The Freedom War - 04/08/10
By Karina Brabham
‘FREEDOM!’ was the war cry of William Wallace, at least according to Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. The rebel leader fought against the oppression of the English to bring liberty to Scotland. The Macquarie Dictionary defines freedom as “exemption from external control, interference, regulation”. Our society celebrates the idea of freedom – we support ‘heroes’ such as Robin Hood, Ned Kelly and William Wallace, sympathising with their fight against despotic authorities in the many dramatisations of their lives.
Through history there are many who have fought for their freedom, and many who still do today. In a lot of ways there is a continual cycle of oppression and freedom. In Russia people fought to be free from the tyranny of the nobles and their King. Yet the revolution to bring freedom also led to Communist rule, where, particularly under Stalin, civil liberty was found to be scarce. There is always some force imposing itself over others. It is not always so violent. Feminism names the social expectation on women to conform to ideals of wife and mother, remaining in the domestic sphere in submission to the male, as a form of oppression.
We believe freedom is our right to choose – the clothes we wear, the way we spend our money, the places we go and who we vote for in the government elections. If we’re truly free we can be happy, we can be ourselves, right?
Psalm 107 talks about freedom. It describes human oppression and how it is broken. There are those who “sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains” (v10). But they cried out to God and He delivered them; “He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke their chains” (v14). God is a rescuing God, who brought freedom to these people.
But what did they need rescuing from? Their enemies, natural disaster, death – these are all immediate dangers the people must be delivered from by God. Yet in reading this Psalm the biggest problem turns out to be themselves. Those in chains are there because “they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the plans of the Most High” (v11), they “became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities” (v17).
The reason for the people of Psalm 107’s oppression is themselves, or rather they oppress themselves through their sin. In their selfish actions they do not obey God’s commands, and all that leads to is “oppression, calamity and sorrow” (v39). They need to be freed from themselves. And the same is true for all of us. The terror, injustice and oppression we all seek to be free of can all be traced back to sin – the selfishness of each of us humans wanting our way to happen.
We can declare war on the outside world and fight till we die, but we can never defeat sin. We’re stuck in that cycle of oppression and no real, lasting freedom can ever be reached – especially when we can’t even be free of ourselves. That’s one issue with the dictionary definition of freedom – it believes that it is only external forces which must be removed for freedom. This is the mistake of most of the world. But as God has revealed to us “everyone who sins is a slave to sin” John 8:34.
Our worldly concept of freedom no longer seems so free. And like those in Psalm 107 the only one to turn to for help is God. It is He who frees us from sin through Jesus Christ.
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” Romans 6:6-7
This freedom does come with an expectation – the expectation that has always been there – that we would obey our Creator and seek to love and serve Him in every aspect of our lives. Only when we align ourselves with God do we receive this freedom.
Choosing God also ultimately leads to freedom from death. Eternal life awaits us in a kingdom where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Rev 21:4). This vision of heaven is free from violence, injustice and hatred – all of which we seek to remove from our world in our quest for freedom. And even more amazingly it is a kingdom that cannot be corrupted, that will never feel the shadow of a future where all may be lost.
Karina Brabham is 3rd year Creative Writing. She likes the smell of books and the earth after it has rained.
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