now.” I know that you can feel like your life, locked as it is in the permanent present tense of media and messaging, is not related to what has gone before you or what might follow you—but this is a terrible illusion. Now is not absolute, and pinning your principles on the situation at present will put you in unthinkable peril. Let me tell you about two periods when “now” looked right “then,” but looked foolish later.
When I was in my late teens I enrolled for a degree in English (with some philosophy). I loved the academic challenges this brought and the wide literature it led me into. Piggy-backing on all of this intellectual material, however, was postmodernism. Long before Christians spoke or wrote about this (ad nauseam) the ideology was alive in academic circles. In lecture after lecture, seminar after seminar, the fluidity of truth claims and the subjectivity of reason were emphasised over and over again until I began to fear and question what I had been taught and what I had believed. How could credible Christianity emerge from this truth hurricane with anything intact? The answer: it did because now is not absolute. Postmodernism came and went, rose and fell, just as every intellectual movement does (normally when it makes landfall in lived experience). I didn’t lose my home to that passing storm, and I am grateful for God’s grace.
Read More
Related Posts: -
Holiness is More Than Behaving Yourself
When we think of holiness, our first thought can’t be “I need to try harder to obey.” Rather, our first thought must be “I am set apart for God.” When we dwell upon that reality and all that means, the rest will follow as the tail follows the dog.
If we are going to take holiness seriously and see progress in our lives in the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit, the place to start is…To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:2, NIV84)
We try so hard to be holy. After all, doesn’t the Bible tell us to strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). The pursuit of holiness is constituent of the Christian life (1 Thess. 4:1-8). God’s will is for our sanctification, wherein we die more and more unto sin and live increasingly unto righteousness. We are to be holy as He is holy, a calling expressed in terms of obedience and the conduct of our lives (1 Pet. 1:14-15).
Yet we regularly, often emphatically and even willfully fall flat on our faces, plunging back into the dissipation from which God rescued us, despite scriptural warning to the contrary (1 Pet. 4:1-3). The Spirit convicts us of our sin and, once again, we repent and confess our sin, claim forgiveness in Christ, and purpose with the Spirit’s help to try harder – all quite sincerely.
And on it goes. It’s reminiscent of the cycles in the book of Judges. We forget God, presume upon our position as His people, and give ourselves over to sin. From the bondage into which we have subjected ourselves, we cry out to God and He points us to His Deliverer, only for us to wander again.
What can we do? Simply try harder? God shows us a better way.
Read More -
“Daniel Blessed the God of Heaven” – Daniel 2:1-24 (An Exposition of the Book of Daniel– Part Four)
In this prayer, as we will see, the two themes surface which we have identified earlier as running throughout the entirety of Daniel’s prophecy. First, we see God’s absolute sovereignty over all of human history, including YHWH’s rule over the great empires depicted by the statue in the dream. Second, God’s fatherly care of Daniel and his friends is evident when YHWH protects Daniel and his three compatriots from the king’s wrath. YHWH enables Daniel to do what the Babylonian court experts cannot, that is to recount and then interpret the king’s dream.[3]
Times Have Changed
The mood in the Babylonian court has completely changed between the time Nebuchadnezzar claimed the throne in 605 BC, and the scene which unfolds in Daniel chapter 2. In the opening chapter of his prophecy, Daniel describes Nebuchadnezzar as an all-powerful king, bestowing favors on those servants who have successfully completed their transformation from captured youths into humble and efficient servants in the Babylonian court, young men who come from the various peoples defeated by the Babylonians, now dedicated to serve the king and worship his Babylonian “gods.”
But in chapter 2 (which takes place two years later in 603 BC), the king is troubled and frightened because he has had a dream–the meaning of which escapes him. The royal court which seemed so dominant over its humiliated subjects is now depicted as a place of fear, helplessness, and brutality.[1] Whatever it was that the king had dreamed, coupled with the failure of Nebuchadnezzer’s magicians and astrologers to interpret the dream for him, initially leads to great peril for Daniel and his friends. But then it becomes an opportunity for Daniel to ascend in rank and importance in the court. This comes to pass because YHWH is Daniel’s shield and defender, and the source of both Nebuchadnezzaer’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation.
Chapter Two — The Big Picture
Chapter 2 of Daniel’s prophecy contains a 49 verse story dominated by Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a bizarre statue composed of four different metals (which represent four different earthly kingdoms), which is then destroyed by a giant rock (which represents an eternal kingdom established by the God of Heaven). The revelation given by the Lord to Daniel regarding the meaning of the king’s dream tempts us to focus entirely upon the sequence of future events revealed. Indeed, the dream contains a fascinating and remarkably accurate prediction of the rise of future empires and their eventual destruction. Yet, we must not overlook the big picture purpose of the story of the king’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation of that dream. Although the details of the vision which follows are interesting and important because the dream predicts the histories of the great world empires, this is not as important to Daniel’s message as the fact that only YHWH knows how the future will unfold, because he is the author of the future. It is YHWH’s kingdom, not any of the four kingdoms which Nebuchadnezzar sees in his dream, which triumphs over all other kingdoms of the world in the end.[2]
The account in Daniel 2 of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation of it is a single unit which is best covered in one long essay. But this requires far more space than is usual for a blog post. So rather than skimming over the entire chapter and then hitting the highlights (there are too many and the dream is too important for that), I will break the chapter in four parts. We will spend several posts going through the various parts. The first part is the king’s dream and his challenge to his court magicians to recall and explain it to him (vv. 1-13). The second part is God’s revelation of the dream to Daniel (vv. 14-23). We will cover both of these sections in this exposition. The third part of the chapter is Daniel’s God-given explanation of the dream to the king (vv. 24-45), and then finally, we have the king’s very favorable response after Daniel interprets the dream for Nebuchadnezzar (vv. 46-49).
