This is not specifically listed as a name of God, but when we look at Psalm 9.9 & Psalm 10.18, it certainly cannot be discounted as a characteristic of God, showing what is important to Him.
He executes judgement for the oppressed.
As Amos 5.24 shows, what God wants is justice and righteousness.
‘Let justice roll down like rivers and righteousness like a mighty stream.’
God is our help, our hope and our victory.
The God of Jacob is our helper.
What can be our expectation from God?
We can expect that He will fulfil His promises.
The suffering servant (Isaiah 53) brings healing, freedom and transformation.
He produces rehabilitated people who set others free.
We are authorized by Jesus, to undo locks and release prisoners in His name.
If you have the keys to the handcuffs, you can bring freedom to others from the brokenness that sin has caused.
Those with empowered lives rebuild the desolate places, we are those people.
The army of the oppressed, now redeemed, stand up, empowered to rebuild the waste places.
“Let the weak say I am strong.”
This describes our human condition and restoration is open to all, Gentile and Jew.
We should be glad to see lives changed, not jealous, but thankful for the freedom given to us and not judgmental.
Let us rejoice when brothers and sisters come into the fold.
He brings liberty to the weak.
How do We Respond to Oppression
Personally, I always seem to respond with an anger when I see people being oppressed and treated badly, maybe it’s because I was bullied at school.
There have been a couple of times in my life where I have seen people being treated unfairly and I have challenged the person doing the bullying or tearing down and stood up for the person.
In my own personality, I naturally shy away from conflict, but sometimes mistreatment needs to be challenged.
Jesus took on the wrath of God and received judgement for us, so that we could be set free.
The Jesus Manifesto
In Luke.4.18-19 Jesus reads from Isaiah 61.1-2;
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to:
Preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted;
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’s favour.
He closed the book and said: Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
Jesus stopped reading at the wrath of God, because He came to take it for us.
It was for freedom that Christ has set us free, no longer to be subject to a yoke of slavery.
Some of you may recognize a song we used to sing with just that line!
“Jesus, we celebrate your victory, Jesus, we revel in your love, Jesus, we rejoice you’ve set us free,
Jesus, your death has brought us life!
It was for freedom that Christ has set us free, no longer to be subject to a yoke of slavery.
It was for freedom that Christ has set us free, no longer to be subject to a yoke of slavery,
So, we’re rejoicing in God’s victory, our hearts responding to His love.
His Spirit in us, releases us from fear, the way to Him is open,
In boldness we draw near and in His presence our problems disappear,
Our hearts responding to His love!”
Liberty for the captives, liberty to the oppressed and now, He leads us in victory!
We celebrate Jesus’s victory! Praise the Lord!
In the words of my Dad, who used to teach this as the “Jesus Manifesto” to his RE students, “What do we need setting free from and how can we how can we help others to be set free?”
“Is it from drugs, debt, depression, oppression, poverty or sickness?”
He came not to execute judgement, but to carry our judgement so we can be free.
God works outside our expectations of Him and works in the people who are discounted and dismissed, undervalued by society, let that not be us!
We are to be as Jesus was in the world, delivering His message and His works, empowered and equipped by His Holy Spirit!
His kingdom come on earth!
Those who reject Messiah’s redemption choose to invite fear, abiding sorrow and torment.
In judgement we are evaluated by God’s standards, false perspectives will perish and fade away, but the word of the Lord abides forever.
The gospel is help to those who know their own weakness, their need of God’s saving grace.
Jesus has the only medicine, the only cure for a wounded conscience, wounded by sin, it’s own, or that of others.
That is why He is the Sin Bearer, the Sin Cleanser and the Burden Lifter, in Him our chains are gone and we’ve been set free!