The Iron Yoke

They answered him, We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, You will become free? --  John 8:33

Jesus was telling the crowd who He was and why He was in the world.  The verse immediately preceding this is oft-quoted:  … [Y]ou will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  Like many of us today, Jesus’ auditors were offended by His assertion. 

Back in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord instructed His prophet, Thus the LORD said to me: Make yourself straps and yoke-bars, and put them on your neck (Jeremiah 27:2).  This was to be a visual sign to Judah and the surrounding nations that the Lord had given them over to serve Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar.  Through Jeremiah, the Lord warned of the dire consequences of rebellion against His appointed authority. 

Humans sometimes have a problem being honest with themselves about their current state.  We will imagine that we are better and smarter and stronger and perhaps more righteous that we really are.  It is only when we are tested or we run into some barrier or limit that we can’t overcome that we take a more thorough and honest inventory – as the twelve-steppers might say – of our situation. 

I believe the main reason that liberty and individual freedom, republican governments and more independence have dominated history for the last few hundred years is because of the rise and spread of Christianity and the spiritual liberty it brings.  Kingdoms, empires, and governments in general prior to the Cross were more oppressive and restrictive in many ways and the institution of slavery was more widespread because this reflected humanity’s state of spiritual bondage. 

The people of the nations that God chastened through His agency of Nebuchadnezzar were conquered and enslaved by sin.  Nebuchadnezzar made the invisible visible.  If we are going to be spiritual slaves to sin, we might as well be physical slaves.  Physical freedom and what today is thought of as liberty – license – are meaningless and destructive apart from being free in Christ. 

If we are imprisoned and shackled by addictions and habits and iniquity, we are slaves, whatever the nature of our society, culture, or government.  An oppressive government or the rise of despots is more a consequence than a cause.    

Back in Jeremiah’s time, there were some true prophets, like Jeremiah, and a whole bunch of false prophets in Judah and in the other nations as well.  They were telling people that they did not need to worry about Nebuchadnezzar, that he was going to fade away and things would get back to normal.  One of those false prophets, Hananiah confronted Jeremiah with the wooden yoke he had made:  Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke-bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke them (Jeremiah 28:10).  Hananiah then declared that God was going to break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar  “from the neck of all the nations within two years”. 

I am sure it was quite a dramatic episode.  If it happened today, it would be a celebrated soundbite on “The Daily Show” or a viral video on Youtube.  The click-bait sites would have a headline saying, “Watch Hananiah Destroy Doomer ‘Prophet’ Jeremiah in 30 Seconds”.

Sometimes the people who are telling us what we want to hear are not the people to whom we should listen.  Sometimes the people who are saying hard and harsh things are saying those things for our own good.  Whether you are in a twelve-step program trying to break an addiction or you are trying to lose weight, become more fit, improve your health, your life, your finances, or your spiritual condition, the first step is always the same.  We have to be honest about where we are.

A few years back I was forty-some pounds heavier than I am now, and I ain’t exactly anorexic today.  I was never going to lose any of that weight until I admitted my pants hadn’t shrunk.  I am never going to break out of the bondage of sin until I admit I am a hopeless sinner in need of Christ and the Blood of the Cross.  There are the coaches and the gurus and the TED talkers who will come along and tell us we are all right.  We just need to see ourselves as perfect.  They break the toy wooden yoke that the Lord has been using to tell us we have a problem, but they don’t solve the problem.

After his interaction with the false prophet, Jeremiah went on his way.  The Lord stopped him:   Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the LORD: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron.  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field (Jeremiah 28:13-14).

The real oppression remains.  Nothing has been changed by the drama because people continue to refuse to recognize, accept and acknowledge their true state. 

I believe the world and our culture, in particular, are in this current state of chaos and confusion and decline because we have, as a whole, turned from God, turned from Christ and allowed ourselves to be ensnared and enslaved.  The rise of tyranny, the burgeoning of statism and collectivism, the ascendency of militant atheism and Islam and scientism are symptoms and visible manifestations of our spiritual subjugation. 

If our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are ever to know anything of the liberties and truths upon which the United States was founded, we are going to have to face the barrenness, the brokenness, and the vanity of our lives.  We cannot fix this with votes or politics or guns or wars.  We need the Truth to set us free.