The Key—Daniel’s Prayer to YHWH
The interpretive key to understanding the whole of the chapter correctly (the big picture) is found neither in the dream, nor in the interpretation of the dream, but in Daniel’s prayer to YHWH as recounted in verses 20-23. In this prayer, as we will see, the two themes surface which we have identified earlier as running throughout the entirety of Daniel’s prophecy. First, we see God’s absolute sovereignty over all of human history, including YHWH’s rule over the great empires depicted by the statue in the dream. Second, God’s fatherly care of Daniel and his friends is evident when YHWH protects Daniel and his three compatriots from the king’s wrath. YHWH enables Daniel to do what the Babylonian court experts cannot, that is to recount and then interpret the king’s dream.[3] As a result (vv. 46-49), Daniel is made a ruler in the province of Babylon, as well as chief prefect over the king’s wise men (counselors). Daniel also secures posts for Shadrach (Hananiah), Meshach (Mishael), and Abednego (Azariah).
We have in this chapter what amounts to a “court tale of conquest.” At first glance, the rivals are Daniel and the king’s advisors, but the real contest is between YHWH and the king’s idols [4]–just as it had been in Egypt in the contest between Moses and Pharaoh’s magicians. When the contest is over, it is clear to all–believer and unbeliever alike–that the Babylonian “gods” are no match for YHWH.
Daniel is the wisest of the so-called “wise men,” because YHWH has given him the wisdom and ability to interpret the king’s dream, while protecting Daniel and his friends.
A Very Bad Dream
When we consider the first 24 verses of Daniel 2, the first thing we notice is the specific time established by Daniel, “in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar” which would be the spring of 603 BC. We also learn that something was deeply troubling the king. “Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.” We do not know what caused the king’s troubles–whether he had too many goat meat Shish Kebabs or too much caffeine late at night–but his sleep was interrupted and after falling back asleep he dreamt (the time when dreams are the most vivid). Before the invention of artificial lighting it was very common for people to go to bed just after dark–then awaken for a time around midnight–and then go back to sleep until first light. This is likely what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. He slept, was awakened, and then upon returning to sleep had his dream.[5] The king was deeply troubled by its content, a great metal statute with clay feet being crushed by a rock made without human hands.
Bring In the Chaldeans
In what appears to be a state of great distress, the king seeks relief from those in the royal court whom the king consulted in such matters. “Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king.” The list given us by Daniel is important–magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers–men who claim to see the future, talk to the dead, or interpret strange phenomena (storms, earthquakes, droughts, etc.). These men (known as “Chaldeans” as a group) were practitioners of the occult (the demonic). Such men were common in the courts of the ancient world and understand such dreams to have regular patterns which could be discerned so as to “interpret” such dreams correctly. There are even ancient manuals from Babylon (“dream books”) explaining how to do this. But this was such a complicated a “science” that it took much time and study to master these manuals and be admitted to the royal court.[6] The folly of this will be exposed by the young man Daniel, the prophet of YHWH.
With the Chaldeans standing before the distraught and troubled king, we read in verse 3, “and the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.’” Either the king cannot recall the details of the dream–which is not uncommon–or else (and this is much more likely) the king recalls much of the dream but does not reveal the details so as to test whether or not his “court magicians” are actually interpreting his dream, or are merely offering flattering words meant to gain his favor and not provoke his anger. Nebuchadnezzar was no slouch. He is asking for much more than an interpretation of the dream. He is asking for a recounting of the specifics of what he dreamt, as well as an interpretation. He will put his court magicians to the test. He will not like the outcome.
“Tell Us Your Dream”
An important bit of irony appears in verse 4. “Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “`O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.’” The text of Daniel’s prophecy shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic until the end of chapter 7. The irony is that the king’s subjects begin with the common address offered by servants to someone of Nebuchadnezzar’s great prestige and power. This is a prayer to the “gods” (Bel or Marduk) offered on behalf of the king, who was often associated with the “gods” as though he were one of them. The irony in this is that Nebuchadnezzar is but a mere mortal, whose dream will reveal that his reign and kingdom will come and go. The king will not live forever despite the invocation of pagan “gods.” Some have wondered whether or not this is a bit of satire on Daniel’s part, pointing out the ultimate fate of Nebuchadnezzar and the futile efforts of his court magicians to bring about eternal life through the prayer they offer.[7] But Daniel will both recall and interpret the dream, only to tell the king about an eternal king and a kingdom which will not end, but endure forever (cf. v. 44). The New Testament will identify this kingdom for us (Revelation 11:15) –“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Likely unable to recall the essence of the dream if not all of its details, the king demands that his “spiritual advisors” tell him both the details of the dream and its interpretation. “The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, `The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.’” Serving in the court of someone like Nebuchadnezzar is like being chained to a lion–things are fine while the lion is well fed, in a good mood, and not worried about other lions. But should the lion get hungry . . . Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is much too important to let the Chaldeans get away with mere formalities typical of the royal court.
Read More
Related Posts:
