"Look how you have fallen from the sky, O shining one, son of the dawn (Lucifer: Satan)! You have been cut down to the ground, O conqueror of the nations! You said to yourself, “I will climb up to the sky. Above the stars of El (God). I will set up my throne... I will climb up to the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High!... Is this the one who made the world like a desert, who ruined its cities, and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?” (Isa 14:12-17)
So [Jesus] said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Look, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and on the full force of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you." (Luke 10:18-19)
“Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself
unstained by the world" (James 1:27).
A few months ago I went on a fasting/prayer retreat in the
desert areas in west Texas, and on the last night I read the entire book of
Job. One central issue that stood out to me on this occasion was the issue of innocent suffering and the human situation in a gone-wrong world.
During the trip, I was struck by the small towns in the desert, mostly
impoverished, and the visual impress of evil that was conveyed amidst
desolation. More so I was struck when camping near the border of Mexico. There
was a town just over the border (80 miles away from nearest Mexican town) that
has suffered greatly, economically speaking, in the last decade due to the increase border
security since 9/11 that greatly hindered trade, even though the local officials told us they rarely had any drug problems with
this particular town. On a side note, the National Park where we were staying wanted to help
bring this town electricity but environmental activists fought against it because it
would hurt wildlife. Additionally, I found it striking that a cloud or animal can
pass over the boarder freely and a human being cannot. Anyways, I was struck
by the irony of having grown up in America and having a good education and
opportunities, yet I 'could' have been born in that town. In such a case my story would be
very different. Moreover, how could I tell a person my age who lived in such a town that they could not be successful or used by God because they didn't have the "western credentials" that I grew up believing were necessary to be "somebody" in this world. At this moment I became struck with how many from among the human race have been
born into a desert, whether literally or metaphorically speaking, e.g. a kid
living in a mansion whose parents ignore him and simply try to buy his love. Many people are born into an oppressive culture, e.g.
enslaved, not able to receive education, bound to a low caste, they became
orphans at a young age, or even died due to malnutrition.
When I read the
narratives of Scripture, I see a God speaking into and acting in a gone wrong
desert-like world full of visible and invisible oppression. Babylon and Assyria
were used in the prophetic texts to represent such wide-scale oppression. Such horrific oppression has not ceased today whether externally in places like Syria
and North Korea, or internally due to ideologies in many Islamic countries, and even the
oppression of a consumeristic culture, e.g. sex industry, addictions, and
physical disorders like stress/ depression, as well as the negative impact of our culture of leisure and entertainment on the rest of the world that make it affordable for us.
God not only acts in the world against such oppression, but He issues decrees and sends forth His Spirit to promote the cause of the Divine justice. He rages against an oppressive force that in the OT becomes symbolized by earthly symbols, e.g. mountain, rivers, countries, etc., or in the NT as revealed to ultimately be satanic oppression by the thief, planter of weeds, god of this evil age, murderer, slanderer, father of lies, deceiver of the world, lion seeking to devour humanity, etc.
God not only acts in the world against such oppression, but He issues decrees and sends forth His Spirit to promote the cause of the Divine justice. He rages against an oppressive force that in the OT becomes symbolized by earthly symbols, e.g. mountain, rivers, countries, etc., or in the NT as revealed to ultimately be satanic oppression by the thief, planter of weeds, god of this evil age, murderer, slanderer, father of lies, deceiver of the world, lion seeking to devour humanity, etc.
In the OT Israel was meant to be a force against these
oppressive powers and a civil politic of justice, though not a Western sense of
justice. God's justice included mandatory leaving of excess supply in fields
for the poor, distributing land among all the tribes and families equally, years of
liberation, laws to protect widows, etc. David was the ideal representative of
one who, for the most part, sought to bring about justice throughout the land.
The essence of true religion of Christianity echoes this OT principle of
genuine righteousness, concerning pure and undefiled religion. It calls us
to minister to the oppressed in likeness to Christ who went around healing
those oppressed by Satan, who mainly oppresses people within their soul, e.g. depression (Acts
10:38). In reading the Old Testament prophets one discovers that one of the main basis for condemning Israel/Judah was for neglecting or even taking advantage of those suffering injustice or economic poverty, e.g. poor, orphans widows.
In our Western world righteousness is focused on the individual, e.g. check list of 'good' conduct, whereas righteousness of Scripture is focused outwardly on promoting God's cause of justice in one's sphere of influence. God judged His people in view of the cries of oppression in their sphere of influence either going unnoticed or partly against His people themselves as part of the problem of their misfortune. I'm reminded on the real consequences of a sex-hyped culture that takes place in the extremely lucrative sex industry full of oppression, misfortune, and suffering, not to forget the suffering of teens suffering psychologically from sexual immorality and addiction being swept into the current of media's facade of happiness and freedom. I live in one of the main hubs of sex trafficking in the world, Houston, and I have firsthand seen the very real face of suffering and oppression on the streets and in brothels. I have close friends who work as light in these pits of darkness. I have seen hundreds of cars circling clubs along a few blocks into early hours of Saturday morning picking up prostitutes without a cop in sight, while my brothers and sisters in Christ reached out into the darkness to grab those in the fires (Jude 1:23).
