Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“ They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him. Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The merchants brought Joseph into Egypt.“
(Genesis 37:25-28)

“Jesus departed from there and came near to the sea of Galilee; and he went up on the mountain and sat there. Great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them, so that the multitude wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the injured healed, the lame walking, and the blind seeing—and they glorified the God of Israel.”
(Matthew 15:29-31)

God loves us. He hates to see us oppressed. He makes solutions for our situations before we even KNOW we have a situation. Joseph’s brothers had murder in their hearts. Joseph’s calling required him to live. God started up a caravan before Joseph needed it, just so that it was there at the right time. Joseph was sold to Ishmaelites (descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s son) and delivered to Egypt by Midianites (the people who would succour and train up Moses so the Israelites could be freed from Egypt). God’s hand was all over this situation.

In the same way, there was oppression in Jesus’ day. It was the same oppression that WE suffer under. People who can’t walk. People who can’t see. People who are crippled (broken). People who can’t find their voice. Some of them are physical, some relational, some emotional, and some mental. What did Jesus do? He delivered them from their oppression. Jesus ALWAYS delivered EVERYONE who came and asked for it – even a Gentile woman when He was sent only to the Israelites (Gentiles weren’t meant to come into the family until after Jesus’ resurrection when His covenant was ratified in His blood). If we will come to Him, He will deliver us from our oppression – and we’ll often find the solution was on the way before we realised we were being oppressed.

Summary

God’s mission is to free us from oppression. The oppression of Sin. The oppression of disobedience. The oppression of death. These are the enemies of God. This is what His wrath has always been toward. But Jesus came to pay the price of Sin, free us from the consequence of death, and give us a way to be obedient. In this way He lifted from us the wrath of God which is only ever on Sin (John 3:16-18). Whatever plagues us. Whatever thing that grew from the curse. We can be free of it. We can be free from oppression if we will go to Jesus. He holds the assignment of ridding us from oppression – if we will humbly submit to Him and receive our salvation. Not only entrance into the Kingdom, but the FULL salvation of wholeness in every way. He IS our freedom.