Biblical Anthropology - Control Freaks

Every so often a 'stray thought' hits me and I realize that the Lord is teaching me something in the midst of life. This week has been really tough for us. We went in last Friday to have our son 5 weeks early by C-section. We were hopeful that he would be perfect and fine but knew that there could be complications because he was so early. Well, he came out great, gave us a good yell, and then decided that he didn't feel like breathing on his own! They were able to get him to breath, and he has steadily been improving since, but this whole week has been spent trying to get Niki back on her feet after the C-section and watching our young son struggle to learn to breathe on his own in the NICU.

How does this relate to Biblical Anthropology? I was in the truck (I don't even remember where I was going!) and it hit me that we often say that one of man's great issues is the desire to control everything around him rather than allowing God to have and exercise control. How do we understand and approach the issue of control?

Man was created to exert control. Kings in the Ancient Near East would leave their image behind in conquered lands so that the people would know who ruled. The thought often was that the conquering king had brought order to disorder and thus blessed that land by imposing his rule. This idea seems to have arisen directly from the Biblical narrative. God brought order to the disorder of matter that existed immediately at the beginning of creation. To that which was "formless and void" God brought order progressively through the days of creation. On the sixth day God created the "capstone" of all of creation - man. Man was created in God's image in order to rule creation under His authority which began with Adam's caretaking of the Garden of Eden.

In the Fall of man in sin, man moved from a position of appropriate exercise of control in accordance with the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God to the position of attempting to exercise control in the same manner as God! Satan tempts with the phrase, "you will be like God (in knowing good and evil)." One of the benefits of being like God is to exercise absolute control. Here is the problem with men - that rather than exercising control in a way that is good and pleasing to God and in alignment with His will we try to control things around us to achieve the results that we desire.

This has been our struggle this week as we have watched Caleb struggle to make it through his first days of life - that we cannot control what is going on. I have seen two extreme reactions to the situation: 1) Anxiety/Fear, and 2) Control what you can and wait for things to develop to a point where you can exert control over things again. If you struggle with fear and anxiety consider that maybe you are trying to control things to ends that you desire, and in the absence of being able to, or knowing how to, achieve desired results you experience fear and anxiety. Or, if you walk around looking assured but are constantly stressed out consider that you have learned to exert control where you can and then wait until things develop to a point where you can control things again. Neither of these reactions are proper. Instead, we ought to ascertain what God's will is and then exert what control we have in situations to make things be in keeping with His will in order to produce results that bring glory to His name! This is what man was created to do. So, does God need to have control in all things? Yes! But we should realize that He has chosen in His mercies to use us in some things (not all!) to exercise control and to do so in a manner in keeping with His good, perfect, and pleasing will so that His wisdom "might be made manifest to the rulers and powers in the heavenly places."