what is freedom?

It seems like everyone has a different idea of what freedom is to them.  Freedom to a teenager is getting out of school and their parents’ house.  Freedom to a convicted felon is getting out of prison, to a drunk it is getting sober.  I have watched disease ridden people slowly suffer and die and when they die people nearby say: Well, no more suffering!  I have visited cemeteries and on many headstones you see the letters RIP, Rest In Peace.  If they are indeed resting in peace then they are truly free, but RIP doesn’t apply to everyone.
 
Judges 2:16 The Lord raised up judges, which delivered Israel out of the hand of those who led them into captivity.
 
In the Old Testament God raised up fifteen judges that fought and led Israel out of bondage.  But they never got totally free because in a little while the Lord had to raise up another judge and another judge to get them free again and again.  When a man is totally free, the thing that put him in bondage can no longer take him.  Israel needed a judge that could get to the root of their problem and get them free once and forever.
 
Luke 4:18 I am anointed to preach the Gospel to those who lack and to preach deliverance to the captives.
 
The Apostle Paul referred to Jesus as the righteous Judge, I believe Jesus would be the last Judge of Israel.  The Old Testament judges set the captives free and now Jesus would come to set us free once and forever.  In the old covenant the priest offered the blood of bulls and goats every year, this was a type of the Blood of God’s Lamb.  Now the last sacrifice was about to be offered and the last Judge would lead the captives free.  The freedom Jesus would purchase for us was spiritual freedom, so true freedom is in the heart.  The priests arrested Jesus and His disciples and put them in prison, but they were never in bondage.  You can arrest a man and put him in jail but you cannot take away his conviction.
 
Mark 6:5 Jesus could do no mighty works there, He laid His hands upon a few sick folks and healed them.  And He went about their villages teaching.
 
         Jesus was anointed for miracles but the people were so bound up in their flesh that He could not do what the Father sent Him to do.  Their deliverance was contingent on hearing the Word or will of the Father.  They would not hear Jesus, they treated Him like just another “Rabbi”, another preacher that enforced the law.  The people were in captivity to their pastors, they were taught all the things they shouldn’t do, Jesus went about teaching the anointed, uncompromised Word of God.  When the people heard Him, they said they had never heard anything like this before, despite having the words of the prophets.   
 
Mathew 7:29 For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
 
Jesus came to set the captives free forever, the scribes were all about keeping people in bondage.

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