There are passages that certain groups like to use as cudgels in order to attempt to beat believers into submission on the issue of immigration.
The probelm with those sorts of interpretations is that they rarely differentiate, inmportantly, between legal and illegal.
So, I will briefly cover Leviticus 19:34, the phrase in question, and what it acutally implies. The text reads:
“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 L-rd your G-d.”
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you.
Meaning, they were willing to engage with the legal process necessary to walk as citizens. Meaning, not amnesty, but rather, these immigrants were to be treated not merely with the rights, but also the responsibilities due citizens of a nation.
This precludes people coming into the nation of Israel illegally, while rejecting the rule of law. With rights come the responsibilities.
Looking at the situation with Ruth who immigrated from Moab, she clearly took an informal oath of citizenship (Ruth 1:16-17 ESV):
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the L-RD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Ruth invokes the COVENANT (legal, law, Torah) name of HaShem here., calling Him “L-RD”. This brings with it the Law of Moses. And coming here legally, includeing Leviticus 19:34, and the history of Egyptians and others that chose to come and celebrate the Passover and the feasts.
Ruth didn’t just steal across the border and ignore Jericho, the city that protected the boundary of the promised land. She said she would become as a citizen and subject herself to the same laws that the L-RD imposed on His people.
Application:
Most memes and arguments that I have seen, and I dare say, you have seen, dear friend, that call believers heartless for ignoring the plight of the immigrant do not make a distinction between those who come here legally and those who come here illegally. But the rule of law and Scripture are both clear.
Observe the principle illustrated in John 10:1.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” (John 10:1 KJV).
Your responsibility in dealing with immigrants is to make a distinction between those who come here legally, and those who come here by some other way.
And your job further is to reject the gaslighting of those who refuse to parse out and handle the nuance between legal and illegal.
The process for coming here is not heartless. Rather, it is designed to protect us from those who would seek to do us harm.
So, beloved, I bless your spirit to be present. Spirit, I bless you to see the King as not cruel nor a heartless taskmaster, but someone who seeks to Shepherd you and in so doing, protect you from wolves and coyotes and those who seek your harm. I bless you to see the ways, all the ways, the King and the Shepherd cares for you. I bless you to know and realize that there are times when people are not allowed in and that system is set in place not to punish any person, but to protect those who are citizens.
I bless you to see the applications not just in geographic masses but also in spiritual kingdoms. There is a reason, spirit, why HaShem filters out and blocks thieves and murderers from coming.
I bless you with purpose and understanding and compassion for those who wish to come in via the Gate, versus those who mean you harm.
I bless your discerment to be sharp as a tack. And I bless you to know the reality of what is required of us as children of the kingdom.
I bless you with a deep revelation of the Love of G-d. And I bless you with a comprehensive revelation of the manifold ways He keeps you safe, spirit.
Be at peace, in the name of Yeshua.
Amein
