It’s All About Control

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

The Gospel of John 

August 1, 2024

It’s All About Control

They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too?

Search the Scriptures and see for yourself—

no prophet ever comes from Galilee!”

John  7:52

It’s all about control. Whenever there is a great argument, the issue is not the subject of the argument; it’s always about control. This is true in politics in the public arena, as well as politics within the church. The leading Pharisees who argued with Jesus (John 7:40-52) model this truth for us. They rant about God’s Law, about what is proper and good for ordering Temple life, but their rants reveal they know neither the law nor the history of Israel. They reveal a contemptuous attitude and bigotry against anyone who disagrees with them because what really matters to them is that they are the ones who control life in Israel.

The Pharisees railed that no prophet ever comes from Galilee. John, in writing his Gospel, could have easily countered the assertion that Jesus’ hometown was in Galilee by affirming, in accordance with Scripture, Jesus was born in King David’s town of Bethlehem, not Nazareth. Instead, John points out the foolishness of the Pharisees charges against Jesus by using an interesting word play.

The word translated ‘comes’ can also be translated ‘rises up’, and the same word refers to resurrection in other parts of John’s Gospel. Two of Israel’s most well-known prophets came from Galilee: Jonah and Hosea. Jonah spent three days in the belly of a great fish, and in Hosea 6:2 it is written, “on the third day (God) will raise us up.” Not only did these great Prophets come from Galilee; they, in their own way, were pointing to the fulfillment of Jesus’ words in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

My Takeaway: Within the broken humanity of us all is the desperate need to control our lives and our environment. Our zeal to be in control produces the sour fruit of self-justification and blindness to the truth of Scripture. When I think of our desperate straits, I recall with joy the words of the Apostle Paul: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25a). 

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.