#4 - YESHUA HAS SET US FREE
Leviticus 25:10 - "... proclaim LIBERTY throughout the land"
- 7 minute read -
If you visit "Center City" (downtown) Philadelphia, don't miss the opportunity to see the Liberty Bell.
Most people think it is called that because they were told it sounded out when our 13 colonies declared liberty from England. The truth is it was first called the "Liberty" bell when anti-slavery movements began to adopt its image and message in the early 1830s.
It is inscribed with the worlds of Leviticus 25 - "proclaim LIBERTY throughout the land."
Seemingly mocked, in the 1800s it sat in a nearby room while court cases were being heard under the Fugitive Slave Act, forcing citizens of The North to cooperate with returning escaped slaves to their "owners" in The South.
While it is unclear why the leaders of the colony of Pennsylvania in the 1750s requested the Leviticus text be inscribed on the bell, there is no doubt about what Jehovah desired concerning liberty.
Yehovah wanted it known that people are to be set free, be given liberty!
But liberty from what?
DEBT !!!
Every 50th year, according to Jehovah's instrucitons in The Torah, all debt-holders had to forgive debt and set the debtors free from their obligation.
If you had been wise financially and were using debt skillfully in business to help grow your finances? Your debt was forgiven!
If you had been a fool and had stupidly gotten yourself into debt you could not pay? Your debt was forgiven.
If someone had done wrong to you and forced you into a bad position where you had to take on debt. You, also, were rescued from that weight. Your debt was forgiven!
ALL debt was forgiven in the 50th year of "jubilee."
A loving God wanted this Good News sounded far and wide, thus His instruction to "proclaim Liberty throughout the land. - Leviticus 25:10"
It hardly seems fair that "no-matter-what" - debtors, by Jehovah's instruction - were to be set free.
On the human plane of existence, it doesn't make sense.
But once you add to the picture the reality that Jehovah is Creator and "the earth is Jehovah's and the fulness thereof - Psalm 24:1" and realize what we each hold in our hand is not ours but HIS - then it makes perfect sense that Jehovah's stuff is governed by Jehovah's rules.
When we mess up HIS "stuff" (our lives, other's lives and other parts of HIS Creation) by rebelling against His instructions - it is RIGHT for Him to "lay down the Law" - what HE says should be done in such a situation.
And what does He say?
"The Soul that sins shall surely die.
- Ezekiel 18:4
"The wages of sin is death."
- Romans 6:23
What a marvelous gift - Yeshua paid the price that should have been exacted from us - "For who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, taking the punishment that was due to my people? - Isaiah 53:8"
So, for those that ask Yehovah to do it - He will accept Yeshua's life as payment for the life we ourselves should forfeit for our failures before Him.
IF YEHOVAH SAYS HE IS WILLING TO TAKE (AT FIRST) INNOCENT ANIMALS AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO SIN - AND THEN ULTIMATLEY IS WILLING TO COUNT YESHUA'S DEATH AS PAYMENT OF OUR DEBT ... IF JEHOVAH HAS DECLARED THAT OUR DEBT IS SETTLED ... THEN WE ARE FREE FROM THE DEBT WE OWNED - THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO PAY!!!
HEAR ME ... FEELING "EXTRA BAD" ABOUT WHAT WE HAVE DONE CAN NOT HELP PAY OUR DEBT.
STAYING IN A STATE OF REMORSE CAN NOT HELP PAY OUR DEBT.
SAYING TO OURSELVES, "YES, I KNOW FATHER HAS FORGIVEN ME, BUT I SHOULDN'T EXPECT HIM TO LIKE ME, I SHOULDN'T EXPECT HIM TO WANT TO BE TOO CLOSE TO ME OR WANT TO ARRANGE TOO MUCH GOOD FOR ME" - THIS, TOO, CAN NOT HELP PAY OUR DEBT.
"HE WHO THE SON SETS FREE IS FREE INDEED!!! - JOHN 8:36"
"THOUGH YOUR SIN STAINS BE LIKE SCARLET, I WILL MAKE YOU WHITE AS SNOW. - ISAIAH 1:18"
"HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS AND CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS! - I JOHN 1:9"
YOU AND I - ONCE WE CONFESS OUR SIN AND RECEIVE HIS FORGIVENESS - NOT ONLY ARE WE ALLOWED TO WALK AROUND WITHOUT FEELING GUILTY - IF WE CONTINUE TO BE WEIGHED DOWN BY GUILT WE ARE SAYING THAT YESHUA DID NOT PAY THE WHOLE PRICE FOR OUR SINS AND WE ARE IN A STATE OF SAYING WE NEED TO HELP YESHUA PAY FOR OUR SINS.
Beloved, to hang on to our guilt is to diminish Yeshua and what He alone could do for us ... and it means we are trying to raise ourselves up to a position we, as the sinners, can NOT hold - for we are attempting to say we want to add our part to the price that was paid by Yeshua.
We can NOT help save ourselves, we can only believe and receive His grace - and this we can't even do of ourselves - it is a gift from God so that none of us can boast (Ephesians 2:8,9).
PRAY - "Yeshua, at times the voice of the enemy has wormed its way into my ears and heart. Although I've confessed my sin and asked that Your blood cleanse me, I find guilt remains present in me. And shame also, I find, keeps wrapping me like a blanket. I want to walk in the freedom You purchased for me with Your Blood and secured for me by Your Resurrection! It seems outrageous that I no longer have to bear ANY guilt or shame, but it is YOU - THE ONE WHO PAID THE PRICE - who has declared my FREEDOM! Help me believe you - I want to receive the faith and grace that Your Word says you want to give to me as a gift. Help me respond the way YOU want me to respond to those voices - the voice of my own heart, the voice of the enemy, or even those voices in The Church that try to say, "You can't be THAT free." Holy Spirit - please move in my life in a way where people can literally see what it looks like when a life is walked out in the freedom from sin and guilt and shame Yeshua secured for me and gave to me in great love. Amen"
SONG - No Longer Slaves
One of the most powerful songs brought forth in the recent wave of deeper, anointed worship music is this one. Keep playing this song over and over until your heart rejoices in being bound to the Master-Who-Sets-Free. May you sense and live and move and have your being "surrounded by [His] songs of deliverance."
CLICK SONG TITLE ABOVE FOR ANOINTED VERSION OF THIS SONG.
You unravel me with a melody
You surround me with a song
Of deliverance from my enemies
'Til all my fears are gone
I'm no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
I'm no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
From my mother's womb
You have chosen me
Love has called my name
I've been born again to Your family
Your blood removes my shame.
I'm no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
I am surrounded
By the arms of the Father
I am surrounded
By songs of deliverance
We've been liberated
From our bondage
We're the sons and the daughters
Let us sing our freedom
You split the sea
So I could walk right through it
My fears are drowned in perfect love
You rescued me
And I will stand and sing
I am a child of God
Yes, I am
I am a child of God
I'm no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God