“FREEDOM DAY”
Generally when Americans think about a day in which we celebrate our freedom, we think about July 4th. However, there is another independence holiday that is celebrated in the United States called “Juneteenth” (also known as “Emancipation Day or Freedom Day”).
It is a holiday observed on June 19 across the nation, but for over a century was mainly celebrated by African Americans in Texas and parts of Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. It was celebrated here in Rochester just last weekend. The name “Juneteenth” was probably derived from the word combination: June and nineteenth.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 and again on New Year’s Day, 1863, during the American Civil War. This proclamation ordered the liberating of all slaves from every state. However, without Union troops to enforce Lincoln’s order, slavery continued for years in the South.
On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger and his 2,000 troops marched into Galveston, Texas and publicly declared that slavery in America was ended. History notes that the reaction of the slaves hearing about their freedom for the very first time was mixed, ranging from shock and disbelief to jubilation!
Can you imagine being decreed free but not knowing it for over two years?! This same phenomenon happens all the time in a spiritual sense. We have been called by God to be free from sin but many still live under its bondage. Isaiah prophesied that the Son of God would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7), live and die for our sins & be raised from the dead (Isaiah 53) – all for our freedom!
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners…” Isaiah 61:1
ARE YOU FREE? God is good all the time! Mr. Steve
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