Leviticus 19:33-34
“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. You shall love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”
By Rev. Tyger Penson
The key theme of Leviticus is holiness—the holiness of God and the holiness of God’s people. In Leviticus 11:45, we read “For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy.” To be holy means you are set aside to be special, to represent God in all your words and actions. The book of Leviticus attempts to direct us to worship and live as God’s people.
That brings us to chapter 19. My Bible titles it as “Ritual and Moral Holiness.” Verse 2 begins with that theme reminder, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Thereafter are instructions of how that honorary place we hold as “holy people” includes revering your mother and father and keeping the Sabbaths. Be respectful of the aged and old.
The list continues with instructions for caring for others. Specifically, when you reap your harvest of your land, be sure to leave some behind for the migrant worker, the poor, the hungry. Living in the San Joaquin Valley of California, we gleaned grapes and so did many others. But that was long ago.
Then in Leviticus 19:33-34, we read, “When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress them. The foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the foreigner as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
I have been thinking about that. The political and social uneasiness in our nation today seems to contradict this concept. Sometimes in our words, often in our actions, we want the foreigner to “just go home.” We want the elderly to fade out of sight. We quickly say, “Not in my back yard” to any attempts for the homeless to reside in our neighborhood. We do not trust the wanderer who strays upon our land—to glean what has been left behind and call authorities to arrest them. We form our world view around that which is comfortable, less demanding of our attention, and best for us. We have strayed far from God’s instructions outlined in Leviticus.
In the book, The End of White Christian America, Robert P. Jones reminds us that White Christian Americans have steadily lost their influence. That scares us. Rev. Dr. Chris Scharen writes in response to Jones’ book, “Can white people do the work to shift from expecting to decide who gets a seat at the table, to simply taking a chair at the table along with everyone else?”
I am convinced that God wants us to think seriously about how we are treating the aged, the poor, and the foreigner among us. For us to truly be God’s holy people, to be holy as God is holy, we may need to make some changes in our behavior, our words, and our attitudes toward the foreigner. It will mean we treat the foreigner as ourselves and stand with them through the tumultuous times we are facing.
Prayer: I hear your cry, O Holy God! Forgive me when I act less than holy. Change me. Amen.
Song: “Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love” by Tom Colvin, 1925-2000