{"id":4051,"date":"2019-06-19T13:42:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T18:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/?p=4051"},"modified":"2019-06-19T13:59:43","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T18:59:43","slug":"if-we-were-aliens-how-should-we-treat-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/2019\/06\/19\/if-we-were-aliens-how-should-we-treat-immigrants\/","title":{"rendered":"If We Were Aliens, How Should We Treat Immigrants?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the Old Testament, God reminds His people of who they were. He often told them: \u201cYou were slaves (or aliens) in Egypt\u201d (see Lev 23:22; Deut. 5:15; 10:17-22; 24:17-29). And while the word for slave (\u2018ebed<\/em>) and alien (g\u00e9r<\/em>) are different, they were often interchangeable.<\/p>\n

If you were a g\u00e9r<\/em>, you were often an \u2018ebed<\/em> as well, or at least you held a similar social status. God told Abraham that his descendants would be \u201caliens\u201d in a land, and as such would end up being enslaved and oppressed. While you could simply be an alien living in a foreign land, to an Israelite recounting their past, both terms would remind them of their time in Egypt.<\/p>\n

This particular moniker, \u201cslaves in Egypt,\u201d served a rhetorical and ethical function for God. God wanted his people, in the process of understanding who they were, not to forget who they had been. These two identities were inseparable.<\/p>\n

Remembering that they were aliens and slaves in Egypt served a two-fold purpose. It should make them appreciative of what God had done for them so that they would respond appropriately to His grace. God had delivered them while they were slaves.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it also served an ethical role. In reminding them of who they were, God reminds them that they themselves were immigrants, migrants, and slaves. They were the outsiders, the very people that they might find themselves looking down upon, taking advantage of, thinking less of or even abusing as \u201cthe other.\u201d<\/p>\n

And often, within the context of reminding them of this, God used this as the basis for an ethical command: \u201cDo not deprive the foreigner (alien) or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of a widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this\u201d (see Deut. 24:17-18; Ex. 23:9).<\/p>\n

As they considered God\u2019s instructions for how to treat the most vulnerable in their society and those that \u201cdid not belong,\u201d they should remember how God treated them when they were in the same situation.<\/p>\n

Slaves and outcasts, orphans, widows, and foreigners no one wanted to be. Those people arrived at that status as the result of war, defeat, poverty, famine, and death. They were the most vulnerable and the least valuable.<\/p>\n

God was challenging His people to consider who He was and to remember who they were: \u201cI am the God who brought you up out of Egypt.\u201d He insisted that He is the God who rescues these types of people. God was also making the point that how you act toward them should not be a reflection of the values expressed around you or even what you think about those \u201cothers;\u201d they ought to be a reflection of the type of God that you serve and what that God has done for you.<\/p>\n

It is as if God were saying: \u201cI am the God who rescues these types of people, and as my people you must be the type of people who rescues them as well.\u201d The one they served and who claimed them as His own, called them to represent (or even better enact) His salvation and love to these types of people.<\/p>\n

We Must Also Love the Alien<\/h3>\n

Lessons like this are forged in the school of humility, trust, and sacrifice, and we tend to avoid those classes. That school calls God\u2019s people to think and act differently, because it starts with remembering who they were and what God had done for them in a way that compelled them to reach out to the types of people whom they often overlooked.<\/p>\n

Thinking of themselves as the foreigner (alien) became the basis for commands as to how they should plan their income. They were to set aside income (before the tithe) to care for the poor and the stranger (Lev. 23:22; Deut. 24:17-22). This is what Boaz did for Ruth (see Ruth 2:14-16).<\/p>\n

The tithe was to be offered to care for the Levites and the aliens, orphans, and widows who lived among them (Deut. 14:29). God even pronounced curses on those who cheated people out of land, took advantage of the blind and distorted justice for the alien (Deut. 27:17), and He insists that He will testify against them (Mal. 3:5).<\/p>\n

