Tag: Exodus 22:21

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 22:21

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“You must not exploit a resident alien or oppress him, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Immigration and border security are two of the hottest political topics in our nation right now. The reasons for this are pretty obvious too, especially if you live in a community near the southern border or one of the major cities were thousands of the immigrants who have crossed the border illegally in the last year are being sent. Having an enormous influx of new residents who don’t speak the language, don’t know the culture, don’t have much in the way of means of supporting themselves, and who may likely owe debts to the criminal cartels who facilitated their getting here in the first place is a recipe for a social and economic disaster. How we should solve this problem as a nation is far beyond the scope of what we could possibly tackle here. How we as followers of Jesus should think about and act toward these folks, on the other hand, is a fair bit clearer. Let’s talk about what we see here, and what it reveals about the character of God.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 22:21

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“You must not exploit a resident alien or oppress him, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Being the new kid is tough. From the moment you walk into the room, it feels like everybody is looking at you suspiciously. Who are you? What are you like? Are you going to upset the fragile social structure they have managed to achieve in their time together without you? Okay, that last question may not be asked intentionally or out loud, but it’s there all the same. This kind of thing happens on a small scale in something like a classroom. It also happens on the much larger scale of nations. There are people living in our country who were not born here. The question we have to wrestle with as a nation because of this is: What is to be done with all of these people? That’s a political question with no easy answers. There’s another question, though, that often gets ignored in public debates (except perhaps to score political points), but is nonetheless just as important: How should they be treated? For followers of Jesus, this one is much easier to answer. Let’s talk about it for a few minutes this morning.

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