A Theological, Missiological, Ecclesiological, and Eschatological View of why we must join with what God is doing in the world in relation to immigrants/refugees.
Genesis 1:26-28 - Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” All people are made in God's image. All have value and worth.
Genesis 3 - the Fall affected all people. We are all separated from God because of sin. We need a savior. We hide, compete, and fight against one another (Gen. 4; James 4:1-10).
Vs. 1-13 - Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” ... vs. 22-24 - "Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life."
Genesis 4 - Cain and Abel - the desire to promote and defend "self" leads to rivalry, violence, and separation.
Sin continues its work and we see fear and hatred grow. Broken people wandering the earth is a consequence of the division that comes from sin. Oppression and violence grows and the blood cries out from the ground. But, even in this, God promises to protect Cain in his wandering. vs. 8-16 - Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 11:1-9 - The Tower of Babel - because of pride and self interest (make a name for ourselves - vs. 4),
God spreads people all over the face of the earth. Sin brings separation. Vs. 1-9 - Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 12 - Abram told to sojourn to the land God would show him - he was an immigrant/ sojourner - he would be a blessing to the nations. God placed Israel at the center of a land bring connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe so it would be a light to the nations (Is. 49:6).
Vs. 1-9 - Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. Vs. 10 - "Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land." Even after Abram went to the land that God showed him and promised him, when famine came, he sojourned down to Egypt to survive.
Genesis 18-19 - Lot was a sojourner in Sodom (vs. 9) and he welcomed in the two angels who were strangers and visitors.
He did not know who they were, but he welcomed them and protected them from harm (19:1-4). The people of Sodom were so sinful, that they attacked Lot's home and wanted to defile the men. Lot protected them. The root sins of Sodom were explained in Exodus 16:49-50 - "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it." - In addition to sexual immorality, homosexuality, and violence, God gets at the underlying sins beneath them all, which was pride, greed, and self-protection that caused them to turn against strangers and sojourners instead of aiding the poor and needy. They promoted themselves and their own "way of life" and desire for pleasure over caring for the needs of others, including the sojourner and the poor and needy. So, God destroyed them for their wickedness.
Hebrews 13:1-5 refers to this incident and becomes something of a commentary on what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah.
It says, "Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"
Look at the progression. "Let brotherly love continue." This is how God wants us to act toward one another - with brotherly love. Consider the needs of others. Care for them. Put others before your own needs. This is how God acts toward us. Just look at Jesus and His life and death for our behalf. "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." This refers to Lot's encounter with the angels in Sodom. You do not know who you are caring for when you show hospitality to strangers. You are dealing with people made in God's image - man, made a little lower than the angels, but with the capacity to be adopted into God's family as sons of God and co-heirs with Christ. C.S. Lewis says in The Weight of Glory, "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." He is saying that we should take seriously the idea that the Imago Dei imprinted on to every person has severe meaning. The writer to the Hebrews refers to meeting angels when we meet a stranger and we should have the same attitude that Lot had when he met the angelic messengers, sacrificing his own life for them before he saw them treated poorly.
Hebrews 13:1-5 goes on to say that we should remember those in prison and those who are mistreated (most likely talking about persecuted Christians because of the mention of being in the "body" with them, meaning the body of Christ.
Then, he says that marriage should be held in honor and that the sexually immoral and adulterous will be judged by all. Then, he ties in greed and a lack of contentedness. Is it a mere coincidence that how we treat strangers and those mistreated is connected with sexual immorality, greed, and discontent? Were these not the sins of Sodom? Lack of hospitality, arrogance, pride, lack of concern for the poor and needy, and sexual immorality? Could it be that when we see a land filled with sexual immorality, we will likewise see a land filled with pride, arrogance, lack of concern for the poor, and mistreatment and rejection of strangers who visit us? The sin of Sodom seem to be a pattern for the rejection of God by a nation and a people and whether it manifests as sexual immorality or mistreatment of the poor and the sojourner, it is coming from the same place - pride, a lack of fear of God, and a lack of love for our brother.