Even Job, in defending his righteousness, maintains that no alien was forced to stay in the streets because Job opened his house to them and took care of them (Job 31:32). Foreigners were to be treated as natives, and they were to be loved, because the Israelites were in the same situation (Lev. 19:34).<\/p>\n

The aliens living among the Israelites were even to receive an inheritance of land in the reconfigured Promised Land (Ezek. 47:22). God cares for the alien by supplying them with food and clothing, therefore His people ought to show their love for the alien in the same way (Deut. 10:17-22). Ultimately, the Israelites were to understand that as recipients of the Promised Land, they were still foreigners, because everything that they had ultimately belonged to God (Lev. 25:23).<\/p>\n

Objections could be raised about the contemporary application of these texts. However, New Testament authors insist that Christians should view the Israelite story as their story (Rom. 4; 1 Cor. 10; Gal. 3; Heb. 4, 11; James 2). And while the term \u201cforeigner\u201d (xenos<\/em> or paroikos<\/em>) in the New Testament typically has spiritual residency connotations, other texts can quickly be recalled.<\/p>\n

Jesus challenged His hearers that if they want to be like their Father, they will bless those they would rather despise (Matt. 5:43-48; Luke 6:31-36), because that is what their Father is like. We can also recall the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), James\u2019 description of pleasing religion (James 1:27), or Jesus\u2019 description of his sheep who showed kindness to the stranger (xenos) in Matthew 25:35.<\/p>\n

What about the immigrants and refugees all around us today? We often refuse to treat them in light of who we were and who our God is. God is still the God who rescued us out of Egypt, who delivered us from bondage, and who calls us to treat our enemies and those who are the most vulnerable in our society as He does: as persons in God\u2019s image who are deserving of our gifts, love, and mercy as we represent God to them.<\/p>\n

When we refuse to care for the 3.4 billion human beings who find themselves in these situations, we de-personize them and misrepresent our Father who rescued us. I fear that our problem is that our foreign mission trips inoculate us. Too many of our popular Christian heroes tend to live in lavish homes in gated communities rather than in a hovel in Mumbai or in tents on the borders of Myanmar or Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

The Bible calls us to change our attitude. We must love the immigrant. Richard Stearns says we must repair what he calls \u201cthe hole in our gospel.\u201d He wrote:<\/p>\n

