Today's Reading: Deuteronomy 10

 

Love for Foreigners

How do you feel about refugees and immigrants?  Are you frustrated with them?  Or hateful toward them?  Or do you love – really love – them?  Moses has been reciting the history of the nation’s deliverance from slavery and...

travels in the wilderness.  As he nears the end of his history lesson, he begins to address the people about the way they should live and act.

He says, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?” (v12)  Now that God has done such wonders among you, what manner of persons should you be?  This question – or a form of it – is repeated throughout the Bible.  How shall we now live? 

Moses goes on to give the answer to the question, “He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul.” (v12) They are then told that they must always obey the Lord’s commands and decrees that he has given them as a sign of their love for the LORD.  And this is how it always is – true love for God will always lead to obedience to God.

Moses goes on to explain that even though the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord, He chose the Jews as the objects of his love. The Most High God who could choose anyone, chose YOU, so stop being so stubborn and rebellious and learn to love and obey Him. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. 

One of the signs of our love for God is how we treat foreigners, immigrants, aliens.  Moses reminds them that the LORD is a God of justice.  He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. The LORD shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing.  “So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.” (v19)  As a follower of Christ, you are commanded to love the “sojourner.”  If your attitude towards foreigners and aliens is anything less than love, you should take a moment and repent before the LORD who chose YOU from among all the people of earth to be His child.