Stoned-Campbell Disciple

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MEME? I have seen it a dozen times in two days. The meme is used to warn against “illegal” immigrants (aliens). When we read the Bible in order to prove/justify a practice that is unjust we abuse God’s word horrifically. We do not care (apparently) about its actual message. Take this very text

This text, Deuteronomy 28.43-44, is not addressing migrants/aliens in the slightest. Deuteronomy 28 has two sections. The first part, 28.1-14, Moses relates the unending blessings that come to Israel for faithfulness in God’s covenant of hesed.

Part 2 is 28.15-68 is almost like the rest of the history of Israel written before it happened. What will happen when Israel rejects the covenant. In v.25f Yahweh says that Israel’s enemies will come and be victorious over them. This is repeated in various ways. The “foreigners” in v.43 are instruments of punishment for failure to keep the covenant. Interestingly enough, a primary part of keeping that covenant is LOVING THE ALIENS. In fact, God reduces that stereo type of 613 commands to three: Love God; Circumcise your Heart; Love the alien! Loving the aliens is a good test of a circumcised heart.

Verse 43 has not an iota to do with how we treat aliens. The Covenant of Hesed in Deuteronomy is quite explicit on how God’s people are supposed to treat “aliens.” In fact God’s People ARE aliens.

“Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and LOVES THE ALIEN residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And YOU ARE TO LOVE THE ALIEN, for you yourselves were ALIENS in Egypt.” (Deut 10.16-19).

The third year tithe is used in Deuteronomy to care for orphans, widows, Levites AND ALIENS.

“At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the ALIENS, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” (Deut 14.28-29).

So many more texts can be appealed to. Don’t rip the Bible out of context brother in order to support some political agenda.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 20th, 2024 at 9:55 am and is filed under A Gathered People, Contemporary Ethics, Kingdom, Love, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.