Warned, But Still Tempted

In Alma 52, the Nephites attempt to retake the city of Mulek, a fortress that had been captured by the Lamanites. They thought of just trying to attack the fortress, but because of the Lamanites' numbers, that plan was infeasible. If the Nephites were going to defeat the Lamanites, they would have to get them out of Mulek somehow. They held a war council to try to come up with ideas.

And it came to pass they sent embassies to the army of the Lamanites, which protected the city of Mulek, to their leader, whose name was Jacob, desiring him that he would come out with his armies to meet them upon the plains between the two cities. But behold, Jacob, who was a Zoramite, would not come out with his army to meet them upon the plains. -Alma 52: 20

I don't know why they thought that would work. Not only did their embassy fail, it also warned Jacob that the Nephites were trying to get the Lamanites to come out of the city. However, despite this warning, Jacob fell for a decoy trick, allowing the bulk of his army to be led on a wild goose chase while the Nephites retook the city. But before we criticize Jacob for being a moron or the Nephites for tipping their hands, we should remember that the same tactics work on us sometimes, too.

Satan is often subtle, but sometimes, he forgoes subtlety so he can show us what makes his offers so tempting. If you're on a diet, Satan might tempt you with food that looks and smells delicious. You would know, of course, what was going on. You would see and smell the delicious, but unhealthy food, but you would know fully well that you had committed yourself not to eat feed like that. Still, food like that is very tempting, and sometimes, people give in to that temptation, even when we see it for the temptation it is.

 Resisting temptation often requires a certain amount of wisdom and perception to recognize the temptation, but even when we recognise it, it takes a certain amount of will-power to resist it. That's why, when Jesus saw through Satan's first two temptations, Satan dropped all pretence of subtlety and made Jesus an offer he hoped He wouldn't be able to refuse.

Sadly, the adversary doesn't always have to trick us to convince us to make the wrong choice. He sometimes gets us just by making the temptations appealing enough to tempt us. Even when we know we're being tempted, we need to be careful. We don't always have to be clever, because Satan isn't always subtle, but when it comes to resisting temptation, we always have to be strong enough to say "no," especially when the temptation is staring us right in the face.