Daily Encouragement: Foreign

"Do not exploit the foreigners in your land. They should be treated like everyone else, and you must love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I, the Lord, am your God." (Leviticus 19:33-34)

We've come to the last two days of working through Leviticus 19, and today our focus is on our treatment of foreigners. This stirs up all sorts of things in me, so I'm going to try to focus on just a few.

First, let's look at what a foreigner would mean to those of us here in America, or more specifically, here in Texas. This of course would be anyone who is a "non-resident" or an "alien" of Texas whether legal or illegal. For us it is not only those who have moved here from Mexico (our neighbor to the south), but like many other states in the U.S., we have a huge variety of people who have come here because of the freedom and opportunity available here that is found nowhere else on earth.

God says that the non-residents or "foreigners" should be treated like everyone else and that we should love them just like we love ourselves. What does that mean to you? Consider how you think and talk about people who are not native Texans or full-fledged Americans--does this line up with how God wants us to think and talk?

A second piece that this stirs in me goes back to the study of the book of Ruth I've mentioned in recent posts. Ruth was a foreigner that arrived in Bethlehem with Naomi, her mother-in-law. There were God's laws that were to help and protect the foreigners, but the story of Ruth occurred during the time of the judges when the people were corrupt and "did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. Then they did what was evil in the Lord's sight." (Judges 2:10b-11) So, the fact that Boaz noticed Ruth and was kind to her was not an expected response taking in the current trend in societal behavior in the land of Judah at the time. If he had not treated her as God had commanded, we would not have this amazing story of God's redemption of a woman many of us can relate to on one level or another, and she would not have been in the record of the ancestors of Jesus, our redeemer. Of all things, Jesus had foreign blood in him, too!

Now, the third thing stems from our own status in God's kingdom for those of us who are not of Jewish descent. We were all considered gentiles or foreigners. We were all "far off" before we came to Christ and have been adopted into the family of God. The least we could do is to treat others who are foreigners in the same way we would like to be treated, and we need to go even further and love them with the love of Christ. How does He love you? In what ways does He show you? How can you imitate Him today?

I encourage you to consider your thoughts, your speech, and your actions today with regard to the non-residents and unbelievers with whom you come into contact. What needs to change in the light of Leviticus 19:33-34?

by Wendie Beddingfield