The Cost of Freedom – Is It Really Appreciated?

3/30/03

'We Go to Liberate': A Colonel's Address

The eve of battle is a time for commanders to rally their troops. Some do it more memorably than others. Here is an excerpt, provided by the British Embassy in Washington, from a speech by Lt. Col. Tim Collins, commander of the First Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, delivered on Saturday at Fort Blair Mayne in northern Kuwait, before the battalion left for Iraq.

We go to liberate, not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag, which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them.

There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory.

Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there. You will see things that no man could pay to see and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis. You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing. Don't treat them as refugees, for they are in their own country. Their children will be poor. In years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.

If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day. Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly and mark their graves.

It is my foremost intention to bring every single one of you out alive, but there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign. We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back. There will be no time for sorrow.

The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction. There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam. He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done. As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity.

It is a big step to take another human life. It is not to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them. If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family.

The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please.

If you harm the regiment or its history by overenthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer. You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest for your deeds will follow you down through history. We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation.

With all that is happening right now my personal appreciation for my freedom has taken a new depth of gratitude. My natural freedom and Spiritual freedom!

Freedom is precious! More precious than most of us realize. Unless our freedom was completely taken away we don’t understand how wonderful it is.

I remember reading an article of a Vietnam POW who, when released, said he vowed never to complain again about trivial things.

You could go to an encyclopedia and look up these different aspects of freedom, just to name of few...

freedom of expression

freedom of information

freedom of religion

freedom of speech

freedom of the air

freedom of the seas

freedom of the press

freedom of thought

freedom of the will, etc.....

I have entitled this message, “The Cost of Freedom--Is It Really Appreciated?”

There is a “Natural Freedom” (physical) and a “Spiritual Freedom.”

There are four aspects of freedom I want to speak about:

the desire for freedom

the cost for freedom

the abuse of freedom

the responsibility of freedom

As I share about this I want to combine together natural freedom and spiritual freedom.

The desire for freedom

It has been said that every man, woman, and child wants to be free. I would agree with that but would add not everyone understands what it takes to be free.

If the Iraqis truly understood the exact intention of the Allied forces to remove Saddam, an evil tyrant, and allow the people of Iraq to have a new government that would allow them freedoms they never have had, they would quickly cooperate with the Allied troops and it would be over with.

But, we are strangers, foreigners. Propaganda has convinced them that we want their oil and want to take over their land. Fear and suspicion is greater than the truth!

Ex. 2:23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Ex. 4:29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, ³⁰and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, ³¹and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Ex. 5:17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ ¹⁸Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”

¹⁹The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” ²⁰When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21and they said, “May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

²²Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? ²³Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

The Lord knew the cost would be great before the King of Egypt would let the Israelites go!

Ex. 3:18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’ ¹⁹But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. ²⁰So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

Ex. 11:4 So Moses said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. ⁵Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. ⁶There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. ⁷But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.’ Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. ⁸All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

Listen to James L. Smith as he recounts his experiences as a slave in Virginia. He certainly understood the cry for freedom!

An incident of bravery of the colored troops at Port Hudson, I am about to relate, sends a thrill through every avenue of my soul. I wish it could be burned into our hearts with the words of fire, so that no tongue would henceforth dare to utter or repeat the old slander that "black men will not fight for freedom." Let the vaunted Anglo-Saxon stand back abashed before this sublime exhibition.

In 1863 the Fifty Second Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteers were ordered to charge the enemy's works, and did it magnificently. Just before they reached the forts they came to a ditch thirty feet wide and ten feet deep, full of water, which was absolutely impassable; they were ordered forward again; they could only do and die, yet on, right on they went to the hopeless charge; into the storm of grape and musket balls; on, with no chance of doing any thing but to die like brave men; on, where their white officers dare not to lead, till nearly half their number were dead or dying. Five times more they charged up to this bayou, when they were withdrawn.

When I think of these torn and bleeding veterans as they wended their way to the hospital, it seems too horrible to relate. Nevertheless it is so, for I have the facts. I can hardly speak of it but with many tears. Bless God that they have shown themselves worthy to be free, and entitled to all the inalienable rights, among which are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" having won the rights for all their posterity, without having them infringed upon, for they are blood-bought rights. Can a people into whose hands arms have been placed, and who have been drilled in the art and science of war, become again slaves? And can this nation, that has advanced so rapidly in the cause of freedom, go backwards so much as to re-enslave a people that have assisted in fighting its battles? Forbid it, justice! forbid it, humanity! forbid it, ye spirits of our fathers, still hovering over us! forbid it, our Country! Forbid it, Heaven! (MREL, 2003)

The thought of loosing our freedom as a country cuts to the depth of our American soul!

