Give them Back

“But this people is compromised.  They’ve been plundered and robbed.  They have lost – things, liberty, place, and name.  They are all trapped in holes and tucked away in prisons.  They’ve been plundered and depleted with none to the rescue.  They’ve been stolen away with none to insist, ‘Give them back.’”

-          Isaiah 42:22, Voice

The last several months have taken a toll on my soul.  In my job and in my personal life, I have become deeply acquainted with injustice and have witnessed institutional level ambivalence strip children and families of hope, of their voice.  I have seen the evil of apathy and convenience … and grown weary of it. 

And perhaps that’s why reading this verse – it stirs something in me.  This verse is about our generation, about our culture, about the problems the world is facing today … and the God-given call to do something about it. 

“This people is compromised.”  Like an agent on a secret mission who has been “compromised,” this generation has been tainted by the enemy, confused, brainwashed into thinking they don’t matter.  They no longer know their true identity and are confused whose they really are, like a spy who has been brainwashed into working for an enemy cell group, unsure who is the bad guys.  Young people no longer feel a God-given sense of purpose or drive to make the world a better place like they once did.  They’ve lost their idealism and their belief in verses like Jeremiah 29:11, that God has great plans for them.  Instead, they wander in hopelessness and selfishness, embracing low expectations for themselves, their lives, and the future of the world.

“They’ve been plundered and robbed.  They have lost – things, liberty, place, and name.”  The Bible tells us that only one comes to “steal, kill and destroy” – and that’s the Devil (John 10:10).  He has ravaged our societies, our culture, and our generations.  In my heart, I see the faces of foster care children and juvenile delinquents I have worked with.  Yes, they have lost.  They have lost the liberty to be children, to dream big dreams, to be believed in, to make mistakes and be held accountable for learning from them.  They have lost a place to call home, a place to be safeguarded from the violence and brokenness of the world around them.  They have lost their place to be themselves, free from the pressures of competition and media influences.  They have lost the names of endearment that allow children to grow in security and self-assurance, the God-given names that transform them from children into mighty young men and women of God.  They have lost the relationships that draw their true identities out, that challenge them to rise up.  They have been robbed.  Do you feel the desperation of that?  Do you sense the horror of the plundering?  

“They are all trapped in holes and tucked away in prisons.”  Everyday I meet people who are trapped - hollow, blank-faced people who are tired of fighting.  They are trapped in holes that initially made them feel safer, in ruts, in addictions and bad habits.  They are locked in prisons of guilt, shame, disappointment and blame.  They are penned in by others’ expectations or their own, by fears, by injustice, and by their unwillingness to forgive. 

“They’ve been plundered and depleted with none to the rescue.”  This generation has been emptied, exhausted, stressed to the limit and defeated because of it.  They have fought the system, fought the problems, fought against the injustice – until they burned out.  They are depleted.  And it seems no one is coming to the rescue.  Parents are often too busy.  Teachers are underpaid and often have too many students to keep track of.  Social workers are increasingly burned out by corrupt systems.  And of course the list goes on – people in helping professions, people who have been called and gifted to rescue, to re-instill purpose and hope in people’s lives who are increasingly unable or unwilling to do so.

“They’ve been stolen away with none to insist, ‘Give them back.’”   This is it, the part in the verse where my breath catches in my throat.  My imagination explodes with the horrifying reality of this.  The devil, our great adversary, is snatching people away – stealing their hearts, stealing their destinies, their dreams, their purpose in Christ – and in far too many cases, there is no one who sees and cares enough to demand in the name of Jesus that he, “Give them back.”  I think of the foster care children – thousands of them – who run away each year and are never listed on “missing persons” websites – no one is looking for them.  Many of them are simply discharged from care because they ran away.  I think of those lost in human trafficking around the world, sold by the very people who should be looking for them – their families.  I think about people in garbage cities across the world, who aren’t even counted in the census, who don’t “exist.”  Or what about the homeless, who live on the streets?  And the prisoners, criminals and gang members everyone else has given up on?  And the elderly and mentally ill, locked away in facilities often without visitors?  The Enemy is winning battles he never should have won – simply because not enough of us have stood in the gap to say, “Enough is enough. This stops here. In the name of Jesus Christ, give them back.”

So what do we do?  God is waiting on us to act on behalf of these lost ones.  The very next verse, Isaiah 42:13, in the Voice says, “Is there anyone who understands?  Who, out of all of you, will pay attention, understand, and take note concerning what’s to come?”

We must take note of the injustice, must recognize the pain of those around us.  We must rise up in faith and do something.  We must pray.  We must grit our teeth, stand firm in our faith, and brandish the sword of the Word that will liberate the captives and set them free to fulfill their divine destinies in Christ!  We must love as Christ loved, or there will be no safe place for believers (young and old) to gather.  We much speak life and truth to each other, instead of criticism and hatred.  And we must stare into the kingdom of darkness and demand that the devil give these lost ones back.  They are not his to take. Will you join me in ferocious committed prayer that the enemy will release the captives to fulfill their God-given destiny?  Will you stand in the gap for those who have no one else and demand that he release them?

“I give [believers] eternal life, so that they will never be lost.  No one can snatch them out of my hand.”

-          John 10:28, CEV