God's Heart for the Immigrant
Could it be that the movement of people around the earth for a variety of reasons, both good and evil, is something that God uses and redeems to accomplish His purposes? Acts 17:24-28 seems to say so. But, the rest of Scripture is not silent on this either. We can see this rising tide of people movement from Genesis to Revelation as Creation begins in a garden and ends in the city of New Jerusalem as people from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue gather around the throne to worship God (Rev. 7:9-12). What if these stories of migration, refugees, sojourning, and pilgrimage are not just footnotes? What if they are a primary way that God spreads the knowledge of Himself across the planet? What if what many fear is actually a way that God both sends people with the gospel to those who do not know Him and sends people from areas where He is unknown to places where His people reside? What if what some mean for evil, God turns it and uses it for good, as we see in Joseph's life after he was sold into slavery by his brothers and sent of to Egypt (Gen. 50:20)?
Another aspect that should be considered is that God is perhaps telling us something about Himself through the presence of immigrants and refugees in our midst. Could it be that, along with the poor, the widow, and the orphan, the presence of the sojourner both demonstrates God's heart and also enables us to know God and represent Him if we would only see them all as people made in God's image with God-given dignity and worth as people whom Jesus died for?
Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang in Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion, and Truth in Immigration Debate (2009) say,
Since so many of the characters of the biblical story were migrants of one sort or another, it is not surprising that God gives us a great deal of guidance about interacting with immigrants. God reminds the Israelites early on of their own history as aliens in a foreign land, commanding them that, given their own experience, they should welcome the immigrant among them. In Leviticus 19:33-34, God commands the Israelites, "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God." In fact, Israel's very identity was tied to how they treated the foreign born, as it reflected Israel's trust in God to provide and their willingness to follow his commandments. The words of Exodus 12:49, repeated throughout the Pentateuch many times, make clear: "The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."
At the same time, immigrants are recognized as being particularly vulnerable, and God therefore commands the Israelites to take special concern for them. The term usually translated as alien or sojourner appears repeatedly in conjunction with two other categories of people of special concern to God: the fatherless and the widow. For example, Deuteronomy 10:18 says that God "defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing." Psalm 146:9 echoes this concern: "The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked." The same linkage extends throughout the Old Testament, such as in Ezekiel, where the evil rulers of Israel are condemned for having "oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow," and in Zechariah, where we are commanded, "Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor" (Zechariah 7:9-10).
The flow of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation reveals God's heart for the stranger and the alien - the immigrant, the sojourner, and the refugee. Could it be that the picture of a person cast out and separated from home and wandering between his home and a future destination contains a picture of our own spiritual journey through this world from death to life? Just as Israel's Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land was a picture of God's deliverance and salvation ultimately fulfilled in Christ, could it be that the millions of immigrants and refugees that traverse the earth today. -
Written by Alan Cross
Another aspect that should be considered is that God is perhaps telling us something about Himself through the presence of immigrants and refugees in our midst. Could it be that, along with the poor, the widow, and the orphan, the presence of the sojourner both demonstrates God's heart and also enables us to know God and represent Him if we would only see them all as people made in God's image with God-given dignity and worth as people whom Jesus died for?
Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang in Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion, and Truth in Immigration Debate (2009) say,
Since so many of the characters of the biblical story were migrants of one sort or another, it is not surprising that God gives us a great deal of guidance about interacting with immigrants. God reminds the Israelites early on of their own history as aliens in a foreign land, commanding them that, given their own experience, they should welcome the immigrant among them. In Leviticus 19:33-34, God commands the Israelites, "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God." In fact, Israel's very identity was tied to how they treated the foreign born, as it reflected Israel's trust in God to provide and their willingness to follow his commandments. The words of Exodus 12:49, repeated throughout the Pentateuch many times, make clear: "The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."
At the same time, immigrants are recognized as being particularly vulnerable, and God therefore commands the Israelites to take special concern for them. The term usually translated as alien or sojourner appears repeatedly in conjunction with two other categories of people of special concern to God: the fatherless and the widow. For example, Deuteronomy 10:18 says that God "defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing." Psalm 146:9 echoes this concern: "The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked." The same linkage extends throughout the Old Testament, such as in Ezekiel, where the evil rulers of Israel are condemned for having "oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow," and in Zechariah, where we are commanded, "Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor" (Zechariah 7:9-10).
The flow of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation reveals God's heart for the stranger and the alien - the immigrant, the sojourner, and the refugee. Could it be that the picture of a person cast out and separated from home and wandering between his home and a future destination contains a picture of our own spiritual journey through this world from death to life? Just as Israel's Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land was a picture of God's deliverance and salvation ultimately fulfilled in Christ, could it be that the millions of immigrants and refugees that traverse the earth today. -
Written by Alan Cross