Genesis 24:1-4 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” - Abraham sent a servant back to his homeland to find a wife for his son, Isaac, and to bring her back to him. Migration involved again in developing marriage and families. The wife was Rebekah.
Genesis 27:41-45 - Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?" - Jacob was a deceiver, but he had to flee for his life as a refugee running from certain death by the hands of his brother. So, he goes to Haran.
Genesis 41:56-57 - "So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth." - God put Joseph, son of Jacob, in Egypt to be a blessing for the world in the midst of famine. People were allowed to come from all over the earth to Egypt to buy grain so they could survive. Travel and migration was allowed because of famine and economic hardship. Joseph was God's man to care for those in need.
Genesis 42-1-5 - When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. - Trade, travel, and migration was allowed so that people could survive. There was economic benefit for Egypt and the people of Canaan - Jacob's family - were able to survive in the midst of hardship. Resources spread as people were allowed to leave places of lack and go to places of plenty to secure resources and survival for themselves and their families.
Genesis 46:5-7 - Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt. - Because of the famine and Joseph's high position, he brought his whole family to Egypt from Canaan where they would be cared for and survive. Family reunification is at work here.
Genesis 47:1-12 - So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.” And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.” They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.” Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.” And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents. - Jacob was a sojourner all his life, as his fathers were before him. He is brought to Egypt for God's purposes in preserving his family and his line. He is given a place to dwell and to settle in a foreign land.
Exodus 1:8-14 - Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves."
Fear leads to oppression and injustice and caused this Pharaoh to turn against the people of Israel and to afflict them with hard labor while they took advantage of them. Fear of losing status, power, and prosperity can cause the dominant culture to turn against the minority people in ways that wrecks lives and afflicts generations. Are you a part of the power structure? This was not just Pharaoh and the power-elites. It says "the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel." When we fear another people and want to oppress them and take advantage of them, it is possible that we are acting like Pharaoh and the Egyptians toward the Israelites. Fear causes us to strive to promote, protect, and defend our own "way of life" over and above others. These activities and attitudes push people away from God's purpose for people made in His image and drives justice and shalom far away from all of us.
Exodus 2:23-25 - "During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew." - The boys born to Hebrew women were being killed. There was a plan to eradicate the people of Israel through oppressive work and unjust conditions of slavery and hardship. But, the people cried out to God and their cry went up to the Lord God and He heard them and remembered His promises and saw their plight and knew what they were going through. When people are oppressed and cry out to God, He hears them and He delivers them. He makes wrongs right and He sets the captive free. He gives the poor wanderer shelter and He cares for the poor and needy.
Exodus 6:2-8 - God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’" - God hears the cries of His people and He delivers from slavery and oppression and takes them to the land that He has for them so they can know Him and follow Him free from fear and from burdens. The deliverance of Israel from oppression and to the Promised Land is the basic story of our salvation narrative. It is our story of God's care and salvation. Through Jesus, it is a story that is for all people everywhere.
Exodus 12 - vs. 29-32 - At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!” vs. 40-42 - The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations. - The story of the Passover and Exodus was a story of God delivering His people from the oppression of slavery by Pharaoh and the Egyptians to a land that He had promised them. The homes that had the blood of the Passover lamb on the door posts were spared. Those without the blood lost the first born son of every family. God delivered His people from a land of oppression to a land of freedom and blessing so they could worship Him freely (Exodus 5:1-3).
Exodus 22:21-24 - “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless." - In the giving of the Law, God reminds the Hebrew people who they once were. They were once "sojourners in the land of Egypt." They were in bondage and were oppressed and God delivered them. So, when they encounter a sojourners (immigrant, migrant, refugee), they are to treat them well and not wrong them. To wrong or oppress them is to disregard their own salvation. Likewise, they are to care for the widow and the fatherless child and not mistreat them. If they fail at this, the widow and fatherless will cry out to God just like they groaned and cried out against the Egyptians and God will hear their cry and will kill them and their own wives and children will be widowed and will be fatherless. Here, we see the concern and deliverance that God expressed to Israel being shared with others in their distress. How they care for the sojourner is directly related to how they experience the results of their own salvation. In as clear of terms as possible, God threatens them with physical death if they miss this truth.
