The Write Place

I am reminded of how Francis Schaeffer once was asked what the problem was for Christians. His simple answer was “they think in parts.” The long running issue in Christian circles around immigration and illegal immigration has really typified this. Christians typically have Christian words; the definitions are then provided by someone else. The Bible, it seems, is not believed in all of life although most Christians mistakenly think they do. God says love, so we look to unbelievers to tell us what love is. We are told to love the foreigner among us, so we look to things outside of scripture to define them.

To discuss this issue, we must dive a little also into what nations are, and if they in fact are God’s intention. We must go first to scripture.

To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.
Genesis 10:25

It is typically understood that the divisions in the day of Peleg was the dividing of humanity into nations. Peleg then is a marker for the days of the division at Babel.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” ⁵ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸ So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused^[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:1-9

Nations are analogous to extended families. You can see this in how the divide at Babel was families, and how the preceding chapter divides the nations that follow along families. Nations would have always formed, the denial of the command to form nations was a facet in the judgment at Babel in direct rebellion against God’s command to Adam and to Noah. The divides are not impenetrable or racial, you can be adopted into a family. However, those realities which God created still exist.

Now let’s get into this sojourner business.

“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 23:9

This is often thrown out in the same manner as “thou shalt not judge,” lacking context and as a thought terminating cliche of a prooftext. Definitions matter, and here they certainly. Sojourner in Hebrew is a form of גֵּ֔ר, which means the equivalent of an immigrant or a green card holder. A sojourner biblically is not generic foreigner, it is a person who has come with the permission of the governing authority. He is an immigrant, not a migrant or a settler who has crossed the border without permission.

Abraham and the patriarchs followed the rules, asking for permission to come and stay in the lands they sojourned in.

¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.
Genesis 12:10

20 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. ² And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. ³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 

Genesis 20:3

The same story repeats twice, and we can know he knew the king because this is where Pharaoh and King Abimelech pursued Sarah, befuddled that Abraham would lie to him. Likewise the same word is used here. Abraham was in the land with permission.

47 So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.” ² And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. ³ Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.” ⁴ They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.” ⁵ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. ⁶ The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

Genesis 47:1-7

Joseph is an official, who receives official permission from Pharaoh that his family may live in Egypt. This also fulfills God’s words to Abram that his descendants would sojourn there. As you can see the patriarchs were in Egypt by permission.

…3No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.  4For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.
Deuteronomy 23:3-4

While this is not an issue race as we know it, there is more than national guilt. Ruth interestingly enough, is a Moabite woman. She does however, leave her pagan nation. There is the concern of culture. Those coming into a nation must be to it’s good as well.

7Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land. 8The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.

Deuteronomy 23:7-8

You can see a disfavoring of racial thinking or carrying generational animosity still exists. Deuteronomic law still has a means of joining the nation, and parameters for full assimilation and inclusion.

Since people love lying about him, let’s look at Jesus

⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 
Luke 2:4-5

If you think about this for a moment, you see this part of history does not advocate for favoring the foreigner or “refugees.” Judea is a region and also a province. Both Nazareth and Bethlehem are in the province Judea which is at this point part of the Roman Empire. But let us continue.

¹³ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt ¹⁵ and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Matthew 2:13-15

Ah, see they fled to Egypt. Which was also part of the Roman Empire and not separated by a national boundary. Movement within the Empire was no problem. Jesus may have been a political refugee (for unjust persecution) but he was not an immigrant. The flight of the holy family was akin to fleeing Maryland for Virginia because the governor was persecuting you.

You see the problem here? Paul can comment a bit on boundaries.

²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ²⁶ And he 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, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

Acts 17:25-27

It is, from the beginning of scripture to it’s end, God who establishes national boundaries. Entering a country illegally (and sending money back) causes social chaos, assaults God’s work at Babel and in the days of Peleg, and is an affront to his ongoing governance. Favoring the foreign over your nearest neighbor to the point of destroying national boundaries is a sin. There is really no way to excuse taking biblical sounding words and giving them demonic definitions. Deporting illegals is loving your neighbor, and it is honoring to God.