Immigration 5

God commands His people to treat aliens with respect and love and to care for them because the Israelites themselves knew oppression and slavery.

Is there any other reason that He would command such?

Absolutely.  God's command to treat aliens justly is a reminder to His people that what they possess by God's grace, they do not own.

The Lord reveals this fact to His people when they are tempted to cling too tightly to what the Lord has granted as a trust: "The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants" (Lev. 25:23).  The land does not ultimately belong to anyone but the Lord.  It is therefore not to be horded or regarded as a personal possession to the exclusion of others.

This certainly seems to be an attempt by the Lord to help His people reframe their conception of property.  If I own my property, I can do with it whatever I please.  If the Lord owns it and I am just a tenant, I need to care for what I have been lent, share it, and remember that Lord encourages me to be generous with what He has provided.

Pharaoh, as he impeded the Israelites from leaving Egypt, needed to be reminded that the earth belonged to the Lord and not to him.  Ex. 9:29b - "The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD's."

David reflected on this reality in Psalm 24:1, "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it..."

We see this understanding in the NT, within the Spirit-led church of Jerusalem, even practiced in a radical way, "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need" (Acts 2:44-45). 

Jesus Himself was critical of the impact that possessions had on the lives of His followers, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Lk. 12:15).  At the heart of this is surely the understanding that God's dominion is all-encompassing.  Our possessions really aren't ours.  If we insist that they are and hold fast to them, they end up possessing us.

So what does any of this have to do with immigration?

Behind any resistance to aliens living in a given land is fear from natives that what they now have will be taken away or diminished.  If there are aliens receiving the good of the land, that will mean less for them.  Instead of seeing the Lord as a God of abundance and blessings, we too often see God as one who is miserly, providing barely enough for survival, therefore we must cling tightly to our "possessions."  Ironically, this seems to be a phenomenon more common in rich countries than in poor ones!

The Word of the Bible flies in the face of this ungodly selfish attitude.  Instead, it constantly encourages trust  in God and selfless generosity, and seldom encourages us to take care of what belongs to us.  This is the radical, unrealistic, challenging Word of Truth, and it should shape every one of our attitudes and beliefs.

Next: What does it mean to oppress an alien?