Deuteronomy - Lesson 26

The alien in your midst. I debated whether or not we should deal with this topic. I mean, we have a couple that we need to cut out, and this is the one that I debated. But it struck me that we are facing a contemporary issue, that contemporary circumstances force us to deal with these issues, to see how all Scripture is our Scripture. And what might Deuteronomy have to say to instruct us on the contemporary problem in our land. And it’s not only in our land, it’s all over the world as Christians have to deal with the other, the alien in their midst. 

So, let’s look at The Alien in your Midst: Covenant Ethics with Heart. We begin with a couple of introductory texts. We don’t need to read far into the addresses of Deuteronomy before we are confronted by the remarkably compassionate and fundamentally humanitarian ethic that characterizes Moses’ worldview. And that’s what he’s doing in Deuteronomy. He is not providing a law for every circumstance. He’s providing a picture of covenant life, covenant righteousness, godliness in such away that you can apply it to any circumstance in life. We don’t need legislation on every topic. But if you know that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your resources and your neighbor as yourself, that’ll cover a lot of circumstances, and it’ll cover this one too, even though their situation is different from ours. But it’s a worldview we’re after. 

In the first part of his first address, Moses recalls, while they’re still at Sinai, he recalls Israel’s preparation for resuming the journey to the promised land after 15 months at Horeb. Prior to the departure, he appoints a cadre of leaders of the tribes whom the people had recommended to assist him with the administration of this host. “You are such a heavy burden; I can’t carry you anymore.” And at that time, he had laid on them the formal charge to administer justice righteously and without partiality. Here’s his address: 

“I charged your judges at that time:” and he remembered his speech. He pulled it out of the files. “Hear the cases of your fellow Israelites and judge them righteously,” ṣedeq, (there’s that word) “whether the case involves only Israelites or aliens in their households. Be impartial in the administration of justice; hear the cases of insignificant people just as you do the cases of important people.” I mean, right off the bat, they haven’t even left Sinai, they are a long way from the Promised Land yet but there were aliens who came out of Egypt with them, non-Israelites. What are we going to do with them? And I’m sure all along the way they were encountering. 

And then he says, “Do not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment belongs to God.” Ultimately, we are accountable to Him. “And any case that’s too difficult for you, bring to me, I will hear it. And at that time, I charged you with full responsibility for everything you were to do.” 

Now, whether Moses had in mind administrative justice on the journey to the Promised Land or once they were settled in the land, it’s remarkable that in this opening sentence, he includes aliens, as opposed to the Israelites. The Israelites are a vast extended family. It’s a kinship group. But hey, there are people who are with us. How do we handle them? 

By contrast, resident alien, a gẽr. Here’s a definition: he is an outsider who voluntarily joins this group, usually temporarily, something like a Gast Arbeiter, a guest worker from outside, presumably for economic reasons. There’s not work at home so we come to your place and see if we can work for you. 

Elsewhere in the book, Moses tends to group aliens together with other economically and socially marginalized groups. These are the vulnerable. It’s very important for us [recte not] to become ingrown and to not only mistreat the others, but ignore them. And he identifies widows, the fatherless, who are vulnerable because they do not have a male figure at the head of the household to protect and care for the family members. 

Remarkably, in this quintessential national context, the whole book of Deuteronomy is all about what does it mean to be an Israelite? And even as he thinks about that, he’s got his eyes open to the aliens. What does it mean to be an Israelite in relation to aliens, and what are they to think about Israelites after having had contact with us? He opens their eyes to them. 

Chronologically, the next reference to the alien in the book antedates, happened actually even earlier than that one, because it’s embedded in the Decalogue. The commandment on the Sabbath from Yahweh’s own mouth at Horeb, “Guard the Sabbath day by sanctifying it, as Yahweh your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath belonging to Yahweh your God. On it you shall not do any work – you or your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your ox or your donkey, or any of your animals, or the alien within your gates.” Notice they are distinguished from slaves. Slaves are property. You own them. They are legally a part of the household. The alien isn’t. He’s free to come and go as he pleases. “So that your male and female servant may rest.” 

