The Disaster of Freedom

Wouldn't it nice to be really free? No one telling you what to do or where to go. Being free to express yourself and to follow your dreams unhindered. The opportunity to pursue study and educational prowess without boundaries or restrictions? There was a time when this was true for God's people. After generations of forced labor and captivity in Egypt they have been set free. God has brought them out of the land of bondage and into the land of promise. A land flowing with milk and honey and freedom. The Lord God Almighty has given them victory after victory and they now possess the land promised to their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel's twelve sons have become twelve tribes composing a nation of millions. They are a force to be reckoned with, lead by a God Who is above all gods. What more could you want? What better time could one want to live in?

Israel was free to make their own decisions. No taskmaster looking over their shoulders, no sound of a cracking whip to keep them in line. They now were their own people, their own nation. In addition the Mighty and Benevolent God who delivered them had given them clear instructions and directions as how to best live. Instructions on relationships, worship and how to live together in harmony. A moral standard to give reasonable boundaries in the midst of the freedom they now enjoyed. A moral standard that came from God Himself. With this came an opportunity to choose. No lightning bolts from heaven if you crossed the line into disobedience. The instructions from the Lord God gave measured consequences when that line was crossed. The priests and Levites held the responsibility to teach and instruct God's people so these things would be so. No all powerful king to hamper your freedom or confiscate what you earned and developed. No monarch to compel your sons into service or take your daughters for their harem. You simply had the obligation to come to your brothers defense should an enemy encroach. Life was good. Every man could rest under his fig tree and grapevine. We read of this Israelite utopia in the Book of Judges.

However, if you are familiar with the account found there, it is not a pretty picture. It is a record of the disaster of freedom. For the people of God determined that the instructions and directions from the Lord were too confining and limited their investigation and participation with the people and cultures they were to remove. If they adopted the worship of other gods it would make them culturally relevant and make trade agreements and their pursuit of wealth and acceptance far easier. Marriage unions with the nations would help keep peace and cooperation with their neighbors. God couldn't be that narrow minded and judgemental when compromise was so beneficial and enhanced their quest for freedom and free expression. Life could still be good even if they modified the rules and directions just a little. It was logical and reasonable to give a little for the sake of tolerance and peace.

Standards should be flexible. As society evolved it should be acceptable to let those archaic restrictions be placed in a museum so we know where we came from on our journey to enlightenment. No one could really be expected to walk in obedience to all those rules. Freedom demanded that they be seen as more like guidelines than actual instructions. "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). No one putting restrictions on anyone else. We can all just happily coexist. No absolutes and the freedom to pick and choose what is true and what is not. By the end of the Book of Judges it is no longer safe to sleep in the city square. You needed to be inside a locked door to feel secure and even then danger is just outside. Rape and murder is the new freedom. Justice is not to be found. Violent retaliation almost exterminates an entire tribe. The communities are not safe and people are afraid.

The answer is not a return to the directions and instructions the Lord God gave them. No, the answer is to demand a strong centralized government to rule over all twelve tribes. A government free to take their land, their sons, their daughters, and to impose taxes upon them. A new nation where freedom is now carefully distributed by the government. In time the worship of the very God Who gave them this land and freedom will become dismissed and eventually illegal. Child sacrifice and human trafficking is just a part of the business and accepted norm of culture. Marriage is optional and divorce rampant. It is only a matter of time before the once great and promising nation is overrun by their enemies and freedom is fully lost in the service of a series new tyrants. 

The danger we face in freedom is our failure to learn from those who abused the privilege before us. Freedom with a disregard for the God who actually grants it is a road to destruction. Soon you will find yourself where unborn babies are sacrificed out of convenience. Determining to practice ones faith in accord with the instructions and directions the Lord God gave could be seen as intolerance and your freedoms removed. Your beliefs could become labeled "hate" speech and you will no longer be able to proclaim what you understand to be true. God's standards might be considered abrasive and abusive or too religious so they would no longer be able to be taught in the government controlled school systems and universities. It will be understood that everyone has the freedom to do what is right in their own eyes. Communities could become unsafe and people would live behind locked doors, afraid to walk the streets at night. But not to worry, the government will have armed police to keep the peace. Unless those doing what is right in their own eyes disregard the authority of the officers and pelt them with rocks or simply shoot them. It has happened before.

However, I am sure we, being intelligent students of history, would see the danger of freedom without God as the road to destruction and turn back to him. Understanding that doing what is right in God's eyes actually has far greater freedom that doing what is right in our own. Wouldn't we?