Based on Galatians 4:4-7

They really had nowhere to go. They were wandering through mountainous regions and wilderness areas. They had little to no food, little to no water, no shelter, no extra clothes. They were fleeing from the wrath of a dictator who wanted to wipe them from the face of this earth. This is 500,000 people we’re talking about. These are the Kurds that were fleeing from Saddam Hussein.

Then comes Operation Provide Comfort.

Humanitarian and military aid came to help these Kurds, and among those groups that came to help them were the 10th Group Special Forces, known as the Green Berets. The motto of the Green Berets is on a challenge coin that somebody had gifted to me. It says, “De oppresso liber.” It’s a Latin phrase that means “to free the oppressed.” That 10th Group Special Forces was credited with saving the lives of 500,000 Kurds from extinction.

De oppresso liber. Isn’t that what Jesus came to do? That’s the truth we hear in our reading today from Galatians chapter 4. This letter to the Galatians—that region is actually in modern-day Turkey, which really isn’t that far from where the oppressed were liberated.

Listen to the apostle Paul’s words. He says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:4-7).

Like the Kurds in the early 1990s—with nowhere to go, feeling entrapped, feeling enslaved—maybe there are times you feel that way. Not because an evil dictator is trying to wipe you from the face of this earth, but because of Christmases past, or maybe because of past New Years, where you made an honest resolution to change not just bad habits in your life but sinful behaviors. Times that you wanted to change your attitude toward your family members, your spouse, your children, your own parents, your co-workers, your friends, or just the random person out in the community.

The times you wish you would have been Christ to somebody in a way that was meaningful to them, and you just failed to do that. All of that guilt has you in shackles, and you feel there’s nowhere to go because of that guilt.

Well, in comes Jesus with Operation Redemption. At the right time in history, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, to take on our human flesh. That means that he had to be born under the requirements of God’s laws and his commandments. But Jesus fulfilled all of those perfectly in his attitude and his actions and his words toward his family members, his siblings, his parents, his friends, even those enemies of his—those who oppressed him.

Jesus was perfect in everything he said to them, the way that he loved them, and the way that he forgave them. And by that perfect life he has redeemed you, which means that he has set you free from that guilt.

You are no longer slaves to your guilt. Take that guilt to Jesus, and know that he has set you free from it. He has set you free to be his sons and his daughters. He has adopted you into his family. You are sons and daughters of God, your Father in heaven and that by your baptism.

And because of that you have an inheritance. Paul says you are an heir, which means that you have an inheritance of heaven, where you are set free from guilt, from sin, from death, from slavery to all of those things forever and ever.

So now go live that way. Go live as free sons and daughters of your Father in heaven.

De oppresso liber. You are set free.

Prayer:
Almighty God, you have filled us with the new light of the Word who became flesh and lived among us. Let the light of our faith shine in all that we do. Keep watch over those who serve in our nation’s Special Operations Forces, who carry out unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, counterterrorism and covert operations, and special reconnaissance to throw down the oppressors and to liberate the oppressed and to protect our nation. Help them to carry out their missions according to your will, so that we and the people around the world may live in peace and safety. In your name we pray. Amen.

Written and recorded by Rev. Paul Horn, WELS National Civilian Chaplain to the Military, San Diego, California.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Note: Scripture reading footnotes are clickable only in the web version.

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Military Devotion – De Oppresso Liber – January 3, 2025