REAL Liberty: Accept No Substitutes

I’ve purposed in my heart to read the Bible through this year, and I don’t know why it surprises me how EPIC the Word really is.  Just about any tale to be told could be found within its cover, but all with one central theme: making God the center of your life is the way to Life.  Failing to do so only brings chaos and destruction.  What the world sees as “freedom” and “liberty” is just a cheap imitation, if God’s purpose isn’t at the center of all your decisions and intentions.  His liberty is REAL.

I just finished reading Joshua—and what a story it is.  Y’all, Joshua is da man.  He is a dude’s dude.  Impressively, he was anointed leader of Israel following Moses, which in and of itself, is no joke.  And he didn’t appoint himself, or seek election or run a coup.  GOD chose him.  In another post a few days ago, I noted that Joshua didn’t assume his headship role until the age of 80!  How many octogenarians do you know that are just beginning their chief career?  The oldest active leader I could think of in my lifetime was Ronald Reagan, and he LEFT office at the age of 77!

So, Joshua BEGINS his most pivotal leadership at 80—and he’s no figurehead, baby.  He is on the frontlines, kicking tush, and taking names!  Joshua 12 records that, in his ministry of carrying out possession of the promised land, Bro. Josh (and his bad self) took down 31 KINGS.  THIRTY-ONE!  Not just that, but under his leadership, Israel sent all of their subjects packing, under God’s direction!  Then, he divides up the land, which is given unto Israel for their inheritance, as God promised Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and later, Moses.  Joshua passes away at the ripe old age of 110 years old.  Before he dies, he repeats all of the directives of Moses, and refreshes their memories, reading them every last one of the laws that God has given, all the blessings for obedience, and all the curses for rebellion.  Joshua knows they won’t always do right, but he tells them anyways, for they are bound by the covenant which they made, forever.

Prior to his departure, though, God mentions to Joshua that there is some unfinished business.  He lists some nations that are still in Canaan, that still need to be dealt with.  Joshua has done the bulk of the work, but God leaves some nations behind, in order to test the loyalty and obedience of Israel.

They did well, right up until the last of the old guard of elders who had been with Joshua dies.  Afterwards, Israel fails the test miserably.  Like every generation who lives blessed, abundant lives, and who knows nothing of the history of sacrifice that was required to bring such freedom about, they grew spoiled, entitled, morally reckless, and irreverent.  They behaved like everything was owed to them, without accepting any requirements or personal investment of their own.  They reveled in their new “liberty,” and threw their imagined shackles of faithfulness and gratitude to the wind.

(Sound like anyone you might know?  But I digress.  Back to the Book.)

After the account of Joshua closes, the end of Joshua’s ministry is briefly recounted in the opening of the Book of Judges.  Some of the tribes do work to drive out certain factions, as God told them they should…but others, not so much.  Or they would drive out some, but not others.  They’d go so far, and then—I don’t know—they got bored?  Or tired?  Or ambivalent?  But they just stopped.  Maybe, after settling down from their former nomadic lifestyle in Exodus-Deuteronomy, they’d gotten so attached to just staying home, they didn’t relish the idea of leaving again.  I don’t know.  But they stopped. 

And it cost them.  Listen to what happens at the beginning of Judges 2:

Judges 2:1-4 NKJV

Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: “I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you. ² And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? ³ Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’ ” ⁴ So it was, when the Angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.

Oh, sure.  NOW you’re sorry.  Typical.  Never sorry, until the previously promised consequences are brought to bear.  Oi vey.

Consider the parallels of what this whole story implies for us.  Of course, the idolatrous nations represent everything that beckons us to replace God and the Kingdom in our lives.  Israel allowed pagan influences first to exist—but then, like cancer, those influences spread, and crept into their own homes.  They began first by allowing them entrance, tolerating their presence, and then over time, giving up the fight, and embracing their convictions.

But hey, whatever!  It’s liberty, right? I can do whatever I want!

From almost the very beginning pages of the bible, God calls His people out to be separate.  He pulled Abraham out of Ur.  He sent Moses to deliver His people from slavery in Egypt.  Daniel and his four compatriots understood the principle of separation, and it brought protection and blessing into their lives.  He has always set people apart for Himself.  In the world, but not of the world.  Yes, Paul said he became “all things to all men”—but never at the price of sinning, or winking at sin.  He didn’t dabble, sticking his big toe in the water of paganism, or witchcraft, or sexual immorality.  He didn’t experiment with pushing the envelope on the principles that had been already laid down, and he was adamant in the epistles to bring correction, when he heard of churches who were. He was also pretty clear about what his spiritual liberty meant: “all things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient.”  Translation:  just because you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

This passage in Judges reminds me of the price of letting the world, its philosophy, its influence to color my views, my interests, and my standards and principles.  If I “make covenant” with the world systems and dogmas, I am out of step with my own covenant with the King of kings.  He told me to “come out from among them and be ye separate,” and if I begin to talk like the world, look like the world, act like the world, and entertain myself like the world, it won’t be long before I think like the world and even worse—live like the world.

Then what happens?  The angel made it plain.  “…They shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”  Last time I checked, thorns aren’t the life of the party.  They don’t exactly bring peace, joy, and rest.  And snares?  By definition, snare means ‘trap.’  So, someone who is trapped isn’t in control of their own destiny.  They’re beholden to the whims and desires of their captor.

All of that “liberty” doesn’t sound so good, now.

At any rate, my point is this: if we don’t drive out lawless principles and immorality from our own personal lives, if we don’t make an effort to govern our own thought-life, and to take care what we set before our eyes, then we might as well be overrun by brutal marauders, and taken captive. 

Because that life IS captivity, whether you know it or not.  To be owned by the world is to be a slave to it.

That price is far too high.  Oh, God, keep my eyes open, and don’t ever let me forget what you’ve done for me.  May I always remember that you brought me out of Egypt, and that you’ve brought me to a promised land of peace and prosperity as I live for you.  More than that, help me always keep Heaven in my view—for there is NOTHING on this earth that means more to me, than to make it to Eternity with my spiritual inheritance intact.

American firebrand Patrick Henry once said, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”  That is EXACTLY the point here—because real, genuine liberty BRINGS LIFE.  The faux-liberty that the philosophies of this world brings, masquerading as “truth,” are nothing but death.

Thank you, God, for REAL LIBERTY.