On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered the most devastating terrorist attack in its history. Hijackers seized four commercial jets and crashed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing the collapse and destruction of both towers. A third jet crashed into a section of the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and the final jet crashed into a field southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people were reported dead or missing. On September 20, President George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress to discuss the tragedy and the U.S. response to it. He spoke of the country coming together and the need for patience in the face of a long battle against terrorism.

On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars—but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war—but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks—but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day—and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack (MREL, 2003).

The cost of freedom

Henrik Ibsen (1828 - 1906)

Norwegian playwright.

A man should never put on his best trousers when he goes out to battle for freedom and truth. An Enemy of the People (MREL, 2003)

American Revolution (1775-1783), conflict between 13 British colonies in North America and their parent country, Great Britain. It was made up of two related events: the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and the formation of the American government as laid out by the Constitution of the United States in 1787. First, the war achieved independence from Great Britain by the colonies. Second, the newly created United States of America established a republican form of government, in which power resided with the people. (MREL, 2003)

The devastating military conflict of the Civil War between the United States of America and 11 former states that seceded and formed the Confederate States of America lasted from 1861 to 1865. The war took more than 600,000 lives but brought freedom to 4 million African American slaves. (MREL, 2003)

 

Military Casualties from World War I (MREL, 2003) 

Note: World War I casualty statistics vary greatly from source to source. Official records are often lacking and based on differing criteria. These figures remain open to interpretation and debate.

 

World War II Casualties, 1939–45 (MREL, 2003) 

 

U.S. Casualties in the Vietnam War (MREL, 2003) 

 

Our Lord God takes the matter of freedom very serious!

Jer. 34:8 The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. ⁹Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage. ¹⁰So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. ¹¹But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: ¹³“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, ¹⁴‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you six years, you must let him go free.’£ Your fathers, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. ¹⁵Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to his countrymen. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. ¹⁶But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.

¹⁷“Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the LORD—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸The men who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. ¹⁹The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, ²⁰I will hand over to their enemies who seek their lives. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

²¹“I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. ²²I am going to give the order, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

The cost for freedom since the earliest time of history has been tremendously great. But there is another kind of freedom that is the truest freedom of all and the cost for it was higher than any man or woman could every pay!

Natural freedom is indeed precious. But here we are in America a country that is truly free and it is still not the complete answer to the human soul!

Mk. 8:36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Jesus addresses the core need of the human soul...

freedom from guilt

freedom from fear

freedom from eternal damnation

freedom from sin

freedom to walk in righteousness

freedom to have fellowship with the Living God

freedom to be the temple of the Holy Spirit

freedom to live forever in the presence of the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Lk. 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jo. 8:34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

Heb. 9:12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

Heb. 13:12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

The Iraqis don’t understand the freedom they could have in their own country. There is a whole world full of people who don’t understand the eternal spiritual freedom they could have!

As Christians in America we need to deeply realize that men and women paid a tremendous price for our freedom as American citizens and Jesus paid the ultimate price for our eternal freedom!

The abuse of freedom

We live in a society that is very much spoiled and unappreciative!

Being parents, as our children grow, we should teach them that as we give them privileges they must show responsibility.

Children who have been raised with a silver spoon in their mouth with no responsibilities grow up dissatisfied, contentious, spoiled and feel the world owes them.

Deut. 8:10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 1⁷You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

¹⁹If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.

Completely unrestricted freedom of action would make peaceful human existence impossible.

Theodore Parker (1810 - 1860)

U.S. clergyman defined “Freedom”

A democracy—that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom. Speech, "The American Idea," at the New England Anti-Slavery Convention, Boston (MREL, 2003)

The responsibility of freedom

Gal. 5:13 (The Message Bible) It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

We should bow in the humblest attitude with the deepest gratitude for what God has given us! The freedom that we have in this country and then the freedom we have in Jesus Christ--to God be all the Glory and Praise forever and ever!

1 Tim. 2:8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.

Here’s why!

1 Tim. 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – ²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³This is good, and pleases God our Savior, ⁴who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all men – the testimony given in its proper time.

 

 

References:

MREL; Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, Microsoft Corporation, 2003.