God's Law and the Sojourner
Applying God's Word to one of America's highest priority political issues
A survey of the conversation amongst Americans in our day will show us that perhaps one of the greatest priorities voters have is the issue of immigration. Just recently, wild news from just a few hours south of where I live has shocked people from all across the nation- Haitians brought over by our government scrounging up house pets for food (or perhaps, darker purposes. After all, animal sacrifices are very much a part of Haitian worship).
Many Americans are looking at what is going on and feel threatened, perceiving that their homeland is being invaded, and that their communities are going to be replaced by a foreign people with different values and culture, with absolutely zero desire to work together with natural born citizens in a shared commitment to community, religion or ethics.
A myriad of different things could be said about this. This is, of course, an election year- and thus the bulk of this conversation has a political tone. Plenty of Christian voices (including myself) have publicly stated that we believe what is happening is the judgement of God upon our society, dispossessing us of our land due to the blood that is upon our house (see Lev. 18:21-28, Deut. 28:25-34). All the while this madness is going on, and Christians are voicing their differing opinions, politics or what have you- many are being shamed for even acknowledging that there is a problem!
We are told that we are racist, xenophobic and unloving. We are told that to recognize there is a problem happening in our county is to contradict our Christian faith on the basis of such passages as Deuteronomy 10:19 (ESV), “Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt”. After all, the law of God is very clear that sojourners (foreigners living amongst the people of Israel) are not to be oppressed (Ex. 22:21, 23:9, Lev. 19:33, Jer. 7:6, Zech. 7:10, Mal. 3:5), and so we have to honestly ask ourselves, are we wrong to speak against what seems like such an obvious threat? In this article, while I am not going to provide a perfect solution to this issue, I want to help Christians think through God’s law in such a way that they do not need to feel as though they have a guilty conscience for condemning the situation which is at the height of our concerns at the moment.
Love the Sojourner
As previously mentioned, the exhortation to love the sojourner, or not to oppress the sojourner, is one that is found throughout the Bible. When looking at the books of Moses, this command is usually coupled with a reminder that the people of Israel were at one time sojourners in the land of Egypt.
“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” - Exodus 23:9 (ESV)
Looking at the Patriarchs, one sees that this was almost always the case with God’s people historically (Ex. 6:4). The New Testament carries this fundamental principle over to demonstrate that God’s people, living in this fallen world, live as “sojourners and exiles” as we abstain from fleshly passions (1 Peter 2:11). And so, while I think that the specific reality of the Israelites once being sojourners in Egypt applies in somewhat of a “ceremonial” or “spiritual” way in our day, it would be ridiculous to then assert that the principle to love the sojourner (which is typically tied in with loving orphans and widows) is no longer binding! It seems very plain to me, that it is impossible to read the Bible in such a way that we interpret it’s teaching in any other way than that we are to love the sojourner.
The question then becomes, “how?”
You would think that this is the obvious question, but most Christians struggle at this point because we have, for generations, allowed the culture to define love rather than God’s word. For example, how many times has the command “love your neighbor as yourself” been used by people to teach that we should be totally tolerant and acceptable of every kind of sinful choice and lifestyle another person makes? Go to social media, right now, and quote any Bible verse that addresses homosexuality. Your more liberal minded friends (if they haven’t blocked you yet) are almost guaranteed to go to the comments and remind you of God’s command to be loving, as if you forgot. We must avoid this trap! Loving others does not mean and never will mean tolerating sin!
One Law
When studying the passages in the Old Testament law concerning the “sojourner” one very important principle must be heeded- and that is that God is impartial.
“You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” - Leviticus 24:22 (ESV)
One of the most blessed things about the law of God, is that just as God shows no partiality, neither does His law- all people are to be regarded equally under law and shown impartial justice (read more about this here), and following along these lines we have explicit passages in the Scriptures that tell us the same law that was to be followed by the native Israelite was to be followed by the sojourner (this includes the Sabbath, see Ex. 20:8-11). This is shown even in the Old Testament’s penology, take heed of the context of the verse quoted above:
“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” - Leviticus 24:17–22 (ESV)
Therefore, we clearly see that loving the sojourner does not mean permitting the sojourner to run rampant through our communities spreading lawlessness and chaos. If American citizens see foreigners commit acts of violence, driving drunk or even stealing animals to offer to their demon gods; they not only have the right, but they have the duty to speak out against it- for God will judge our land for the iniquity of the sojourner just as much as for our own sins:
“But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you… lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.” - Leviticus 18:26–28 (ESV)
The Sojourner as a Curse
While the Biblical ethic teaches us to love the sojourner and not to oppress him, we saw in our last section that this does not negate the fact that sojourners are still to be held accountable to the law. What we shall see in this section, is that God is perfectly willing and able to use the sojourner as a curse for our disobedience.
A passage that serves as a stumbling block to many modern Christians, yet is perhaps one of the most important in the entire Bible, is the section towards the end of Deuteronomy (chapter 28) which lists God’s blessings for obedience and His curses against disobedience. Whenever I have taught on this passage, I have always pointed out that the list of curses is far longer than the list of blessings. If it’s been a while, I would encourage you to read through the whole chapter, but for now let me highlight some relevant portions:
“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies… And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless. A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see.” - Deuteronomy 28:25–34 (ESV)
“The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.” - Deuteronomy 28:43–44 (ESV)
When I show people these passages, they often wonder if these are some direct future prophecies to the modern state of America- but of course they aren’t, this is simply what God says He will do to that nation which disobeys His law. People may point out that the nation of Israel was uniquely covenanted with God in a way no other nation has been, and while that is true, in keeping with the impartiality of God- He judges even pagan nations by the same standard of law (see Lev. 28:21-28).
To be very blunt and politically incorrect, God says that it is a curse of His when foreigners come into your land, take advantage of the fruits thereof, rape your wives and slaughter your animals. Verse 43 even specifically utilizes the term “sojourner” (גֵּר), describing him rising above you, and you being dependent upon him to borrow. How one can look at what is currently going on in our land, and not see that this is exactly what is happening is beyond me. Our land has been plagued by child sacrifice and every perverse form of sexuality under the sun. We blaspheme God in our education, in our media and in our lives. This is His judgement.
If the sojourner has become a curse to us, if the sojourner is wreaking havoc in our land, Christians have every right, and should have a perfectly clean conscience to speak against what is happening.
Again, the purpose of this article was not to provide a solution to the problem. Many Christians want to work diligently in the political realm to fight against threatening forms of “immigration”. I do not condemn these brothers, but I think at this point what we need is national repentance. We need God’s mercy. At the very least, I have written this piece so that my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ do not need to feel shame as they process what is taking place before their eyes- the only shame we need to feel is over any way in which our personal sin has contributed to the moral degradation and decline that has made our country so deserving of judgement.