As many of you, I scroll through my social media once or twice a day, scanning it for any updates from family and friends. Often times I come across various posts or advertisements that attract my attention and that I might spend a few moments on. Today noticed some posts and interactions regarding whether aliens who have not entered the USA legally should be referred to as “illegal” or “undocumented.” It would be easy for me, being a naturalized citizen of one country, Canada, and resident alien of another, the United State, to weigh in on this subject from the vantage point of being an alien twice over. However, one such post attracted my attention, not because of my own alien status, but because it advocated the idea that no one God created should be referred to as an “illegal.” Instead, biblical ideas such as “alien” or “foreigner” should be adopted. Along with this, was the appeal to embrace such individuals as welcomed parts of our community, because this was how God directed Israel to treat aliens and strangers.
One does not have to wade to far into the Bible to conclude this. In probably one of the most famous chapters found in the Pentateuch, Leviticus 19, we hear this declaration made by Moses to the people, “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (19:34). Here we have a call for a few things that obviously align with what was declared online. Though they are differentiated from each other, the natives (Israelites), were to view the strangers in their land as the same as themselves. Not surprisingly, God’s people were called upon to “love” them, which had already been identified as a way in which they were to treat each other (cf. 19:17-18). The love they were to have for their “fellow countryman” they were to have for the “stranger” as well. The third point made in this Mosaic declaration focused upon the motivation for this, which was Israel’s own past history, having been aliens in a foreign land.
So, the situation expressed online and Leviticus 19 seems fairly straightforward. When God disposed the Canaanites of their land and bequeathed it to Israel, Israel was to show a compassion towards strangers in their land from other places and treat them equitably. End of the story, right? However, as straightforward as this sounds, this framework only includes part of the Mosaic code’s perspective on the alien or foreigner. Consider a little more thorough analysis of God’s guidance in this regard.
Although aliens and foreigners were allowed to live in the land, it was very clear that they were not allowed to own any of the land. God plainly indicated to His people that the land belonged to Him, He was bequeathing it to them, and they were not permitted to sell it. It had to remain within the family unit to which it was given at the conquest (Lev. 25:23). Now, this did not disallow an Israelite from renting his property, if he became poor. However, according to God’s law, in such cases the land was to be returned to the family unit to which it belonged in the year of Jubilee, every seventieth year (25:24-28). This helps us understand why so often aliens and foreigners were grouped within the Law and the prophets with the poor. Remember that ancient Israel was essentially an agrarian culture, as was true of most countries during this time period. Without a way to own or use land in Israel, there was no sure and secure way to provide for oneself and accumulate family wealth.
Moreover, aliens and foreigners did not receive all of the societal benefits of natives. Take, for example, the seventh year forgiveness of debt. Every seventh year (Sabbath year) the native Israelite was to forgive the debt that was owed him (Deut. 15:1). However, God was very explicit that the Israelite had no obligation to forgive the debt of an alien or foreigner, only a native, a fellow Israelite,
“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts. And this is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. From a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother” (15:1-3).
This should be connected to God’s guidance of His people that in lending to others, while they could not charge interest to their fellow countrymen, they could do so to aliens and foreigners. Deuteronomy 23:19-20 says,
“You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest. You may charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countryman you shall not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess.”
None of this, of course, violates or contradicts what God declared in Deuteronomy 19, because God was establishing a reality regarding any country, which was the natives and foreigners cannot have the same benefits, if that country is to survive as a country with a unique set of benefits for those who are its citizens. Which was clear the case with the country and culture designed by God.
God’s intentions for the nation of Israel and the aliens and strangers that might choose to live there stretched well beyond this. Undergirding all that God will say about aliens and strangers in Israel is the expectation that those who choose to live in the land will abide by the one law of that land, the Law of Moses. It mattered not that aliens had their own land and laws from which they came; when they choose to live in Israel, they were, in fact, committing to live by God’s Law and were explicitly required by God to do so. They were not only to be given the same justice as a native, but the same sentences as one, also. The idea that a foreigner would come into Israel and neither intend to live or actually live by the God’s Law was none starter.
The Lord affirmed this idea by indicating that there was to be “one law” that governed both His people, the native, and the foreigner who would choose to live with His people. Numbers 15 extends this beyond just the present state of the people wandering through the wilderness, which of course, had a mixed rabble with them (Ex. 12:38; Num. 11:4), but also applied this to the future when He disposed the Canaanites of their land and gave it to Israel (cf. 15:14-21). So, we read God’s word to His people in 15:29-31,
“You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the alien who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be on him.”
We see an interesting example of this in Leviticus 24. As Moses was laying out instructions regarding the lamp and the bread that was to be a part of sanctuary worship, the reader was informed that a bi-ethnic child of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian was in a struggle with an Israelite and happened to blaspheme God. He was overheard and was brought to Moses, so that Moses could inquire from God as to what was to happen to this individual who had done this (24:10-12). God’s instructions were very explicit and indicated in 24:13-16 that blaspheme was a capital offense, to be executed by those who overheard the individual doing so. After a brief aside that makes some broader applications, the Lord addressed, again, the earlier violation with these words,
“‘There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God.’ Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the sons of Israel did, just as the Lord had commanded Moses” (24:22-23).
The concept of “one standard” obviously aligns with that of “one law” from the later text in Deuteronomy. It is clear that to simply appeal to passages like Leviticus 19:34 and to consider the matter addressed biblically is naive. God’s perspective on foreigners was they were to obey the law of the land, they were not to receive all the benefits of the citizens, but were to be treated with respect and be given justice in the court system if the Law of God was being violated against them. In part two of this article, I will consider this further and in particular the idea of them being labeled as illegal.
