Morning Moments

Oppression is:

The unfair or cruel treatment of individuals or nations, which prevents them from having the same opportunities, freedom and rights as others.

^{Exodus 3:7} And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 

Nothing gets by God!  Sometimes we wonder where God is when His people are mistreated, but we must never fail to realize that He is where He has always been, ON HIS THRONE, in complete control and fully aware of what is going on.

Oppression can come from the world, the flesh, or the devil!  It can come from friend or foe!  It can be found with a spouse, a parent, a sibling, as well as a government.  It can be physical, psychological, vocational, domestic, political, or an hundred other ways.  It can be see in manipulation, mind control, or restraint of one kind or another.

BUT GOD KNOWS and can and will deliver us from it.  Sometimes it can be stopped by a simple "NO!"  Sometimes it takes a revolution of some kind, but the fact is that GOD can do it, has done it, and will do it...BY TRUTH and IN TIME, but it must always be done His way and in His time and according to His Word.

In our text, God raised up a leader that He had been grooming for 40 years.  Now that's a long time!  We tend to want "freedom, rights, and equal opportunities immediately.  We pray today and expect the oppression to be over today, but God may have a lesson for us.

Several years ago during a prison ministry, I said to some of the prisoners, "This is the only place you should ever be."  That certainly may sound strange, but some people have no idea how to appreciate freedom.  Some never learn to respect the "rights" of others or to manage their own.  Some cannot handle "equal opportunities" yet they demand what they cannot handle.

In short, let me say that although God would have us all free, some of us keep ourselves in bondage and oppression all our lives - to the past, to peer pressure, to political parties, or to someone else, when the TRUTH is that "Whom the Son shall set FREE, he is free indeed!"

It is God who opens the door to OPPORTUNITY, FREEDOM, and RIGHTS, which become Privileges when yielded to Him.  No one can keep you oppressed - the world, the flesh, or the devil, UNLESS you allow it once JESUS frees you.  BE FREE!