And then notice the motivation. “Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, but Yahweh your God, brought you out of there with a strong hand and outstretched arm. Therefore, He commanded you to observe the Sabbath.” And we should add, “And to see to it that everybody else in your household has a Sabbath, too.” That’s your charge. 

Well, addressed to the head of the household, this command calls not only for guarding the Sabbath day, but also for guarding the needs of and right to rest of all the working members of the household, including children, servants, draft animals, and resident aliens. 

This quintessential covenant document calls for an ethic of covenant commitment to the well-being of anybody who touches our lives. Or whose lives we touch. 

The reference to gates. They didn’t have gates as they moved from Horeb to the Promised Land. They were, they were camping. They don’t have walls and fences around this place. But this is obviously anticipating life in a settled land. 

Well, the command ends with, “Therefore Yahweh your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath.” God had elevated the command high above mere ontological duty. Don’t do it just because God tells you to. He makes it an act of compassion, heart, sensitivity by reminding the Israelites what it was like to be a slave yourself in a hostile environment without access to the rights and privileges of the host community. Israelites are not to treat aliens in their midst as they had been treated. They are not to become little pharaohs. But they are to treat them as they wished desperately they had been treated. That’s the case. 

The core texts in Deuteronomy. Those are anticipatory texts, now let’s go to the core texts. The word gėr, alien, resident alien, occurs 22 times. If the concentration of occurrences is the standard by which we establish which texts are the most important, then 24:14 to 21 is core. Almost one-fourth of these occurrences are in this little text 24:14 to 21. 

This passage is the second of two sets of instructions on “Pursuing Covenant Righteousness in Social and Economic Relationships.” 

The first section is, well, these are found in 24:6 to 25:16. (Part one comes in 23:15 to 25.) 

In chapter 24, we have the discussion of a whole bunch of topics Pursuing Covenant Righteousness in Social and Economic Relationships. 

One, depriving a person of access to food. This is very interesting. We need to go there, chapter 24:6. Let your fingers do the walking. “No one shall take a hand mill or an upper millstone in pledge for he would be taking a life in pledge.” What in the world is that? Now by hand mill, he doesn’t mean these big turning wheels. You couldn’t carry off somebody’s gristmill. He means the little hand grinders that people have with a dish and then a stone on top that you grind your flour. Don’t take the top stone of this combination, because without the top stone, the bottom one is useless. You might as well take both. And if you take the top one, you’ve deprived that person of food. He can’t make flour, or she can’t make flour. out of the grain. 

Or safeguarding justice in the administration of justice. This is 25:1 to 3. 

Safeguarding righteousness in the treatment of animals, 25 verse four, “You shall not muzzle the ox while it is treading your grain.” 

Maintaining righteousness in the face of shameful male behavior, 25:5 to 10 

Shameful female behavior, 25:11 to 12, 

13 to 16, safeguarding righteousness in business transactions. And here we’re talking about keeping your scales fine-tuned so that they don’t cheat. Righteous, you know. 

But let’s look at verses 17 to 18, depriving the poor of justice. “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 Yahweh your God redeemed you from there; for this reason, I command you to do this.” Again, notice the motivation. It’s like the Decalogue command, “You were slaves in Egypt.” 

Verses 19 to 22, depriving the poor of food. Back to that. “When you reap the harvest in your field, and you forget a sheaf in the field, don’t go back to get it.” Leave it there. An alien will come by and say, “Aha, here’s some grain already cut for me, it’s already tied into a bundle.” “The alien, the foreign resident, the fatherless, and the widow, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you knock down the fruit from your olive tree, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreign resident, the fatherless, and the widow.” And then the grapes. “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not glean what is left. What remains will be for the foreign resident, the fatherless and the widow.” And then again, “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. For this reason I am commanding you to do this.” Remember what it was like when you didn’t have enough food. Be generous in leaving stuff for others to come and pick up. 

