By: Dale Weckbacher
Exodus 22:21
"You shall
neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land
of Egypt.
NKJV
I came across the above scripture in my personal Bible study
recently. With all that is going on
regarding illegal immigration and the incursion of masses of people from South
America at our nation’s southern border, I found this scripture somewhat disturbing. If we look solely at this scripture, we might
arrive at the conclusion that the Christian thing for our nation to do is
invite these people in and give them whatever they need. Politicians like former Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi who equated the children coming across our southern border with
the baby Jesus support this belief. (1) Potential Presidential candidate Jeb Bush
also recently said that illegally crossing our border is an act of love. (2) However, before we jump to the conclusion
that Nancy Pelosi and Jeb Bush are totally correct theologically, we must look at the context of this scripture and
the totality of scripture. When we do we
will see that God is not instructing Israel to just open up their borders to
everyone but wants his people to treat others humanely while insuring the
security of their nation.
This command from God occurs when the nation of Israel is
encamped at the foot of Mount Saini. God
has just miraculously delivered them from 400 years of Egyptian slavery. The slavery of the Israelites was brutal and
God does not want his people to become like their Egyptian slaveholders and
instead wants them to treat strangers humanely.
In this time in history, there were also many Bedouin tribes
in the area and it was common for them to wonder through the country. God knew that there would be a temptation to
enslave these people when they wondered into the country and did not want his
people known as brutal slaveholders. Instead,
God wanted his people to stand out as people who treated strangers in their
land with compassion, something uncommon in the ancient world.
Perhaps another reason
God did not want his people to enslave these strangers is that in doing
so, they would be making them permanent residents in the land and could be
tempted to adopt the culture and practices of these people. To
become a permanent resident in Israel, one was required to:
1)
Keep the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10)
2)
Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread
(Deuteronomy 16:14)
3)
Bring the appropriate sacrifice for sins of
ignorance (Numbers 15:27-29)
4)
Observe the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29)
5)
Observe the commandments, statures, and
judgments of God’s Law (Exodus 12:49) (3)
Unfortunately, Israel did not follow the instructions of God
regarding strangers in their land and adopted the gods of the nations that
surrounded them. This resulted in a
division in the kingdom (1 Kings 12:1-17) and the eventual exile of the people
of Israel and Judah (2 Kings 24:13-16, 25:1-21). .
When we look at the totality of scripture, we can discern a
balance. God’s people are to treat
strangers humanely but that does not mean they are to incorporate them into
their society. This biblical balance is
the basis of the immigration laws in the United States. People are welcome to come to the United States
and the citizens of the United States for the most part treat them
humanely. However, we have to expect
them to follow the laws and customs of our nation.
Unfortunately, those currently entering our nation begin by
breaking the laws of our nation and expect the citizens of our country to cater
to their needs and even their customs by not requiring them to learn our
language. We feed the minors currently
crossing our southern border, give them shelter, and even health care so we are
treating them humanely. However, they
did not choose to enter our country according to our immigration laws so we
must send them back to their parents where they belong.
Granted, the nations they are coming from have serious
problems with drug cartels, human trafficking, and poverty but it is not the
responsibility of the United States to solve their problems by supporting
them. Instead, the citizens of these
countries must rise up and change their government just as we did in our
country when we won our freedom from the British Empire and when we fought to
end slavery in our nation during the Civil War.
Prior to passing any immigration reform, we must beef up
border security to insure our nation remains secure. This can be accomplished using technology and
increased border personnel. We can also
use technology to increase the efficiency and lower the cost of legally
entering this country so more will be encouraged to come to our country
legally. Lastly, anyone entering our
country must obey the laws of our nation or face immediate deportation.
The current invasion of our southern border represents a
serious security risk to our nation for we do not know exactly who is crossing
and what their intentions are. There is
also the threat of serious disease including the possibility of Ebola, for
which there is currently an outbreak, sneaking across the border. (4) Unfortunately, our leaders are more
interested in potential political gains instead of the security of the citizens
and voters of the nation.
We must do as Jeff Sessions recently suggested and continue
flooding the phone lines and emails of Congress and the White House expressing
our desire for a secure border and the enforcement of our nation’s immigration
laws for failure to do this, I believe, will result in the eventual loss of our
American lifestyle.
1. Weber, Katherine. Nancy Pelosi Says
Immigrant Children Should Be Treated Like Baby Jesus. www.christianpost.com.
[Online] Christian Post Reporter, July 24, 2014. [Cited: July 29, 2014.]
http://www.christianpost.com/news/nancy-pelosi-says-immigrant-children-should-be-treated-like-baby-jesus-123768/.
2. Breitbart TV.
JEB BUSH: CROSSING THE BORDER ILLEGALLY AN 'ACT OF LOVE'. www.breitbart.com.
[Online] Breitbart News, April 6, 2014. [Cited: June 24, 2014.]
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/04/06/Jeb-Bush-Crossing-The-Border-Illegally-Is-An-Act-Of-Love.
3. The Bible Study
Site. What does the Bible say about illegal aliens. www.biblestudy.org. [Online]
The Bible Study Site. [Cited: July 29, 2014.]
http://www.biblestudy.org/question/what-does-bible-say-about-aliens.html.
4. Zahn, Drew.
Could Ebola Sneak Across the U.S. Border. www.wnd.com. [Online] WND,
July 28, 2014. [Cited: July 29, 2014.] http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/could-ebola-sneak-across-u-s-border/.
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