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Proclaim Freedom & Liberty Throughout The Land

ByElmer Yeager

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(1) The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom (and liberty) for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, (2) to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, (3) and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.’ (Isaiah 61:1-3)

Union General Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom and liberty in reading ‘General Order 3’ about the Emancipation Proclamation to the black slaves on 19 June 1865 on the first ‘Juneteenth’.  Proclaiming freedom and liberty occurs repeatedly in American history, as our forefathers also proclaimed freedom and liberty for those people comprising the United States in 1776, to remove the overburdening economic and social shackles placed upon Americans by the British King George III, in the Declaration of Independence and later in 1788 with the ratification of the US Constitution.

Freedom and liberty are also proclaimed in the Bible; Isaiah wrote these verses in prophesizing two future events for the Jewish people about them receiving their freedom and liberty from oppression.  The first event was something occurring two centuries after Isaiah passed, the end of the Babylonian Exile and the return of the Jews to Israel and Jerusalem.  The Jews were no longer captives or slaves to Babylon, free to return home and enjoy the freedom of tyranny, if only for a short period.  This physical freedom allowed them to openly worship God and to restore the Temple as a place of worship (though it would never match the splendor it once had). 

The second and most important event Isaiah prophesized through verses 1-3 was the Messiah, who would provide a Spiritual freedom and liberty from the captivity and death of sin.  Jesus, through His fulfillment of this prophecy in His sacrifice on the cross and resurrection three days later gives us this release from the chains of sin and death and frees us from the bonds of Hell to live with Him forever in His Glory of the New Heaven and Earth.  Jesus Himself proclaimed His fulfillment of this prophecy in Luke 4:17-19.  Unlike the Juneteenth proclamation, or American Independence, or even the end of the Babylonian exile, Jesus’ proclamation of freedom and liberty is not merely physical but a Spiritual freedom; to provide us everlasting freedom from the fear of eternal suffering and disgrace. 

This Spiritual freedom through Jesus is most important, and it is the only one that can last.  Today we live in a post-Constitutional America, where our freedoms have been curtailed; the Jews likewise fell to subjugation to the Romans, and later to the Ottomans and suffered genocide by the Germans.   But through Jesus, regardless of our physical restraints, our Spirit will always be free, if only we believe in Him and accept His Lordship and Gospel.  If you really want to be a ‘freedom fighter’, share your Faith with others and be a ‘Great Commission’ Christian, so others can gain the freedom you have through Christ!

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