And of course, here Boaz is a prime model, isn’t he? I love Boaz, not because he quotes Scripture, not because he has any pious prayers or whatnot, not because the author tells you he is living according to the Torah, whatever, but because he just lives according to the Torah. In the Book of Ruth, you’ve got all sorts of Torah customs implicated. There’s the Levirate marriage. There is the institution of redemption. There is what to do—well, actually, in chapter 3, when Naomi tells Ruth to go out to the field and spend the night where the men spend the night, scarcely a proper thing to do. But it works out. And Boaz wakes up at midnight and he discovers this woman is lying next to him. And he says, “Who are you?” And she says, “I am your handmaiden.” “Oh, yeah, you’re Ruth, the Moabite. It figures, that’s what Moabites do.” And any righteous male would have shooed her off immediately, because I have nothing to do with people like you. This we know from Hosea and elsewhere that at harvest time women, prostitutes, would go out to the fields to offer their services because the men were sleeping out there to guard the results of their work from four-legged marauders or two-legged marauders, and the women would offer their services. 

But here’s Boaz as the operative. What does he do? “Who are you?” And instead of cursing her, instead of damning her, he blesses her and he says, “The whole town knows what a noble woman you are.” This is from Proverbs chapter 31. No one else in the Bible is ever called a noble woman. Only Ruth. She’s an alien. She is an alien. 

And as for when she comes, and she tells her mother-in-law in the morning, I would like to go and glean in the field of someone who might be gracious. She knows this is Israel in the period of the judges. The way men treat women in the Book of Judges is awful. I have an essay out on that somewhere - Crimes Unspeakable: The Abuse of Women in the Book of Judges. We’re in the period of the judges. And she knows that she is putting her life on the line if she goes to glean in the field. Not only is she a widow all by herself, she has nobody to defend her, but she’s a Moabite. And Israelites don’t like Moabites. In the Book of Ruth, the Moabite motif is very, very strong. 

But the interesting thing is to Boaz, that doesn’t matter at all. When he meets her out in the field, he says, “Whose maiden is that?” Of course, he assumes she’s attached to some man somewhere. And the field supervisor says, “Well, she’s the woman who came from Moab with Naomi.” 

And what does Boaz do? He says, “Hey, welcome to the field. Glean wherever you want, when you’re thirsty, go to the water jug that we’ve provided for all the workers. Help yourself and be right at home.” And then when they sit down to eat, he says, “Come eat with us.” And he says, “Here, have some bread and here’s some sauce in which to dip his bread.” And it’s the most amazing story. 

And in the context of this, he establishes what is, in my mind, the earliest recorded anti-sexual harassment policy in history. And he tells his guys, “Don’t you touch or don’t you abuse her.” He’s got three or four different expressions. He looks out for this Moabite woman who is absolutely vulnerable and helpless. 

Well, and what happens in chapter three? No, no, in chapter two, about verse 12, Ruth is absolutely amazed at his kindness. Why in the world? She falls down before him. Why have you been so kind to me? She cannot believe it. And he says, “May you be blessed by Yahweh the God of Israel under whose wings you have sought refuge.” Really? Where are the wings of God in this picture? He is the wings of God. “You’ve come to my field.” And so, he offers her absolute protection and security and freedom. And he says, stay in my fields. Don’t go to another person. They might molest you. I mean, it’s Israel in the dark days of the judges. Stay here. You’re safe here. And I’ll tell my women to watch out for you. It’s an amazing story. He didn’t have to do this. 

But Boaz is true to Torah. He’s a guy guided by Torah, driven by the Spirit. He got the point. And then when he redeems Ruth and the property, nothing in the laws of Deuteronomy or Leviticus fits this circumstance. He’s not obligated to marry Ruth. If we would get that far, in chapter 25 where you’ve got the law of the Levirate marriage, if two brothers live together, that’s on that compound, we had the picture of the compound there. One of them is married and his wife dies; they have no children. Then what happens? The other brother marries the wife and the first child of that marriage becomes legally the son of the deceased to carry on the name of the family. That doesn’t apply to this situation at all. 

