Can a Person Manipulate God?

Do you think a person can manipulate God?

“What kind of question is that,” you might ask. “Of course not!”

I ask the question because I think some people may be trying to manipulate God without even knowing it. They inadvertently do so by manipulating God’s word to find approval for their thinking or actions.

Did you know that some of the sects (religious groups) of the Jews tried to manipulate Jesus?

The day before Jesus was betrayed the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking whether a person should pay taxes to Caesar. If he answered, “Yes,” he would offend the people; but if he answered, “No,” they could accuse him of being unlawful. A trap! Manipulation.

Jesus asked for a coin and observed the likeness and inscription, and responded, “Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
It was like a tag team that day; up next, the Sadducees. They asked Jesus about a woman having had multiple husbands. They asked whose wife she would be in the resurrection!

“Hahahahahah!” They must have laughed to themselves. They did not believe that there was a resurrection! What a complicated and impossible question they had constructed.

Again, Jesus was too wise for them. He explained that there would be no marrying or marriage after this life. And not only that, God is not God of the dead, but of the living!!

As for the Pharisees and Sadducees—silence.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were using the Scripture like a law code. It was not unlike the way some Americans treat the U. S. Constitution and U. S. law. They look for legal loopholes and dissect words to justify their opinions and actions. The first amendment has been used to legally justify gossip, hatred, pornography and even lying.

If a person today interprets things differently than the intent of our founding fathers, who is there to disagree? Yet what happens when people apply the same kind of thinking to the Scripture? Some so-called Christians seem to believe that there is no authority to stop them. Where there are disagreements, they have their interpretation, you have yours, others have theirs—stalemate.

Many churches have simply gone along with our society’s definition of marriage, divorce for any reason, and remarriage for any reason.

Is no one interested in what the Bible says?

Wait! There is interest.

However, the words of the Bible are often manipulated to justify sexual immorality, justify adultery, justify homosexuality. People are talking and writing about the things found in the Scriptures. But what about truth?

Many people today regard the Bible as a legal document and manipulate it like the Pharisees and Sadducees. Others have no more regard for Scripture than they have for the U. S. Constitution. Loopholes. Manipulative interpretations: “You could also read it this way.” Do you think God intended a certain meaning when He revealed His word? Or is God’s word subject to everyone’s individual interpretation???

Our forefathers are no longer here to defend and explain what they wrote in the U. S. Constitution. So, perhaps it is ultimately and inevitably left up to the interpretation of society and lawmakers. In contrast, God is not dead! He knows what He said and what He meant. Our task is to listen and to follow, not interpret in a way that satisfies our desires.

Know this first of all that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 
—2 Peter 1:20-21

Mark Stinnett

January 26, 2020