Christ has no body on earth but yours,<\/em>
\nNo hands but yours, no feet but yours.<\/em>
\nYours are the eyes through which Christ\u2019s compassion for the world is to look out;<\/em>
\nYours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;<\/em>
\nAnd yours are the hands (and I change the quote here a bit)<\/em>
\nWhich represent God to foreigners and aliens who are valued persons in God\u2019s kingdom.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This was originally published in the Encourage magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,610],"tags":[618,767,223,149,517,768,572],"class_list":{"0":"post-4051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general","8":"category-justice","9":"tag-618","10":"tag-dr-mark-trump","11":"tag-emmanuel-college","12":"tag-encourage-magazine","13":"tag-immigrants","14":"tag-immigration","15":"tag-justice","16":"entry"},"title_es":"Si fu\u00e9ramos extranjeros, \u00bfc\u00f3mo deber\u00edamos tratar a los inmigrantes?","content_es":"A lo largo del Antiguo Testamento, Dios le recuerda a su pueblo qui\u00e9nes eran. A menudo les dec\u00eda: \"Ustedes eran esclavos (o extranjeros) en Egipto\" (v\u00e9ase Lev. 23:22; Deut. 5:15; 10: 17-22; 24: 17-29). Y mientras que la palabra para esclavo ( 'ebed<\/em> ) y extranjero ( g\u00e9r<\/em> ) son diferentes, a menudo eran intercambiables. Si eras un g\u00e9r, a menudo tambi\u00e9n eras un ebed<\/em> , o al menos ten\u00edas un estatus social similar. Dios le dijo a Abraham que sus descendientes ser\u00edan \"extraterrestres\" en una tierra, y como tales terminar\u00edan siendo esclavizados y oprimidos. Si bien usted podr\u00eda simplemente ser un extranjero que vive en una tierra extranjera, para un israelita que cuenta su pasado, ambos t\u00e9rminos les recordar\u00edan su tiempo en Egipto. Este apodo particular, \"esclavos en Egipto\", cumpli\u00f3 una funci\u00f3n ret\u00f3rica y \u00e9tica para Dios. Dios quer\u00eda que su pueblo, en el proceso de entender qui\u00e9nes eran, no olvidar qui\u00e9nes hab\u00edan sido. Estas dos identidades eran inseparables. Recordar que eran extraterrestres y esclavos en Egipto ten\u00eda un doble prop\u00f3sito. Deber\u00eda hacerles apreciar lo que Dios hab\u00eda hecho por ellos para que respondieran adecuadamente a su gracia. Dios los hab\u00eda librado mientras eran esclavos. En segundo lugar, tambi\u00e9n cumpli\u00f3 un papel \u00e9tico. Al recordarles qui\u00e9nes eran, Dios les recuerda que ellos mismos eran inmigrantes, migrantes y esclavos. Eran los forasteros, las mismas personas con las que podr\u00edan encontrarse mirando hacia abajo, aprovech\u00e1ndose, pensando menos o incluso abusando de \"el otro\". Y a menudo, dentro del contexto de recordarles esto, Dios us\u00f3 esto como el base para un mandato \u00e9tico: \u201cNo prives al extranjero (extranjero) o al hu\u00e9rfano de la justicia, ni tomes el manto de una viuda como prenda. Recuerda que fuiste esclavo en Egipto y el Se\u00f1or tu Dios te redimi\u00f3 desde all\u00ed. Por eso te ordeno que hagas esto \"(ver Deut. 24: 17-18; Ex. 23: 9). Al considerar las instrucciones de Dios sobre c\u00f3mo tratar a los m\u00e1s vulnerables en su sociedad y aquellos que \"no pertenec\u00edan\", deben recordar c\u00f3mo los trat\u00f3 Dios cuando estaban en la misma situaci\u00f3n. Esclavos y parias, hu\u00e9rfanos, viudas y extranjeros que nadie quer\u00eda ser. Esas personas llegaron a ese estado como resultado de la guerra, la derrota, la pobreza, el hambre y la muerte. Eran los m\u00e1s vulnerables y los menos valiosos. Dios estaba desafiando a su pueblo a considerar qui\u00e9n era \u00c9l y recordar qui\u00e9nes eran: \"Yo soy el Dios que te sac\u00f3 de Egipto\". \u00c9l insisti\u00f3 en que \u00c9l es el Dios que rescata a este tipo de personas. Dios tambi\u00e9n se\u00f1al\u00f3 que la forma en que act\u00faas hacia ellos no deber\u00eda ser un reflejo de los valores que se expresan a tu alrededor o incluso lo que piensas sobre esos \"otros\"; deber\u00edan ser un reflejo del tipo de Dios al que sirves y qu\u00e9 que Dios ha hecho por ti. Es como si Dios estuviera diciendo: \"Yo soy el Dios que rescata a este tipo de personas, y como mi gente, ustedes deben ser tambi\u00e9n el tipo de personas que los rescatan\". Aquel a quien sirvieron y que los reclam\u00f3 como Suyos, los llam\u00f3 a representar (o incluso a representar mejor) su salvaci\u00f3n y amor a este tipo de personas.\r\n