But here’s a guy who says, “I don’t need a law to regulate every circumstance.” Just do the right thing. And of course, he’s got this picture of covenant righteousness in his mind. And what would Jesus do? He views himself as the wings of God to this alien. It’s a brilliant Deuteronomic image that we have here. I love that story. 

Well, we also have in chapter ten verses 16 to 19, we have the ethical principle of Imitatio Dei. We talked about this the other day. “Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer for Yahweh your God is the God of gods, Lord of lords, a great, mighty awesome God, who shows no partiality, accepts no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless, the widow, and demonstrates love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.” Well, it’s good for God to do that, but I’m not in this picture. This is about God’s charity. Except he adds, “You must also demonstrate love for the resident alien, since that’s what you were in the land of Egypt.” 

So, there are two reasons for doing this. One, you know what it feels like to be on the other side of this equation. And two, this is how God treats them. So, you are His images. This is walking according to the way of God, walking like God walks. Showing care and compassion. 

There are some other exceptions where resident aliens get exceptional treatment. You do for them what you wouldn’t do for your own people. Chapter 10:16, “You may not eat any meat of any animal that has died.” But this is not chapter ten, this is chapter 14, “That has died (naturally or accidentally); you may give it to the resident alien within your gates. He may eat it. You may sell it to a foreigner. You are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God.” 

So, I mean, don’t throw it in the trash. Use it as a gift of kindness to somebody who needs it. And so, it is. I am not allowed to eat it. That doesn’t mean it is absolutely in principle, absolutely taboo. It’s not defiled. It’s unclean ceremonially, but it’s not defiled. Eating non-kosher food is obviously not a moral issue, but a cultural, as defined by Yahweh. Acts 15 says it remains binding for Christians. But in this context, I mean, if an alien who you’re presumably Yahwist, worshiper of Yahweh, if they want to eat it, feel free. 

There’s are notes of special charity for the marginalized. “Don’t forget the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce of that year and store it within your gates.” This is - don’t take it down to Jerusalem, the central sanctuary, store it in your town warehouse, deliberately. 

“Then the Levite who has no portion or inheritance among you, the resident alien, the fatherless, the widow within you they can come and eat and be satisfied. And Yahweh your God will bless you in all the work that your hands do.” There’s a correlation between the openness of people’s hands and the blessing of people’s hands. Open your hands to the poor, the marginal, and God will bless you. 

But of course, this is not, “Be charitable to the poor in order that God will bless you.” That’s not the point. I know some preachers, he’s deceased now, but in his book, he writes, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God that all these things may be added unto you.” That’s fertility religion. This is not compassion to the poor: we give that we may get. No, it’s the other way around. God is not obligated to bless people who are not charitable to the poor. That’s the way we need to interpret this one. And of course, in the process, we remember that that’s where we once were. 

Chapter 16: Inviting Resident Aliens Into the Dramas of Redemption. We talked about this earlier this morning in another session, the Festival of Shavuot, of Weeks. “Count seven weeks, counting the weeks from the time of the sickle is first put to the standing grain. You are invited to observe the Festival of Weeks to Yahweh your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how Yahweh your God has blessed you. Celebrate before Yahweh your God in the place He chooses to have His name dwell – you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite within your gates, as well as the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow among you.” So, those who are legally part of your household but don’t neglect those who are not part of your household. 

And of course, back to the story about the widow’s oil yesterday. That widow and her two sons, nobody in Israel was obligated to care for them because they were part of their household. No, they were left all by themselves. Nobody was looking out for them. And so, they could be legalists and say, they’re not under my roof, I have no obligation. But the roof is bigger than your house. It’s the community. And here you have it. And again, “Remember you were slaves in Egypt.” 