Exodus 23:9 “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." - God reminds them again. Do not oppress sojourners. You know their heart. They were you. You were them. Here, God calls His people to identification with the plight of those who will come to them for refuge and aid, perhaps fleeing persecution and destitution.
Remember where I found you. Remember the situation that you were in when you were called out of Egypt. Now, treat others with similar care and compassion. This is a foundation for what Paul said to the Corinthian believers in 1 Cor. 1:26-31 when he said that not many were wise or impressive according to the world's standards - "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong." 1 Peter 2:11 says that we are sojourners and exiles in this world. Christians, of all people, should know what it is like to be aliens and strangers in this world that we are just passing through. Humility before the Lord requires us to remember, just as it did the Hebrew people, and to extend love and concern for those who are poor, widowed, fatherless, and sojourners in the land. The celebration of the Passover each year, the reading of the Law, and the remembering of the Exodus caused the Hebrew people to consider the plight of the sojourner in their midst.
Could it be that God allowed immigrants to come to them so that they would remember their own deliverance and they would have a chance to extend God's mercy to those who had not yet received it the way that they had?
Exodus 23:10-12 “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed." Inherent in the very observance of the Sabbath is a command to let the land rest so that the poor would be cared for and that the servants and aliens may rest and be refreshed. The Sabbath is not just for the Hebrew people. It is also for the servants, the sojourners, and everyone who is under their care. You cannot talk about the Sabbath rest without also considering the needs of the poor and the sojourner among you.
Leviticus 19:33-34 - “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."
You shall love the stranger as yourself - this is the basis for the Great Commandment. This command is hardwired into the central understanding of the Law. The very idea of loving your neighbor has to do with the stranger and those who are different from you, thus causing it to be sacrificial love. It is easy to love our kinsmen and our own family and those who are like us and reinforce our status, position, prosperity, and safety and security. That kind of love benefits us. But, when we love the sojourner the same way that we love ourselves, we are entering into a supernatural expression of love that is God-like. This kind of love was commanded when the Hebrew people were under the Law, which had no real ability to change hearts. How much more are we to love those different and alien to us, even our "enemies," as a picture of the New Birth and the supernatural love that Christ has poured into our hearts? When we love the sojourner in our midst, it demonstrates the love of God to us and through us, though we were rebels against His reign and rule and care. Loving our neighbor (19:18), including the Sojourner, demonstrates what God is like. This is why Jesus gives the Parable of the Good Samaritan in response to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" in Luke 10:25-37. It was an outsider who was a neighbor to the man in the in the ditch, beaten by robbers. He cared for him at his own expense and even in risk of his own life, lest he also be set upon by robbers. The love of neighbor, including sojourners, is a sacrificial love, and it is the primary mark of someone whose heart has been changed by the love of and deliverance of God through Christ. This is no side doctrine. It is core to the Law, the Passover, the salvation story, and the Greatest Commandment. As we will later see, it is also central to missiology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. Could it be that God uses the movement of people around the world as a sign of His work to deliver us from darkness to light so that we will worship God and love our neighbor sacrificially? Could it be that God uses the movement of peoples to open our hearts to Him so we would seek Him and find Him and love others with God's love to the praise of His glorious grace? Acts 17:24-28, which we will discuss later, seems to indicate that.
Deuteronomy 10:17-22 - "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven."
