Waters of Liberation

Here’s an excerpt from chapter 3 of my manuscript Spirit on the Water, this time focusing on the Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea.

Some years ago conservative radio talkshow host warned his listeners to be suspicious of churches that promote social justice. “I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church website,” he said. “If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words.”

Code words for what exactly? Some supposed unhealthy, godless form of liberalism, of course. In our current moment, many Christians are being told to fear and guard themselves against becoming “woke” to certain social problems crying out for attention. Regardless where we land on the various social and political issues of our day, the Bible is abundantly clear about one thing: the God of the Bible is a God of justice (in every sphere) and a God who stands on the side of the oppressed.

The Exodus is the most identity forming and central act of God in the Old Testament. The memory of it has been kept alive for nearly 3,500 years with the celebration of Passover. Jesus would strategically choose Passover as the occasion for his great redemptive act, reinterpreting its symbols and claiming that his ministry, death and resurrection was the means of a New Exodus, another kind of deliverance.

Ask the Israelite of Jesus’ day what stirs up God’s passion and pushes him to intervene in human affairs, and they may point to the the Hebrew term ze’aqah, which roughly translates as the unique cry of the unjustly oppressed. When we explore this concept in Scripture, we begin to unveil a crucial truth about who God is, and how we are to respond.

Ze’aqah appears frequently throughout the Old Testament. One of its earliest usages occurs in the aftermath of the first murder: when Cain stands accused before God after killing Abel, the LORD says, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Later in the same book, God hears the outcry from those in Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20), who the prophet Ezekiel later identifies as the neglected poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:49). The psalmist turns to ze’aqah to articulate his cry of injustice against the wrongdoer, adding that “the LORD is near to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18). And, of course, God hears the cry for help from the enslaved Israelites in Egypt (Exodus 2:23). But the theme is much deeper than one word.

If it can ever be said that God takes sides, he’s on the side of the oppressed and downtrodden, standing with the marginalized and poor. For instance: “The Lord lifts up the oppressed, but knocks the wicked to the ground” (Ps 147:6 NET). “Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor” (Zech 7:10). “He will defend the oppressed among the people; he will deliver the children of the poor and crush the oppressor” (Ps 72:4). Isaiah 10 certainly seems to be meddling in social issues, warning oppressors, and decrying systemic injustice when he says:

Woe to those who enact unjust policies and to those who are always instituting unfair regulations, to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans. What will you do on judgment day” (Isaiah 10:1-3)?

The Psalmist, if he had a website or blog, would certainly be guilty of promoting “social justice” when he declares:

How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob…
Who executes justice for the oppressed;
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises up those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous and justice seeking;
The Lord protects the undocumented foreigner;
He supports the fatherless and the widow,
But He thwarts the way of the wicked.” (Ps 146:7-9)

Jesus’ Ministry to the Oppressed

When Jesus arrives on the scene, his entire life and ministry is rooted in this world of the Old Testament prophets and Psalms. While our mothers sang “Jesus Loves Me” and “This Little Light of Mine” over us as infants, mother Mary sang a song of social revolution while she bounced baby Jesus her knees. We call it the Magnificat and its more than a sentimental Christmas song:

My soul glorifies the Lord…
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant…
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm (an echo of God’s outstretched arm of the Exodus?)…
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty (Luke 1:46-53).

Again, if God ever takes sides, he’s on the side of the poor, the hungry, and the humble. The rich, the powerful, and the well-fed, on the other hand, should mindful of his outstretched arm of justice.

Jesus’ public ministry kicks off in Luke’s Gospel with this social-political-spiritual manifesto:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free (Luke 4).

The God of the oppressed who heard the cries of his enslaved people in Egypt and acted for their deliverance, then took on human flesh in Jesus and did it all over again—setting the oppressed free. The God of the Bible and his Son Jesus of Nazareth would seem to be far too “woke” for many Christians today.

And we haven’t even mentioned Jesus’ brother James who preached: “Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor” (Jas 2:5-6). Furthermore, how many churches today would be considered pure by James’ standard when he says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (Jas 1:27 NIV)?

So, let me respond to the talkshow host with my own counter-warning to churchgoers: If you hear a church calling all social justice talk dangerous “woke” liberalism, run out the door as fast as you can. The God of the marginalized and oppressed and His Son Jesus likely do not have a seat at that church’s leadership table.

As we seek to follow Jesus in our politically divided times, we need to be discipled by the Scriptures, not this or that cable news outlet. We should strive to be both as politically conservative as Jesus would have us be, and as woke to the kingdom’s socio-political values as he would dare us to be. Christians need to stand firm on a ‘Make the Church Look Like Jesus Again’ platform, and God-willing be clothed with actions that embody the Red Letters of Jesus over a red baseball cap.

The Exodus is the headwaters of this central biblical theme, so let’s take a look at these waters of liberation and draw some important lessons for following the God of the oppressed today.

For a very insightful interview grappling with the current debate around racial justice see below.