Have you ever been manipulated? Have you ever manipulated another for your own ends? The obvious question begs the obvious answer, doesn’t it?
“Those People” are us people. To one degree or another, we’ve all manipulated others for our own purposes.So, this Sunday’s worship focus certainly applies to us all in one way or another, at one time or another.
In reviewing the Biblical narrative, we’ll find there is one instance after another of someone manipulating someone else toward their own ends. Delilah worked and worked on Samson until he revealed the secret of his strength! (Judges 16)
Jacob manipulated his brother Esau essentially from the womb. (Genesis 25)
The wife of Herod, Herodius and her daughter seemed to erotically manipulate Herod into executing John the Baptist. (Mark 6″)
Peter, tried to detour Jesus away from his Suffering Servant mission in a well-intentioned but nonetheless misguided manipulative effort. (Matthew 16)
At the heart of manipulation is a kind of “slavery” to the will of another. And here is why Galatians 5.1 is so powerful. “It is for freedom you have been set free…” Manipulators are so harmful because they remove or harm the core of our created soul. We were created and redeemed back into the image of God to be free!
Come to worship to praise God for our freedom and to be inspired by God’s word to stand firm in that freedom won for us in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus!