Opus 2017-158: Digging into Deuteronomy: Immigrants

(Deuteronomy 1:16 NAS77)  "Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, 'Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him.

Immigration is a big issue today in the United States.  It has been an issue from the beginning of our history.  As should be expected the Bible has something to say about it.  The legal structure of Israel made allowance for dealing with the “alien” (1616).  This is the first reference to non-Jews in Deuteronomy.  There are more.  I have noticed three issues. 

First is the concept of justice even for foreigners.

(Deuteronomy 24:14 NAS77)  "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.

(Deuteronomy 24:17 NAS77)  "You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow's garment in pledge.

(Deuteronomy 27:19 NAS77)  'Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

I remind you that the Biblical idea of justice has nothing to do with the modern mantra involving “social justice”.  That is just a way of pushing a left wing agenda.  Real justice is based on unchanging truth and values.  Real justice does not change based on who is in power.  Write that down and underline it if you need to. 

The Bible says that even the alien is to receive justice.

A second principle for aliens is that they were also expected to celebrate the Sabbath.

(Deuteronomy 5:14 NAS77)  but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

The day of rest was a principle established by God for all of creation.  It did not just apply to an in crowd or ruling party

All of this being said, the third principle is that foreigners are not always held to the same standard of Jews.

(Deuteronomy 14:21 KJV)  Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

God did not expect the non-Jew to follow the same dietary laws as His people.  Food that would be rejected for a Hebrew was okay for a gentile.  This is a focused verse but it shows you the principle.

These are principles that should be taken into consideration as we think about the aliens in our midst.

homo unius libri