Well, then in verse 13, “You’re invited to the pilgrimage Festival of Booths, for seven days when you’ve gathered in everything from the threshing floor and the winepress. Celebrate - you, your son, your male, female slave, the Levite, the resident alien, the fatherless, the widow within your gates. For seven days observe the pilgrimage.” Pay their hotel bills the whole seven days. “Because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and you will have abundant joy.” Again, God is not obligated to bless those who will not bless others. 

I think this is why in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus makes our forgiving others the standard of God’s forgiving us. “Forgive us our trespasses as we have forgiven those who trespass against us.” God is not obligated to forgive us if we refuse to forgive others. And so here you have it again. 

Now in chapter 26, where he presents an offering at the central sanctuary, and he is confessing God’s grace in history and God’s grace in the harvest, “He has brought us to this place given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. I have now brought the first of the land’s produce that You Yourself have given me. You must then place the container before Yahweh your God, prostrate before Him. You, the Levite, the resident alien among you, may celebrate together in the good that Yahweh your God has lavished on you and your household. And when you have finished presenting the whole tenth of your produce in the third year, the year of the tenth, then you are to give it to the Levite, the resident, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. Then you shall say in the presence of Yahweh your God: I have taken the consecrated portion out of my house; I have also given it to the Levite, I have given it to the resident alien, to the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commands. I have not violated or forgotten your commands.” 

We’ll come back to this text tomorrow when we look at chapter 26. It’s a very interesting passage, prescribing a private worship moment in the central sanctuary where the declaration of the creed is a very important part of the ritual. 

But here in these verses, he says, he prescribes, “When you are presenting this to the Lord your God, you say, “Before I brought it here,” past tense, “I’ve taken the consecrated portion out of my house.” I’ve reserved it. I’ve set it aside for the Levite, the alien and the fatherless. And what I bring now is not a part of that. It’s extra. But I am reminding myself that I’ve done my ethical duty before I do my liturgical duty. If our life isn’t a life of worship, the cultic stuff we do in church means nothing to God, nothing positive. It could mean something to God. It’s actually negative if it is not that way. 

Well, in 27, in a few places, we have the consequences of not maintaining justice for the alien. What happens if we don’t? Remember those 12 curses? At the end of the ritual, when they cross the Jordan at Mount Gerizim and Ebal, 12 curses. Verse 19, “Cursed is anyone who perverts the justice due the alien, the fatherless, and the widow. And all the people say, ’Amen.’” They sign on. That is really heavy. They are saying, in effect, “May I be damned if I don’t do this;” that’s what they’re signing on to. 

Or the next chapter. “Now, if you will not faithfully listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, and are not careful to put into practice all those commands that I charge you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. “You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner. “Whirring insects will take possession of all your trees and your land’s produce.” This is from chapter 28. “The resident alien among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.” 

You see the correlation? If you don’t live according to the revealed will of God in the Torah, assuming that the resident alien is sociologically beneath you, if you persist in not living in obedience to God, this whole thing tips over and the resident alien takes your place. That’s a part of the curse. 

And so, “He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He will be the head and you will be the tail. All these curses will come, pursue, and overtake you.” And here the curses are presented like a wild animal that’s after you. 

Again, the picture is the opposite of. Did we talk about this the other day? I forget where I’ve talked about whatever. Psalm 23, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Surely goodness and mercy will hound me all the days of my life.” The verb there is not follow; it’s ‘pursue me.’ Goodness, ṭôḇ, ḥeseḏ. God sends after us the hounds of heaven, goodness and mercy. No. What happens here, these curses will, God will send after you, His curses. Disaster. Upsetting everything. Chaos. All these curses will come and overtake you and devour you since you didn’t obey Yahweh your God to keep the commands. So, there you’ve got the aliens. 