We do not know what God has planned through the deliverance, protection, and care of the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner. But, when we see them, we are supposed to remember where we were when God found us. Hardwired into the DNA of every Christian is a salvation story of "Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:10). We have all been brought from darkness to light and from being orphans into God's family. When we see these people, we are to remember and worship God and then turn around and love them because God first loved us. The Christian who turns away from the poor, the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner has forgotten his own salvation and has placed his faith in himself or in other things to save him. He has put other gods before God because his heart is not broken in dependence before God and poured out in love for others. When we come to Christ, a change is to occur in how we see other people, especially those in need.
Deuteronomy 24:17-22 - “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
Deuteronomy 26:5-13 “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you. “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.
Ruth (2:8-13) - Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”
The Book of Ruth is a story about Elimelech and Naomi fleeing Judah to go to Moab because of famine in the land. Then, they stay and marry their sons to Moabite daughters. But, Elimelech dies as do Naomi's sons and she is left with only her daughter's in law and a recognition that she needs to return back to Judah. Ruth goes with her and promises that she will not leave her. Upon her arrival in Judah (Bethlehem, to be exact), she is allowed to glean the fields of Boaz, in obedience to the command of the law to leave the left overs of the field for the sojourners. But, Boaz does more than that. He acts as the Kinsmen Redeemer for Naomi's family and marries Ruth so that they will be taken care of. Boaz and Ruth become ancestors of King David, and thus Jesus. In this, Boaz serves as a type of Christ who redeems the widowed sojourner who is vulnerable and alone, thus giving us a picture of salvation and what God, in Christ, does for us. If Boaz is a type of Christ, then Ruth is a picture of the Bride of Christ, the Church. At the very core of this salvation message is a picture of an immigrant woman being welcomed and redeemed by a man who serves as a picture of Jesus. We cannot understand our salvation properly without seeing it through the eyes of sojourners who have been redeemed by the God who sees them.
Psalms 146:8-9 - "the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin."
Proverbs 31:8-9 - be a voice for the voiceless - defend the rights of the poor and needy. "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." (NIV) When he have an opportunity, we should speak on behalf of those who have no voice and who are oppressed.
Jeremiah 7:5-7 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
Jeremiah 22:3 - Thus says the Lord : Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
Ezekiel 22:4-8 - You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; your name is defiled; you are full of tumult. “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.
Written by Alan Cross
Genesis 3 - the Fall affected all people. We are all separated from God because of sin. We need a savior. We hide, compete, and fight against one another (Gen. 4; James 4:1-10).
Vs. 1-13 - Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” ... vs. 22-24 - "Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life."
Genesis 4 - Cain and Abel - the desire to promote and defend "self" leads to rivalry, violence, and separation.
Sin continues its work and we see fear and hatred grow. Broken people wandering the earth is a consequence of the division that comes from sin. Oppression and violence grows and the blood cries out from the ground. But, even in this, God promises to protect Cain in his wandering. vs. 8-16 - Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 11:1-9 - The Tower of Babel - because of pride and self interest (make a name for ourselves - vs. 4),
God spreads people all over the face of the earth. Sin brings separation. Vs. 1-9 - Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 12 - Abram told to sojourn to the land God would show him - he was an immigrant/ sojourner - he would be a blessing to the nations. God placed Israel at the center of a land bring connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe so it would be a light to the nations (Is. 49:6).
Vs. 1-9 - Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. Vs. 10 - "Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land." Even after Abram went to the land that God showed him and promised him, when famine came, he sojourned down to Egypt to survive.
Genesis 18-19 - Lot was a sojourner in Sodom (vs. 9) and he welcomed in the two angels who were strangers and visitors.
He did not know who they were, but he welcomed them and protected them from harm (19:1-4). The people of Sodom were so sinful, that they attacked Lot's home and wanted to defile the men. Lot protected them. The root sins of Sodom were explained in Exodus 16:49-50 - "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it." - In addition to sexual immorality, homosexuality, and violence, God gets at the underlying sins beneath them all, which was pride, greed, and self-protection that caused them to turn against strangers and sojourners instead of aiding the poor and needy. They promoted themselves and their own "way of life" and desire for pleasure over caring for the needs of others, including the sojourner and the poor and needy. So, God destroyed them for their wickedness.
