Transcription
The world is in crisis. The number of people forcibly displaced by war, conflict, or persecution recently reached a record high of 60 million. That includes over 15 million refugees all over the world. People are migrating in search of a better life for themselves and for their children.
The result is huge population shifts. Last year, fourteen percent of America's population was foreign-born. It's estimated that over 42% of Sydney, Australia's population is foreign-born. Our demographic landscape is changing dramatically, and we can easily allow the multitude of cultural voices—from political parties to media—to drive the way we feel about the world moving from all nations to all nations. As believers, though, the only outside voice which occurs about this is God. So what does the Bible say about God’s heart for the foreigner? Depending on your Bible translation, you’ll see the words aliens, sojourners, foreigners, and strangers over 100 times in Scripture.
In Deuteronomy alone, God commands His people to love the foreigners, to bless the foreigners, to show sympathy with foreigners, to listen to God’s Word, invite foreigners to holidays and feasts, and to take care of the physical needs of foreigners. Why would God issue such commands? Again, Deuteronomy makes it clear: because the Israelites were once foreigners in Egypt; because the Israelites were slaves, and God redeemed them; and ultimately, so that others can learn to fear the Lord and follow God. God’s instructions on this matter are far beyond what you might initially think.
Think about the story of Ruth. Ruth was a foreigner from Moab who married a Jewish man who died, leaving her widowed. Culturally, Ruth should have returned to her native land to be reunited with her own family and her own people. Indeed, Naomi, her mother-in-law, encourages her to do just that. But Ruth won’t leave. She had been shown so much love and kindness by Naomi that she proclaimed, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth decided to forsake the beliefs of her own people in order to follow the one true God of Israel.
Imagine what could happen if Christians all over the world welcomed, loved, and ensured hospitality to the refugees, immigrants, and international students flooding into our countries. We could have a great harvest of people saying, “I want your people to be my people, and your God to be my God.”
God’s concern for the foreigner continues into the New Testament. Which commandments did Jesus proclaim as the greatest? Love God and love your neighbor. He goes on to explain that your neighbor is not the person you expect, but the Samaritan, the foreigner, the one not like you, the one you would normally avoid. Jesus didn’t just teach God’s love for the foreigner; He demonstrated it by healing Gentile women, engaging in a spiritual debate with a Samaritan woman, praising the faith of a Roman centurion, and celebrating the Gentile widow from Zarephath. These were all foreigners, outcasts, strangers.
In Acts chapter two, who were the first people to hear the wonders of God in their own languages at Pentecost? It was the foreigners dwelling in Jerusalem. That’s right, the first people to respond to the Gospel when the Holy Spirit showed up were the nations living among the Jews. God makes His intentions clear in His sermon at the Areopagus, where He proclaims, “God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.”
What if we took that message to heart? What if the movement of people all over the world is not something to fear? What if the influx of immigrants, refugees, and international students is, in fact, a blessing and opportunity orchestrated by God in order to fulfill the Great Commission? Historically, missions has been focused on leaving your context and going out to reach the nations, and that must continue. But perhaps welcoming is just as strategic in the mission for God to be glorified among every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. And remember, according to Ephesians 2, we were all strangers and foreigners—even enemies—to the kingdom before Jesus made a way for us to be citizens, children, and heirs. Pray. Give. Go. Welcome. Where is God calling you?