Hebrew
Highlights 66 - FREEDOM
Shalom. This is Yuval
Shomron, coming to you from Jerusalem.
ISA 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the
afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to
captives, And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those
who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness
instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So
they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He
may be glorified.”
Some of democracy’s skeptics
mistakenly see freedom and liberty as an over-rated American idea. As we see from these verses in Isaiah, which
were subsequently quoted by Yeshua when He began His earthly ministry, God
invented independence and autonomy. A
big part of our Lord’s work was proclaiming emancipation to those subjected to
slavery, whether physical or spiritual.
Obviously, some people try to take
advantage of our freedoms to choose, to walk the path we feel is best for us,
and indeed, our right to make mistakes.
Democracy will always have a certain weakness at its roots, as men with
evil motives use their very lack of restrictions for their own sordid gain.
Both The United States and Israel
have become homes for the down-trodden and persecuted peoples of the
nations. In an unusual move for Hebrew
Highlights, I’d like to quote from a source other than the Bible, namely the
plaque on the Statue of Liberty.
"Give me your tired, your
poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp
beside the golden door."
Although these sentences are a
precious welcome to every immigrant family to the U.S., their implementation is
just as relevant in Israel. After WWII,
after the fall of the Soviet Union, after the horrendous famine in Ethiopia,
and on a daily basis, Zion has received the rejected individuals
of this earth and offered them shelter.
I’d like to read an interesting
little side story from the New Testament.
ACT 22:25-29, “And when they stretched him out with thongs, Paul
said to the centurion who was standing by, "Is it lawful for you to
scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?" And when the centurion heard this, he went to
the commander and told him, saying, "What are you about to do? For this
man is a Roman." And the commander
came and said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?" And he said,
"Yes." And the commander
answered, "I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money."
And Paul said, "But I was actually born a citizen. "Therefore those who were about to
examine him immediately let go of him; and the commander also was afraid when
he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had put him in chains.”
Perhaps those of us who were born
free take our freedom, and the rights attached to our citizenship for
granted. In truth, those factions in the
world which would dominate by force, should be afraid of us. Our basic human rights are backed up by God’s
laws and precepts. In Israel’s case, the
very deed to the land itself is written in our covenant with the Almighty. He is our King, He is our Lord protector, He
is our advocate.
Shalom
shalom, from Jerusalem.