God and Government

So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.  For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. -- Habakkuk 1:4

Verse 4. The law is slacked: They pay no attention to it; it has lost all its vigour, its restraining and correcting power, it is not executed; right judgment is never pronounced; and the poor righteous man complains in vain that he is grievously oppressed by the wicked, and by those in power and authority. That the utmost depravity prevailed in the land of Judah is evident from these verses; and can we wonder, then, that God poured out such signal judgments upon them? When judgment doth not proceed from the seat of judgment upon earth, it will infallibly go forth from the throne of judgment in heaven. – Adam Clarke, Commentary, on Habakkuk 1:4

Please direct your attention to that last sentence in the quote from Clarke.  Most of us as Christians are familiar with Paul admonition in Romans 13:1 to be obedient to civil government:   Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.  I can believe, readily enough, that God, in His wisdom, has a hand in establishing governments.  We can see that some government is appropriate and useful and necessary. 

As a Christian, I favor justice, respect for the lives and property of others, and good moral behavior.  I seem to recall a time when people behaved themselves because it was the right thing to do, when what we could call “community standards” were recognized and generally accepted.  I am concerned about the militarization of local police forces and the increasingly militarized bureaucracies of the federal government.  But when community standards and common decency are pushed aside, when the basic morality reflected in the Ten Commandments is dismissed, it’s not too surprising that stronger and more tyrannical governments arise as a consequence.

In other words, if we want Andy Taylor for our sheriff, we need to live like the citizens of Mayberry.  I believe that God will give us the kind of government we deserve.  America is far less a Christian nation than it was a hundred years ago.  We can blame that on Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Clinton, Bush, and Obama, but the fault lies in us -- perhaps not you and I personally, but the citizenry as a whole.  As Peter told us long ago, [I]t is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17). 

The purpose of the Church is not to rubberstamp the decisions of secular authority.  We are not to accommodate and tolerate whatever the government decides to approve and endorse.  We can have license without righteousness, but we cannot have liberty.  If we want to live in a free country, we have to be moral people – not by government mandate but by the mandate of heaven. 

Perhaps there is a corollary to Clarke’s observation.  If, when judgment fails to come from the civil magistrates, judgment falls from the throne of God, is it possible that we could restore righteousness to secular authority by living according to the divine standard?  Then he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there. He answered, For the sake of ten I will not destroy it (Genesis 18:32).  The Cities of the Plain would not have been overthrown if there had been within their walls but ten decent, troubled souls, ten who wept and mourned for the sins of Sodom.    

Who Do You Think You're Fooling

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. -- Galatians 4:8

Those who reject God are not escaping some servitude or slavery.  They are not free to think and do as they please.  The great deception of the world is that I can, as “Invictus” says, be The master of my fate/ The captain of my soul.  We are never without “gods”.  If we lack knowledge of the true God, we are drawn to follow the false ones, as Matthew Henry says, adding then:   Those who forsook the God who made the world, rather than be without gods, worshipped such as they themselves made. 

Paul expresses the same idea in Romans 1:25 in speaking of those who … exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator….  And, again, in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, we learn those who chose to remain in ignorance and deceive themselves will be sent “a strong delusion” by the Lord Himself that they may be locked and held captive by that which is false.  Only in Christ do we have peace with God and liberty.   

For this reason, among others, we do well to remember that our struggle in life is a spiritual one.  The creatures of flesh and blood that would oppose us, do us harm, and otherwise oppress us are themselves deluded to a greater or lesser extent.  Do not fear them.  At the end of Fargo, Marge chides her prisoner for his bloody crime spree saying it was for a few dollars.  You can look at the men who have held the title of “leader of the free world” over the last hundred years, and, aside from a couple of exceptions, they are mostly small, shallow men, perhaps clever, some decent enough, but not anyone you would want your child to emulate.  Most sought power and adulation to fill the emptiness in their souls, thinking that by ruling over others, they might find freedom.  It never happens.  They, too, sell their souls for false, vain promises and illusions.  Do not envy them.  The bill is due, and Mephistopheles knocks.

Christian Economics

These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD.  – Zechariah 8:16-17

As we learned from Micah 6:8, the Lord really does not ask that much of us.  Tell the truth.  Don’t stir up trouble or go along with oppression.  Understand that everybody has a right to live, and that cheating, defrauding, taking unfair advantage, and being dishonest ends in conflict and ugliness.  It’s nice to know that God hates that sort of thing.  It takes the pressure off me. 