Hebrews 13:1-5 refers to this incident and becomes something of a commentary on what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah.
It says, "Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"
Look at the progression. "Let brotherly love continue." This is how God wants us to act toward one another - with brotherly love. Consider the needs of others. Care for them. Put others before your own needs. This is how God acts toward us. Just look at Jesus and His life and death for our behalf. "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." This refers to Lot's encounter with the angels in Sodom. You do not know who you are caring for when you show hospitality to strangers. You are dealing with people made in God's image - man, made a little lower than the angels, but with the capacity to be adopted into God's family as sons of God and co-heirs with Christ. C.S. Lewis says in The Weight of Glory, "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." He is saying that we should take seriously the idea that the Imago Dei imprinted on to every person has severe meaning. The writer to the Hebrews refers to meeting angels when we meet a stranger and we should have the same attitude that Lot had when he met the angelic messengers, sacrificing his own life for them before he saw them treated poorly.
Hebrews 13:1-5 goes on to say that we should remember those in prison and those who are mistreated (most likely talking about persecuted Christians because of the mention of being in the "body" with them, meaning the body of Christ.
Then, he says that marriage should be held in honor and that the sexually immoral and adulterous will be judged by all. Then, he ties in greed and a lack of contentedness. Is it a mere coincidence that how we treat strangers and those mistreated is connected with sexual immorality, greed, and discontent? Were these not the sins of Sodom? Lack of hospitality, arrogance, pride, lack of concern for the poor and needy, and sexual immorality? Could it be that when we see a land filled with sexual immorality, we will likewise see a land filled with pride, arrogance, lack of concern for the poor, and mistreatment and rejection of strangers who visit us? The sin of Sodom seem to be a pattern for the rejection of God by a nation and a people and whether it manifests as sexual immorality or mistreatment of the poor and the sojourner, it is coming from the same place - pride, a lack of fear of God, and a lack of love for our brother.
Genesis 24:1-4 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” - Abraham sent a servant back to his homeland to find a wife for his son, Isaac, and to bring her back to him. Migration involved again in developing marriage and families. The wife was Rebekah.
Genesis 27:41-45 - Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?" - Jacob was a deceiver, but he had to flee for his life as a refugee running from certain death by the hands of his brother. So, he goes to Haran.
Genesis 41:56-57 - "So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth." - God put Joseph, son of Jacob, in Egypt to be a blessing for the world in the midst of famine. People were allowed to come from all over the earth to Egypt to buy grain so they could survive. Travel and migration was allowed because of famine and economic hardship. Joseph was God's man to care for those in need.
Genesis 42-1-5 - When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. - Trade, travel, and migration was allowed so that people could survive. There was economic benefit for Egypt and the people of Canaan - Jacob's family - were able to survive in the midst of hardship. Resources spread as people were allowed to leave places of lack and go to places of plenty to secure resources and survival for themselves and their families.
Genesis 46:5-7 - Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt. - Because of the famine and Joseph's high position, he brought his whole family to Egypt from Canaan where they would be cared for and survive. Family reunification is at work here.
Genesis 47:1-12 - So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.” And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.” They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.” Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.” And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents. - Jacob was a sojourner all his life, as his fathers were before him. He is brought to Egypt for God's purposes in preserving his family and his line. He is given a place to dwell and to settle in a foreign land.
Exodus 1:8-14 - Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves."
Fear leads to oppression and injustice and caused this Pharaoh to turn against the people of Israel and to afflict them with hard labor while they took advantage of them. Fear of losing status, power, and prosperity can cause the dominant culture to turn against the minority people in ways that wrecks lives and afflicts generations. Are you a part of the power structure? This was not just Pharaoh and the power-elites. It says "the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel." When we fear another people and want to oppress them and take advantage of them, it is possible that we are acting like Pharaoh and the Egyptians toward the Israelites. Fear causes us to strive to promote, protect, and defend our own "way of life" over and above others. These activities and attitudes push people away from God's purpose for people made in His image and drives justice and shalom far away from all of us.
