{"id":19233,"date":"2026-02-19T19:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=19233"},"modified":"2026-02-19T19:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:58:17","slug":"when-a-nation-forgets-the-purpose-of-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=19233","title":{"rendered":"When a nation forgets the purpose of freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"


By Tony Perkins<\/span><\/span>, CP Op-Ed Contributor Tuesday, February 17, 2026<\/span>iStock\/Naron Purba<\/span><\/p>\n

Exodus 9:1 records a command that shaped a nation: \u201cThus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.\u201d Freedom, in the Bible, is never abstract. It is purposeful. It is directional. It is given so that a people might serve the God who delivered them. This truth did not escape the attention of America\u2019s founders.<\/p>\n

In 1776, when Congress requested designs for a national seal, Benjamin Franklin proposed a striking image: Moses standing at the Red Sea, Pharaoh and his army overwhelmed, and beneath it the motto, \u201cRebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.\u201d Though never adopted, the proposal reflected how deeply the Exodus narrative shaped the American imagination.<\/p>\n

From New England to the southern colonies, pastors drew explicit parallels between Israel\u2019s deliverance from Egypt and the colonies\u2019 struggle for independence. Sermons frequently returned to a familiar refrain: \u201cLet my people go.\u201d<\/p>\n

But they did not stop there.<\/p>\n

On December 23, 1776, Sylvanus Conant preached directly from the full text: \u201cLet my people go,\u00a0that they may serve me<\/em>.\u201d Ministers such as Samuel West and Samuel Langdon made the same point clear. The goal was not autonomy for its own sake. The goal was ordered liberty under God.<\/p>\n

That full phrase \u2014 \u201cLet My people go, that they may serve Me\u201d \u2014 appears seven times in Exodus. The repetition is deliberate. God\u2019s championing of Israel\u2019s freedom was not so they could do what was right in their own eyes. It was liberation unto obedience, worship, and covenant faithfulness. Deliverance was the doorway to devotion.<\/p>\n

Those colonial pastors understood that principle. They warned that liberty detached from moral restraint would decay into lawlessness \u2014 and eventually into tyranny. Rev. Langdon cautioned that nations blessed with freedom but unwilling to live under God\u2019s law would follow the same tragic pattern seen in Israel\u2019s history. Conant reminded his hearers that deliverance creates obligation. A people set free must respond with gratitude and obedience or risk forfeiting the blessing they were given.<\/p>\n

Even among the Founders, that sober awareness was present. Thomas Jefferson wrote words that still unsettle: \u201cIndeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.\u201d Whatever his theological persuasion, Jefferson understood a fundamental truth \u2014 nations are morally accountable.<\/p>\n

The Founders did not envision freedom as self-definition without limits. They sought freedom within a framework. Liberty was granted so that a people might govern themselves under transcendent authority, not apart from it.<\/p>\n

Now, in this 250th anniversary year of American independence, that original question presses upon us again.<\/p>\n

Are we living as though freedom has a purpose?<\/p>\n

Have we remembered that liberty is not merely the absence of restraint, but the opportunity to align ourselves with truth? Have we treated freedom as a gift to steward \u2014 or as an entitlement to consume?<\/p>\n

Exodus confronts every generation with the same call. God delivers people not to independence from Him, but obedience to Him. When a nation forgets that freedom is meant for service to God, it loses the purpose of freedom \u2014 and soon, the freedom itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The words still echo: \u201cLet My people go, that they may serve Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future of our liberty depends on whether we remember the second half of that sentence.<\/p>\n

Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tony Perkins, CP Op-Ed Contributor Tuesday, February 17, 2026iStock\/Naron Purba Exodus 9:1 records a command that shaped a nation: \u201cThus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.\u201d Freedom, in the Bible, is never abstract. It is purposeful. It is directional. It is given so that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[6248,92,2319,526],"class_list":{"0":"post-19233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-forgets","9":"tag-freedom","10":"tag-nation","11":"tag-purpose"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}