God is all for joy and peace and goodness.  He is all for us being happy and whole and prosperous.  Our efforts – as fallen souls, to achieve happiness will most often arise from selfishness and self-love.  I will ask myself what I want, what I need, and what will satisfy my cravings.  When you think about it, this is the foundation of all economic understanding and systems.  The free market person disagrees with the communist at the most fundamental level.  The Marxist answer to disparity, greed, envy, and jealousy is, ultimately, to reduce nearly everyone to the level of a gray-clad peasant. 

Jesus offers us a change of heart.  Christmas is often beautiful with its lights and gifts, but there is nothing like the elegance of a traditional Easter Sunday with the bright new clothes and colors and the celebration of new life.  By contrast, humanism, communism, socialism and fascism are studies in (what we now think of as) puritanical drudgery and misery.  There is no beauty like the beauty of holiness. 

I can’t change the world – for one, as they say, Jesus already changed it.  What I can do is live in His light, live His life here on earth.  A friend of mine used to say that if Jesus were present today, He would drive a Cadillac.  I think He’d drive a pickup because He’d be a hillbilly.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Him riding a KTM or a Yamaha.  Whatever He rode or drove, He’d be happy with it.  He’d enjoy it, but He would not be attached to it.  When He bought it, He’d make sure that both He and the person He bought it from could live with the deal.  Everybody’s got to make a little.  That’s how life works.  We let the other guy have his cut.  Everybody does OK, and everybody has the opportunity to hustle a little and do better. 

The way of the world -- call it consumerism, corporatism, or Madison Avenue-style marketing, often plays on the weaknesses of the old nature seeking pleasure, status, recognition, acceptance and approval.  A Christian should be able to step back from that view.  I don’t condemn those who engage in that approach because it is “sensible” from a purely human perspective.  But we have the mind of Christ and are no longer held in thrall to the world and its mindset. 

On the other hand, I see nothing inherently un-Christian in a true free market system, which results, generally, in mutually beneficial exchange.  There is always going to be a certain amount of human error, slack, lag, and inefficiency in any system.  A free market has the advantage of tradition, experience, and wisdom to make corrections.  No single individual or group – whether government or private, is able to exert an excessive amount of control.

We can’t do too much about stupidity in Washington, D.C., or even up in our state capitol.  We can, though, refuse to act out of fear or greed.  We can take care of our families and friends.  We can contribute and be productive.  We can be truthful, merciful, charitable, and content.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me. … And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:12-13,19). 

My Liberation Theology

The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. -- Psalms 103:6

If we wrestle not against flesh and blood but with spiritual foes, it makes sense that oppression, that is, circumscription of or constraints upon our liberty would be spiritual as well.  

I’m a member of the NRA.  I have been for years and will be for many more years.  Personally, I am very conservative.  Politically, I am libertarian and vote Republican most often, occasionally voting for Libertarian or other third party candidates.  I spend a lot of time complaining about intrusive bureaucracies, government schools, and the oppressive, obsessive, statist control freaks that want to tell me how to live.  I don’t think they are any better or wiser than anyone they are trying to intimidate and control.  We ought to try and elect people who will leave us alone; nevertheless, politics is not capable of ultimately rescuing us from despots and tyrants.  We need to be free before we can enjoy freedom.

No one ever became a better person because he or she was restricted from doing bad things and harming themselves and others.  It’s true that sometimes people in prison, for example, turn their lives around, but that’s because they realize the bondage they are in, and they decide they are going to change their lives.  Being caged can get your attention, but it doesn’t, by itself, change you.

Liberty, freedom from oppression is more than just a state of mind.  We will never be free apart from Christ.  So long as we live by the old nature, we live as slaves of sin.  The Cross releases our will and allows us to freely choose to serve the Lord – because, as Dylan says, we’re going to serve somebody.  In fact, the process of learning to be a servant of God, becoming a disciple, is essential to our liberation.  

Even though our position has changed when we confess and receive Christ, our minds still have to be renewed.  We have, especially some of us, a lot of mental strongholds behind which the enemy hides and from which he attacks the new man.  Those have to identified, taken and destroyed.  We do that through disciplines such as prayer, worship, communion, confession, submission and obedience to authority, studying the Bible and fellowshipping with the saints.   

No one can really give another person freedom.  A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him (Ezra Pound).   Even Christ can only offer us our liberation.  The Lord makes it possible; He works righteousness and justice.  It is up to us, though, to decide we are going to accept and live in the freedom He is creating for us.