Salvation in Ancient Times (and today)

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. Isaiah 61:1-2

One of the main hopes that Isaiah gives us is freedom from this oppression.  Over time, when oppression became such a permanent part of the landscape, church officials spiritualized the hope of Advent, the hope of the Bible, so people wouldn’t despair of the lack of progress.  So we would hope for a “salvation” which is usually intended to be a non-physical manifestation of freedom. But that is never the case in the Bible. Freedom specifically had to do with a physical, social release from being in that place where we would be punished for not succeeding according to our societal standards.

It is helpful, sometimes, to look in the ancient world and see what oppression meant to them, and see how it is different today.

For instance, in the ancient world, a person wasn’t put into prison for a crime.  The majority of the time, they were placed into prison for debts. If they owed a lot of money, first they would take possessions, like articles of clothing, and hold them until they were paid.  If they still didn’t pay, they would get security guards and place them into jail until their family and friends bailed them out with the full amount of money that was owed. Either that, or the debtor and his family would be sold into slavery to regain some of the debt owed.

Slavery was also a form of oppression.  Slavery was rarely for life in the ancient world.  It was forced labor with little or no pay for room and board.  But slaves in the ancient world could often work for others who were not their masters, so they could earn money to pay for their release.  In Roman society, an average period of time of slavery was six years. In Hebrew society, all debt slaves had to be released every seventh year, so the maximum a person would be enslaved would be six years, according to the law.  But it is still an oppression, a period of time in which one may not work for themselves and they might very well lose their families in this process.

Another form of oppression in the ancient world is not having land.  Every family is supposed to have their own land, their own place to make their living and their home.  If a family is forced to sell their land, or lose their land because someone steals it, the government is supposed to step in, according to the law, and restore that land back to the family every 50th year.  They had a timeline in which the oppression would end.

And, of course, there is illness, disease, disability and mental illness.  These were seen as forms of oppression, a spiritual oppression, forced on people by evil spirits. And we can clearly see how that would limit someone.  If someone cannot see the basket or has no arms to throw, how can they make the basket, meet the social obligation? If they are raving or enraged all the time, how can they meet their own needs or the needs of others?

Advent is about the freedom from oppression.  Frankly, the whole bible is about freedom from oppression.  That is what “salvation” or “deliverance” means— not a spiritual release, but a release from various oppressions that come upon people.  When we spiritualized oppression, when we say it is only about “sin”, then we are blaming people for things that they had no control over, we are then oppressors.  When we keep people in situations where they cannot meet their own needs, or take their resources that they use to meet their own needs, then we are oppressors.

What does freedom from oppression look like? Not a promise that our sins are forgiven.

It looks like release from illness, by having decent healthcare.
It looks like fair wages for one’s work, that one can live on.
It looks like freedom from debt.
It looks like land that one can live on.

The hope of the ancients looked like this. Nothing has changed.

The Four Spiritual Laws of Moses

Let’s talk about the four spiritual laws.

Not Bill Bright’s four spiritual laws.  He’s one of those people who are guilty of spiritualizing real issues people deal with every day.  No, I’m going to talk about Moses’ four spiritual laws. These spiritual laws are what forms the backbone of most of the Bible, including the teaching of Jesus.  So let’s get to them and you’ll see how they apply to what we have been talking about.

1. 1. God has a plan for your community to live in justice and peace— First of all, Moses isn’t talking about individuals, but peoples.  Perhaps an ethnicity, perhaps a community with a variety of ethnicities, but a people who sees them. And God’s plan isn’t to make us individually happy, but for us, as a community, to live in justice and peace with each other.
2. 2. Oppression separates us from justice and peace.— Not our individual sin, but people who have power, who use that power to keep us from meeting our own needs.  Oppressors could be governments, or wealthy people, or religious people, or families or many other people or groups with power. Groups of human beings have great power, no matter how that group is collected.  And if a powerful person or a group of people move the basket, or blame people for being unable to meet the standards they themselves create, then they are oppressors. For instance, to take a privilege, like having certain colored skin or being able to pay for electricity or running water, and establishing that as a standard to live or to have children, and they will take your right to have children or to live because of that standard, then that is oppression.
3. 3. We separate ourselves from oppression by crying out to God for deliverance, an act of grace.— The third spiritual law has to do with crying out to the highest judge.  The God of the Hebrews is the god of slaves, the god of the poor, the god of the oppressed. Not the god of one ethnicity, nor the god of one religion, but the god of the poor.  And God’s job is deliverance from oppression. God created the world and gave it to humans to rule. But if one group of humans force a second group to live and work for the benefit of the first because of their power, then God, as judge of the world steps in and brings salvation, deliverance, freedom from oppression.  God asks only that we cry out and ask, even demand, that deliverance. Because God will not step in to take over the sovereignty that God established us from the beginning. God delivers by request only.
4. 4. God requires that in receiving deliverance and grace, we also generously give it.  So God steps in and delivers the poor, the enslaved, the oppressed. God grants them freedom from their oppressors and grants them resources to live, to survive.  Some would say that this is unconditional, but Moses didn’t and neither did Jesus. There is one standard— that we are to live according to the deliverance we have received.  If we have obtained freedom from debt, we are to give freedom from debt. If we were immigrants in other people’s lands, we are to give place to immigrants. If we have had education granted to us for free, we are to give education for free.  If we have been healed, we are to heal others. Whatever we have received, we are to give. That is the payment. We will talk about this more another time.

For now, we need to see our place in Advent.  Advent is about the hope of release from deliverance.  It is a time of prayer, when we will cry out to God for deliverance.  It is a time of longing for peace and justice.

