The Great Temptation

Every single one of us faces a great temptation. Something that, more than anything else, is so hard to resist. It’s a weapon in Satan’s arsenal that has unparalleled success in spiritual warfare. He has used it for millenia now, and it is just as effective today as it ever has been. Just as Jesus gives us the Great Commission, our enemy offers us the Great Temptation to divert our attention. And we often fall prey to his trap.

So, what is this Great Temptation? Let’s look in Daniel 3 and see this Great Temptation in action. Begin reading in verse 1:

Daniel 3:1 ESV

1 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

The Great Temptation has just taken victim of the most powerful king in the known world. Nebuchadnezzar is a pawn in Satan’s game; he is merely a tool for the Great Temptation.

But what is it? The Great Temptation is sudden - it happens almost without warning. The child of God in tune with the Holy Spirit can see it coming, but the Great Temptation is a lot like a special forces warrior. Almost no one can spot the special forces warrior sneaking on his target.

One particular soldier was nicknamed “the White Feather” because he often kept a white feather in his hat. On one mission, the White Feather put the feather away and camouflaged himself. His mission was to sneak up and assassinate a Vietcong leader. They had cleared the fields around the base where this leader was down to just a couple of inches of grass (or whatever it was - I don’t know what grows like that in Vietnam). He spent days on his belly, slowly inching toward his target. After three days of crawling, covered with excruciatingly-painful insect bites and smelling like a soldier who had been in the blistering heat without a shower or bathroom, he finally make it within his optimal range, and fired a single shot. He didn’t miss. The enemy soldiers naturally assumed someone was in the forest around the camp and after three days of searching, they finally gave up looking for the soldier. Only then was he able to sneak back out (backwards) to safety.

The Great Temptation is like White Feather - it lays its trap slowly, and when things are just right, it strikes, without warning and often without even being visible to its prey. Nebuchadnezzar fell prey to the Great Temptation in verse 1 - he made an image of gold.

The Vision of the Image - head of Gold

The Image he built - all Gold

See the problem? Nebuchadnezzar is