The Truth Shall Set You Free

Because I teach in a private school in the Dominican Republic that provides an American education, I enforce a unique rule in class which I have never had to worry about in my 38 years as a public school teacher before I retired. The students are not allowed to speak Spanish in my classroom.

The first period tardy bell rang and I closed my grade book dramatically as a signal that biology was ready to begin. With a goofy grin a student named Isaac said something in Spanish to another student across the aisle. I opened my book again to make a notation as I verbally reminded him of the rule. When he protested, indicating that I must have heard him wrong, I responded, “Then we have a problem to sort out. Please remain after class to talk about it.”

When the class was over and the students were filing out of the room Isaac came to my desk and with a nervous glance asked, “You want to talk with me?”
“I understand that you think I made a mistake,” I replied. “Tell me what happened.”
After listening to a short rendition of an account intended to justify himself I looked him in the eye and asked directly, “Did you speak in Spanish?”

Not far from us was one last student who had not left the room yet, slowly shuffling his papers in a thinly veiled attempt to eavesdrop. When Isaac lowered his eyes and answered my question with, “Well, maybe … just a little,” my little eaves dropper suddenly burst out with, “And the truth shall set you free!” So I told Isaac, “Then you are FREE to go … thank you for the TRUTH.”

This small incident is an example of something that has been on my heart recently in wake of the presidential election results and recent inauguration ceremonies. I found myself asking questions such as: What is the truth? Where do we find it? How important is it on a day to day existence? What role does it play in the life of a contemporary Christian?

All of the staff at Santiago Christian School are professing Christians. In order to teach here they must agree to a statement of faith which is, in my opinion, impeccable. Each must have a personal testimony of faith in Christ and a heart to see the gospel shared in their classrooms. This is all to say that the varied cross section of Christianity which these teachers represent is basically conservative and evangelical … but most of them are young … quite young.

As I rub shoulders with these young teachers I am surprised by certain statements:
- “I voted for Obama because I think he’s cool.”
- “As long as you’re faithful I don’t see the problem with homosexuality.”
- “I am addicted to the ‘Twilight” books.” (A series of books about a girl
who falls in love with a vampire)
- “Have you read ‘The Shack’ yet?”

These snippets of conversations by no means represent the entire faculty or the stance of the school obviously, but it grieves me that there is confusion on the most fundamental issues by some of the best representatives of our Christian youth.

When Nehemiah was sent to be the Tirshatha (governor) of Jerusalem by Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, he found the state of Jewish people to be lacking in a similar manner. They were marrying outside of the faith, allowing a mixed multitude to worship with them, allowing businesses to operate on the Sabbath, charging interest on debts and foreclosing on properties of their brethren, using the house of God to give special privileges to an ungodly, influential foreigner, and not adequately providing for the Levites and the singers who worked in the temple.

All of this was, of course, contrary to the truth that God had clearly spelled out in his written word many years before, and this group of Jews was a godly remnant who were sincere about their faith and the state of Jerusalem. So why weren’t they obeying? The answer to this may be found in the book of Nehemiah as we see his response to a situation which I find remarkably similar to what I am encountering here.

“And my God put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy.(7:5) And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses … which the LORD had commanded to Israel.(8:1) So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.(8:8)

And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth of the day, and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God .. (9:3) (They) cried unto the LORD their God … “Stand up and bless the LORD your God forever and ever and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. But our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to the commandments … but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs … And thou testifiedst against them, that thou mightiest bring them again unto thy law… Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee. Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.”
(9:4-6, 17,26,29,32,33)

Nehemiah and Ezra had knowledge and understanding of what was written in the law. This is why they were grieved at what was going on around them. So they gathered the people together and simply read and explained what God had written. Not only did they see what happened to their own forefathers when the truth was ignored, they saw that this was exactly what they were doing. In the face of the truth they repented. It tells us later that they

“ ... separated themselves from the peoples of the land unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone having knowledge, and having understanding … and entered into an oath to walk in God’s laws.”(10:28,29)

Does my heart burn when I read this ancient account of a people who ignored the truth of God’s word? It should … because, just like them, I believe we are in an unprecedented time in the history of the church where we are departing from the Word of God. We have voted for a man who promised several policies contrary to God’s will because he is “cool”. We are enamored with books that flirt with the occult. We find more pleasure in worldly entertainment than in communing with God; we read books about the Bible more than we read the Bible directly. We have allowed our time in the Word to be so minimal that we seriously entertain ideas we abhorred only a few years ago.

When these people got back into the Word and saw the truth, they made a commitment to confess their sins and to separate FROM the world and UNTO the Word. Should I as a contemporary Christian do anything less? In a time when it seems like many Christians around me diminish the importance of the Bible in their daily lives, this passage convicts me about remaining committed to my time in the Scriptures. We need the truth to set us free.