How about chapter 29? (That was 28.) These are the final procedures of the covenant ceremony. “All of you are standing today before Yahweh your God, your leaders, tribes, elders, officials, all the men of Israel, children, wives, resident aliens in your camps who cut wood and draw your water.” What? What are they doing here? They have been invited to participate in the covenant renewal ceremonies, which means technically, not just morally, technically, they have signed on. And you know that when they’re standing beside you, affirming this, you are becoming brothers and sisters to them and they are accepting them as your brothers and sisters. This is an amazing image. 

It caught me by such surprise originally when it dawned on me that this is not a narrow ethnocentric enterprise. The world is in view. “I’ve set you high above the nations for praise, honor and glory so that the world will say,” “You know, I wish I was a resident alien living in Israel. Wouldn’t that be cool? Because that is paradise.” “See how they love one another.” Yes. 

Well. But notice even at the end. “So that you may enter into the covenant, He may establish you today as His people, and He may be your God as He promised and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Really? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were literally the fathers of everybody here. And of course, this opens up the door to Paul’s discussion of what does it mean to be the seed of Abraham in Romans chapter four. I mean, it’s amazing. Built into the Torah is the integration of outsiders who are not physical seed of Abraham, but they choose to be spiritual seed of Abraham. 

Caleb is one of these guys. I mean, I’m amazed at Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. That’s an Edomite tribe, they’re not even Israelites. And yet he is so integrated into the life of this community that he represents Judah as the scout, and he is described as a person full after God, Yahweh, full after me. And he has a different spirit. This is a New Covenant believer in Old Covenant times. It’s an amazing story. 

Well, 31, “Then Moses wrote this Torah and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the Ark of the Covenant and all the elders. And he commanded them at the end of every seven years, at the set time of the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before Yahweh your God at the place He will choose, you shall read the Torah before all in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, little ones, resident alien within your towns that they may all learn to hear, hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this Torah and that their children who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you’re going over to Jordan to possess.” 

Again, the aliens are involved in this. In the hearing of the Torah, they are integrated into the covenant community. There’s no reference here to circumcision. They are voluntarily joining the people. 

Well, here’s the Deuteronomic Formula for Life: “Read that they may hear, that they may learn, that they may fear, that they may obey, that they may live.” Who? Aliens. This is the mission. This is the mission. This is a centripetal approach to missions as opposed to the New Testament centrifugal, “Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” We’re not going into all the world. All the world’s coming here. This is the vision: that the world may say, Wow, what a privilege this nation is. Which nation has a God so near and which nation has a Torah so righteous? 

Well, some concluding reflections regarding motivation for compassionate treatment of aliens. A couple of things to notice. 

One, the deontological ethic. We are kind to aliens because God tells us to be. Yeah, but that gets reduced very quickly to a legalistic kind of thing. There’s far more to it. 

Second, we are kind to aliens because God is kind to. Elsewhere He will say, Be holy as I am holy. Here He says, Love the alien as I love alien. This is Imitatio Dei. We walk in the ways of God, which means we walk as God walks. 

Third, a covenantal ethic. Jesus’ summary statement, You shall demonstrate love for the Lord your God with all your inner being, with all your body, and with all your resources, and your neighbor as yourself. And of course, presumably it is with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength toward the neighbor, too. It’s not begrudging charity. Love is what drives us. Not just as a passion and saying, “I love you.” Those words are empty if they’re not demonstrated. Covenantal ethic. 

Memory as motivation. “Remember where you come from.” Most of us come from outside this country. Our roots are, my roots are, in Russia. My father lived through the horrific Stalin purges and all the rest of it. The last image anybody in his family has of my grandfather was in a hospital in Saratov on the Volga River, the last image anybody has of him, he is cut up all in pieces. Horrific. That’s the last we know, 1932. My dad came in 1926 to Canada. 

Terrible stories he lived through and they didn’t all get out. My father’s family didn’t all get out. Most of them got sentenced, schlepped off to the gulag and whatever - horrific. My dad did not like to talk about Russia. No. That’s what we escaped when we’d come to this continent. We remember what it was like. Don’t treat the people coming in the way you were treated back there. You escaped here to get out of that. Kindness. Well, regarding motivation. Yeah. 

