History is not driven by events alone. It is driven by INTERESTS—often hidden, often denied, but always decisive. When we peel away the emotional narratives, moral posturing, and propaganda that accompany world-shaking moments, what remains is a cold and consistent truth: people act to protect what they value most. Sometimes those interests are noble. Often, they are not.
The death of Jesus Christ, the most consequential event in human history, was not the result of a single motive or a single villain. It was a convergence of multiple interests, each actor pursuing a different agenda. Likewise, modern geopolitical spectacles—especially brazen foreign interventions—are rarely humanitarian fairy tales. They are the collision of strategic, economic, political, and ideological interests.
To understand the present, one must first understand how interests operated in the past.
The Death of Jesus Christ: One Event, Competing Interests
Jesus did not die because “everyone was evil” in a simplistic sense. He died because He threatened entrenched systems of power.
The Religious Authorities: Protecting Institutional Control
The Jewish religious elite—particularly the Pharisees and Sadducees—did not perceive Jesus merely as a theological nuisance. He was an existential threat to their religious economy.
When Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple, He wasn’t committing an impulsive act of anger. He was exposing a system where worship had become monetized and corrupted. The temple had evolved into a marketplace where access to God was regulated by financial and institutional gatekeepers.
This directly threatened the economic and spiritual monopoly of the religious authorities. Their power depended on ritual control, doctrinal authority, and financial flow. Jesus dismantled all three by preaching direct access to God, mercy over sacrifice, and truth over tradition.
Their interest was survival.
Jesus was bad for business.
Pontius Pilate: Political Survival Above Justice
Pilate’s interest was neither religious nor moral—it was political self-preservation.
Roman governors were evaluated by one standard: stability. Any uprising or perceived tolerance of rebellion could end careers—or lives. When the Jewish leaders framed Jesus as a rival king, they touched Pilate’s deepest fear: being reported to Caesar for treasonous negligence.
Pilate knew Jesus was innocent. Yet when faced with the possibility of political exposure, he folded. Justice bowed to ambition. Innocence was sacrificed to maintain favor with imperial power.
Pilate’s interest was clear:
Remain in Caesar’s good books—or be destroyed.
God’s Interest: Redemption Through Sacrifice
Here lies the great paradox.
God also had an interest in the death of Christ—but unlike every other actor involved, His motive was pure, selfless, and redemptive.
The crucifixion fulfilled divine justice while offering mercy. What humans intended for control, fear, and power, God transformed into salvation. This is why Scripture says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”
Same action.
Different interests.
Radically different moral weight.
This pattern has never stopped repeating.
Power in the Modern World: The Venezuela Shock
Fast-forward to modern geopolitics.
Recent events in Venezuela—where reports suggest a stunningly swift foreign-assisted removal of leadership with minimal military resistance—have been celebrated by many across the globe, including Nigerians who openly fantasize about similar interventions in their own country.
The awe is understandable. A superpower flexing its muscle can look impressive. But admiration without analysis is dangerous.
Power is never deployed without interest.
The Seduction of Foreign Intervention
History teaches us that no nation invades, destabilizes, or “rescues” another purely out of compassion. Strategic interests—oil, influence, ideology, military positioning, or economic leverage—are always involved.
Yet populations desperate for change often suspend critical thinking, reducing complex geopolitical realities to emotional slogans:
“At least something is being done.”
This is how insight dies.
Ahaz and Assyria: A Biblical Warning Against Shortcut Power
The Bible already documented this temptation.
When Judah faced an existential threat from Israel and Syria, King Ahaz panicked. Instead of trusting God, he sought help from Assyria—the superpower of the time. Assyria was the ancient equivalent of today’s global military hegemon.
Isaiah warned him explicitly. God even offered a sign—an extraordinary assurance that Judah would survive without foreign intervention. That sign became one of the most famous prophecies in Scripture:
“The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
Ahaz rejected divine counsel and chose immediate military convenience over long-term sovereignty.
The result?
Judah survived the immediate threat—but became economically, politically, and spiritually enslaved to Assyria.
Isaiah analyzed INTERESTS.
Ahaz chased quick relief.
History punished the difference.
Regime Change by Force: Where Has It Worked?
Before celebrating external regime change anywhere—Venezuela included—an honest question must be asked:
Which country is better today after forced foreign intervention?
Libya stands as a haunting example. Muammar Gaddafi was no saint, but Libya under foreign-engineered collapse became a failed state—fragmented, violent, and exploited. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria—different contexts, same pattern.
The promise is always freedom.
The outcome is often chaos.
This does not excuse dictatorship.
But it exposes hypocrisy.
Nigeria’s Dangerous Fantasy
Many Nigerians cheering foreign dominance have not paused to consider this truth:
If a superpower can humiliate another sovereign nation today, it can do the same to yours tomorrow.
Foreign intervention does not empower citizens. It rearranges who benefits. The dominant interest rarely belongs to the people.
When nations abandon internal reform for external saviors, they trade one problem for a more complex one.
Interests Decide Outcomes, Not Emotions
This is the lesson woven through Scripture and history alike.
Until you identify whose interest dominates an action, remain sober.
Do not celebrate raw power without understanding its cost.
Do not confuse spectacle with justice.
Do not mistake speed for wisdom.
The crucifixion teaches us that the same event can serve evil interests and divine purposes simultaneously. But in geopolitics, God’s redemptive override is not guaranteed.
Final Reflection: Hope Without Naivety
We can hope—genuinely—that Venezuela experiences better governance, justice, and prosperity. We should desire that the interests of Venezuelan citizens become central, not collateral.
But hope must be anchored in realism.
History warns us:
External power rarely liberates without demanding ownership.
Until the dominant interest is revealed, wisdom demands caution.
Because today’s applause can become tomorrow’s tears.
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