Exodus 2:23-25 - "During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew." - The boys born to Hebrew women were being killed. There was a plan to eradicate the people of Israel through oppressive work and unjust conditions of slavery and hardship. But, the people cried out to God and their cry went up to the Lord God and He heard them and remembered His promises and saw their plight and knew what they were going through. When people are oppressed and cry out to God, He hears them and He delivers them. He makes wrongs right and He sets the captive free. He gives the poor wanderer shelter and He cares for the poor and needy.
Exodus 6:2-8 - God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’" - God hears the cries of His people and He delivers from slavery and oppression and takes them to the land that He has for them so they can know Him and follow Him free from fear and from burdens. The deliverance of Israel from oppression and to the Promised Land is the basic story of our salvation narrative. It is our story of God's care and salvation. Through Jesus, it is a story that is for all people everywhere.
Exodus 12 - vs. 29-32 - At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!” vs. 40-42 - The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations. - The story of the Passover and Exodus was a story of God delivering His people from the oppression of slavery by Pharaoh and the Egyptians to a land that He had promised them. The homes that had the blood of the Passover lamb on the door posts were spared. Those without the blood lost the first born son of every family. God delivered His people from a land of oppression to a land of freedom and blessing so they could worship Him freely (Exodus 5:1-3).
Exodus 22:21-24 - “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless." - In the giving of the Law, God reminds the Hebrew people who they once were. They were once "sojourners in the land of Egypt." They were in bondage and were oppressed and God delivered them. So, when they encounter a sojourners (immigrant, migrant, refugee), they are to treat them well and not wrong them. To wrong or oppress them is to disregard their own salvation. Likewise, they are to care for the widow and the fatherless child and not mistreat them. If they fail at this, the widow and fatherless will cry out to God just like they groaned and cried out against the Egyptians and God will hear their cry and will kill them and their own wives and children will be widowed and will be fatherless. Here, we see the concern and deliverance that God expressed to Israel being shared with others in their distress. How they care for the sojourner is directly related to how they experience the results of their own salvation. In as clear of terms as possible, God threatens them with physical death if they miss this truth.
Exodus 23:9 “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." - God reminds them again. Do not oppress sojourners. You know their heart. They were you. You were them. Here, God calls His people to identification with the plight of those who will come to them for refuge and aid, perhaps fleeing persecution and destitution.
Remember where I found you. Remember the situation that you were in when you were called out of Egypt. Now, treat others with similar care and compassion. This is a foundation for what Paul said to the Corinthian believers in 1 Cor. 1:26-31 when he said that not many were wise or impressive according to the world's standards - "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong." 1 Peter 2:11 says that we are sojourners and exiles in this world. Christians, of all people, should know what it is like to be aliens and strangers in this world that we are just passing through. Humility before the Lord requires us to remember, just as it did the Hebrew people, and to extend love and concern for those who are poor, widowed, fatherless, and sojourners in the land. The celebration of the Passover each year, the reading of the Law, and the remembering of the Exodus caused the Hebrew people to consider the plight of the sojourner in their midst.
Could it be that God allowed immigrants to come to them so that they would remember their own deliverance and they would have a chance to extend God's mercy to those who had not yet received it the way that they had?
Exodus 23:10-12 “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed." Inherent in the very observance of the Sabbath is a command to let the land rest so that the poor would be cared for and that the servants and aliens may rest and be refreshed. The Sabbath is not just for the Hebrew people. It is also for the servants, the sojourners, and everyone who is under their care. You cannot talk about the Sabbath rest without also considering the needs of the poor and the sojourner among you.
Leviticus 19:33-34 - “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."