Implications for modern discussion. So now the question is, so what? What about all the, you know, people coming in over the southern border? What are we going to do with this? Well, there are a couple of things. Comments. 

One. A Christian response to aliens should differ from standard political responses. We cannot become the talking heads for the political parties. We serve a different King. Our citizenship is elsewhere. Our fundamental disposition is God’s heart. Has to be. Has to be. 

I’m not saying that’s easy. And it’s a very complicated world in which we live, but we live in a world of paranoia where, on the one hand, the aliens become the cause of paranoia, or they become pawns for political advancement. We can’t go there. 

A second point. The arrival of aliens should remind us of our past and awaken in us the determination not to treat them as we were treated in the countries from which we came. For me, on my father’s side, it’s within a generation. On my mother’s side, it’s one generation longer. They escaped something to come here and they found. And we ought to be those kinds of hosts. 

Third. The plight of aliens offers us a chance to display the transforming power of the gospel. So, to come across the border and the first time in their lives they encounter the love of Christ embodied in His people. 

Four. Every alien is an image of God, even the criminal alien. And our response needs to respect that. 

Five, speaking of criminal elements, this may be one of the differences between biblical instructions on the treatment of aliens and what we’ve got going on now. We are all aware that the circumstances under which most of us came here were quite different than they are now. 

We came legally. We moved across the border in 1983 and it was quite a process to get my green card so that I could start teaching my class at Bethel Seminary on a particular day. And it came two days—on the Friday. I was supposed to start teaching on Monday, it came on a Friday. 

So, Friday, quickly we loaded up the truck in Winnipeg and drove down with a U-Haul. And then, while my wife unpacked, I was teaching. That was a process. But we came as green cards. But thankfully, people welcomed us. We found a home and we’ve been here now since 1983. We are very grateful for that, but we came legally. This is a huge difference now. A community must be driven by principle and by laws, and it cannot be chaos. And so, I think that’s where the differences lie. The war. 

They could not have imagined this world. They didn’t have strict boundaries, territorial boundaries like this, but they knew where the boundaries were and they were quite porous. But the people moving around were like Bedouins. They’re not criminals. They’re just trying to stay alive. It’s subsistence existence, and they’re not overtly violating anybody’s laws. 

But what you have happening here is, in Israel they should feel welcome. Make it work for them. That’s very difficult when what we’ve got going on here. It’s difficult to make this one work. And so all of these principles apply, but they complicate what’s going on in this country. And I don’t know what the answers are, but I know what we need to be. We need to be. I mean it. 

We’ve got lots of these people working in the retirement community where we are. And I tell you - the ones working with us are the most pleasant people you’ve ever seen. And I think they’re shocked to find us to be pleasant because the world is so hostile. 

But I’m glad I’m not a politician. I don’t know how I would solve the problem. We have to be a country of laws driven by the principles on which it was founded. That is certainly true. And you have to you have to do all you can to prevent chaos. The country is an extended household, and it is up to the administrators of the household to be sure that everybody who lives here is safe. It’s extremely complicated. 

But I think this is where we need to have lots of conversations among each other. How do we treat these people among us? How do we invite them to the gospel? How do we live with what we have when it’s less than ideal? And make the Lord’s best of it. 

The roofs that show up at the doorstep. I mean, Boaz is amazing. Everybody else in Israel is a jerk at this time, and you’ve got this oasis of righteousness in the household of Boaz. It’s an amazing story. Would that we would be like that. 

Anyhow, that’s probably as far as we can take this. I am not a politician, nor a political scientist, nor sociologist. I just play with the text and I pray to God that it would help me be what I need to be. And that I would be humble in pontificating on how others need to be. Because, at the moment this is how I see it, that doesn’t make it normative. And my way is always open to correction. So, we need to be humble before the Scriptures.