If we have what we need, if we can make the basket, then we need to be praying and working for others who are oppressed.  Because we live in a world of oppression. We live in a world where powerful people regularly take advantage of those without power and discard them when they are done.   And Jesus promised us all deliverance from those powers, and he only asks that we participate is people’s release from debt, slavery, landlessness and sickness. Here's a video of the teaching . (below the video is Moses' scriptures on the subject)

1. God has a plan of peace and justice for your community.
Exodus 3:7-8
Yahweh then said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying for help on account of their taskmasters. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings. And I have come down to rescue them from the clutches of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that country, to a country rich and broad, to a country flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8

Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of all peoples—for indeed you were the smallest of all— but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was why Yahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

2. Oppression keeps us from peace and justice.

Exodus 1:13-14
The Egyptians gave them no mercy in the demands they made, making their lives miserable with hard labour

Exodus 5:5-6, 9
And Pharaoh said, ‘Now that the people have grown to such numbers in the country, what do you mean by interrupting their forced labour?’  That very day, Pharaoh gave the order, ‘Give these people more work to do, and see they do it instead of listening to lying speeches.’ 

3. We cry out to God for deliverance and God will deliver.
Exodus 2:23-25

The Israelites, groaning in their slavery, cried out for help and from the depths of their slavery their cry came up to God.  God heard their groaning; God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  God saw the Israelites and took note. 

Exodus 14:13-14

Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid! Stand firm, and you will see what Yahweh will do to rescue you today: the Egyptians you see today you will never see again. Yahweh will do the fighting for you; all you need to do is to keep calm.’ 

4. We offer freedom as we were granted freedom

Exodus 22:20-23
‘You will not molest or oppress aliens, for you yourselves were once aliens in Egypt.  You will not ill-treat widows or orphans; if you ill-treat them in any way and they make an appeal to me for help, I shall certainly hear their appeal, my anger will be roused and I shall put you to the sword; then your own wives will be widows and your own children orphans. 

Deuteronomy 15:12-15
If any of your people sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free. And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.

Deuteronomy 16:10-12
Celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

Deuteronomy 10:18-19

He it is who sees justice done for the orphan and the widow, who loves the stranger and gives him food and clothing. Love the stranger then, for you were once strangers in Egypt.

The Death of MarShawn McCarrel

This Monday, MarShawn McCarrel died.

It was no accident.  It was a suicide by gun.  He knew he was going to do it.  He regretted his action, but he could do nothing to stop it.  His suicide note on social media read, “My demons won today.  I’m sorry.”

His suicide was a political action.  He was a Black Lives Matter activist. He participated in many protests at the Columbus Statehouse in Ohio.  He rapped, shouting his poetry about oppression and freedom to those who would listen.  After his compulsion drove him to commit suicide, he decided to perform this act at the Statehouse.   No one saw him shoot himself.  He was found that night.

His suicide was a result of oppression.  Maybe oppression he experienced himself.  Maybe the oppression that his brothers and sisters experience every day.  Certainly his action is a result of mental illness.  His suicide isn’t the best response to oppression.  His note admits this.  That it was a result of compulsion, not the best choice he could make.   So he apologizes.

But sometimes, sometimes death feels like the best response to oppression. To obtain rest.  To no longer have to watch the ones you love suffer anymore.  To no longer be harassed.  Sometimes death feels like an answer. 

Death felt like an answer to Elijah.

His people, the worshipers of Yahweh, were being oppressed and their people were illegal.  Elijah was chased around the country again and again with a death threat on him.  But he remained faithful and spoke and created opportunities for the government to end the oppression.  All to no avail.

Finally, he cried out to the Lord, “Kill me!  I’m done!  Haven’t I done everything you wanted me to?  Haven’t I suffered enough?  Kill me now.”

He experienced a hurricane.  But the Lord wasn’t in the hurricane.
Then he experienced an earthquake.  But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake.
Then a fire raged before him.  But the Lord wasn’t in the fire.

Then a small, quiet wind whispered to him , “Elijah, why are you here?  What do you want?”

Elijah repeated his complaint.

And the Lord said, “Just do three more tasks for me.  They are big, but once you have finished these, then I’ll take you.”

After Elijah finished those three actions, the Lord didn’t have him go by a shameful suicide.  Rather, the Lord sent a heavenly vehicle to pick Elijah up and take him away.

When we face oppression every day, either through our own experience or through the experience of others, it takes a toll.  Eventually, we cannot endure life anymore.  We want out.  Maybe we contemplate suicide.  Maybe we just wish we could have a stroke or go into a coma.  We just want the world to go away, for the suffering to end.

There is an out.

Perhaps it will be a world-wide out.  That’s what we all hope for.  For oppression to end and peace and justice to reign.  But that seems so far from our experience, it’s tough to hope for.  But God promises us exactly that.  In his time.  By his power.

Perhaps it will be a personal out.  Maybe there are more chariots of fire reserved for those who suffer and work every day to bring justice.  Maybe there will be a rash of them, delivering many to rest.  Or maybe God will provide a respite, a retreat, a deliverance from the experience, even for a time.

But until then, we still have work to do.  It would be great if God gave us just three more tasks, something clear, numbered and once we are done, we are done.   But as long as we live, we must still work to change the world.  We must keep saving lives.  We must keep shouting. 

So that when we do achieve our rest, we know that we will have done all we could. 

This post is part of the MennoNerds February Synchroblog: Perspectives on Black Lives Matter. Please visit the synchroblog page for links to more insightful posts on this topic.