You shall love the stranger as yourself - this is the basis for the Great Commandment. This command is hardwired into the central understanding of the Law. The very idea of loving your neighbor has to do with the stranger and those who are different from you, thus causing it to be sacrificial love. It is easy to love our kinsmen and our own family and those who are like us and reinforce our status, position, prosperity, and safety and security. That kind of love benefits us. But, when we love the sojourner the same way that we love ourselves, we are entering into a supernatural expression of love that is God-like. This kind of love was commanded when the Hebrew people were under the Law, which had no real ability to change hearts. How much more are we to love those different and alien to us, even our "enemies," as a picture of the New Birth and the supernatural love that Christ has poured into our hearts? When we love the sojourner in our midst, it demonstrates the love of God to us and through us, though we were rebels against His reign and rule and care. Loving our neighbor (19:18), including the Sojourner, demonstrates what God is like. This is why Jesus gives the Parable of the Good Samaritan in response to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" in Luke 10:25-37. It was an outsider who was a neighbor to the man in the in the ditch, beaten by robbers. He cared for him at his own expense and even in risk of his own life, lest he also be set upon by robbers. The love of neighbor, including sojourners, is a sacrificial love, and it is the primary mark of someone whose heart has been changed by the love of and deliverance of God through Christ. This is no side doctrine. It is core to the Law, the Passover, the salvation story, and the Greatest Commandment. As we will later see, it is also central to missiology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. Could it be that God uses the movement of people around the world as a sign of His work to deliver us from darkness to light so that we will worship God and love our neighbor sacrificially? Could it be that God uses the movement of peoples to open our hearts to Him so we would seek Him and find Him and love others with God's love to the praise of His glorious grace? Acts 17:24-28, which we will discuss later, seems to indicate that.
Deuteronomy 10:17-22 - "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven."
We do not know what God has planned through the deliverance, protection, and care of the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner. But, when we see them, we are supposed to remember where we were when God found us. Hardwired into the DNA of every Christian is a salvation story of "Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:10). We have all been brought from darkness to light and from being orphans into God's family. When we see these people, we are to remember and worship God and then turn around and love them because God first loved us. The Christian who turns away from the poor, the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner has forgotten his own salvation and has placed his faith in himself or in other things to save him. He has put other gods before God because his heart is not broken in dependence before God and poured out in love for others. When we come to Christ, a change is to occur in how we see other people, especially those in need.
Deuteronomy 24:17-22 - “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
Deuteronomy 26:5-13 “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you. “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.
Ruth (2:8-13) - Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”
The Book of Ruth is a story about Elimelech and Naomi fleeing Judah to go to Moab because of famine in the land. Then, they stay and marry their sons to Moabite daughters. But, Elimelech dies as do Naomi's sons and she is left with only her daughter's in law and a recognition that she needs to return back to Judah. Ruth goes with her and promises that she will not leave her. Upon her arrival in Judah (Bethlehem, to be exact), she is allowed to glean the fields of Boaz, in obedience to the command of the law to leave the left overs of the field for the sojourners. But, Boaz does more than that. He acts as the Kinsmen Redeemer for Naomi's family and marries Ruth so that they will be taken care of. Boaz and Ruth become ancestors of King David, and thus Jesus. In this, Boaz serves as a type of Christ who redeems the widowed sojourner who is vulnerable and alone, thus giving us a picture of salvation and what God, in Christ, does for us. If Boaz is a type of Christ, then Ruth is a picture of the Bride of Christ, the Church. At the very core of this salvation message is a picture of an immigrant woman being welcomed and redeemed by a man who serves as a picture of Jesus. We cannot understand our salvation properly without seeing it through the eyes of sojourners who have been redeemed by the God who sees them.
Psalms 146:8-9 - "the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin."
Proverbs 31:8-9 - be a voice for the voiceless - defend the rights of the poor and needy. "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." (NIV) When he have an opportunity, we should speak on behalf of those who have no voice and who are oppressed.
Jeremiah 7:5-7 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
Jeremiah 22:3 - Thus says the Lord : Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
Ezekiel 22:4-8 - You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; your name is defiled; you are full of tumult. “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.
Written by Alan Cross