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
Tag: Jesus
Names of G-d: Hebrews 4:12: The Word of G-d Is Quick and Powerful… Hint: It’s Not Talking About Scripture
“HE is sharper than any two-edged sword…..“
“HE is able to divide between Joints and Marrow, soul and spirit…”
“HE is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart”
Hebrews 4:12, more accurately translated.
Real talk, gang.
Hebrews 4 is about Jesus. The whole thing is about Jesus.
And given it is about Jesus, let this reality sink in, Verse 12 is not talking about the Bible, unless the writer of Hebrews switches the implication of the objective case in Verse 12.
Proof of this? Verse 13
“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Not “no creature will be hidden from IT’S sight.”
HIS sight. He divides.
Those who incessantly say the Bible is the Word of G-d while refusing to say Jesus is the Word of G-d and refusing to give Jesus HIS due in that office as the Word need to seriously consider the strength and work of the PERSON who was the Word of G-d BEFORE giving credence to the Bible as the Word of G-d. For the Bible is only the Word because Jesus is the Word. And the Bible’s Wordness derives from Jesus’ Wordness.
He is not the testimony if it.
Rather, it is the testimony of Him.
It’s fine to know the text of the Bible.
But what makes one a follower of Jesus is the one who Knows Jesus, the Word of G-d Himself.
Know the difference. And learn to relate to the Man as well as you know the book.
And keep reaching Higher.
Our walk os a relationship with a Man.
Not a book. And not a set of propositions.
Just saying.