Tambi\u00e9n debemos amar al extranjero<\/h3>\r\nLas lecciones como esta se forjan en la escuela de la humildad, la confianza y el sacrificio, y tendemos a evitar esas clases. Esa escuela llama al pueblo de Dios a pensar y actuar de manera diferente, porque comienza con recordar qui\u00e9nes eran y lo que Dios hab\u00eda hecho por ellos de una manera que los oblig\u00f3 a llegar a los tipos de personas que a menudo pasaban por alto. Pensando en s\u00ed mismos como el extranjero (extranjero) se convirti\u00f3 en la base de los comandos sobre c\u00f3mo deber\u00edan planificar sus ingresos. Deb\u00edan reservar un ingreso (antes del diezmo) para cuidar a los pobres y al extra\u00f1o (Lev. 23:22; Deut. 24: 17-22). Esto es lo que hizo Boaz por Rut (ver Rut 2: 14-16). El diezmo deb\u00eda ofrecerse para cuidar a los levitas y los extranjeros, hu\u00e9rfanos y viudas que viv\u00edan entre ellos (Deut. 14:29). Dios incluso pronunci\u00f3 maldiciones sobre aquellos que enga\u00f1aron a la gente de la tierra, se aprovecharon de la justicia ciega y distorsionada para el extranjero (Deut. 27:17), e insiste en que testificar\u00e1 contra ellos (Mal. 3: 5). Incluso Job, al defender su justicia, sostiene que ning\u00fan extranjero fue obligado a quedarse en las calles porque Job les abri\u00f3 su casa y los cuid\u00f3 (Job 31:32). Los extranjeros deb\u00edan ser tratados como nativos y deb\u00edan ser amados, porque los israelitas estaban en la misma situaci\u00f3n (Lev. 19:34). Los extraterrestres que viv\u00edan entre los israelitas deb\u00edan incluso recibir una herencia de tierra en la Tierra Prometida reconfigurada (Ezequiel 47:22). Dios cuida al alien\u00edgena al proporcionarles comida y ropa, por lo tanto, su pueblo debe mostrar su amor por el alien\u00edgena de la misma manera (Deut. 10: 17-22). En \u00faltima instancia, los israelitas deb\u00edan entender que, como receptores de la Tierra Prometida, a\u00fan eran extranjeros, porque todo lo que en \u00faltima instancia hab\u00edan pertenecido a Dios (Lev. 25:23). Se podr\u00edan plantear objeciones sobre la aplicaci\u00f3n contempor\u00e1nea de estos textos. Sin embargo, los autores del Nuevo Testamento insisten en que los cristianos deben ver la historia israelita como su historia (Romanos 4; 1 Corintios 10; Gal. 3; Hebreos 4, 11; Santiago 2). Y mientras que el t\u00e9rmino \"extranjero\" ( xenos<\/em> o paroikos<\/em> ) en el Nuevo Testamento generalmente tiene connotaciones de residencia espiritual, otros textos pueden ser r\u00e1pidamente recordados. Jes\u00fas desafi\u00f3 a sus oyentes de que si quieren ser como su Padre, bendecir\u00e1n a aquellos que preferir\u00edan despreciar (Mat. 5: 43-48; Lucas 6: 31-36), porque as\u00ed es como es su Padre. Tambi\u00e9n podemos recordar al Buen Samaritano (Lucas 10), la descripci\u00f3n de Santiago de la religi\u00f3n agradable (Santiago 1:27) o la descripci\u00f3n de Jes\u00fas de sus ovejas que mostraron bondad hacia el extra\u00f1o (xenos) en Mateo 25:35. \u00bfQu\u00e9 hay de los inmigrantes y refugiados que nos rodean hoy? A menudo nos negamos a tratarlos a la luz de qui\u00e9nes somos y qui\u00e9n es nuestro Dios. Dios sigue siendo el Dios que nos rescat\u00f3 de Egipto, nos liber\u00f3 de la esclavitud y nos llama a tratar a nuestros enemigos y a los m\u00e1s vulnerables de nuestra sociedad, como lo hace \u00c9l: como personas a la imagen de Dios que merecen nuestra Dones, amor y misericordia cuando representamos a Dios para ellos. Cuando nos negamos a cuidar a los 3.400 millones de seres humanos que se encuentran en estas situaciones, los despersonamos y representamos mal a nuestro Padre que nos rescat\u00f3. Temo que nuestro problema es que nuestros viajes misioneros al extranjero nos inoculan. Demasiados de nuestros h\u00e9roes cristianos populares tienden a vivir en casas lujosas en comunidades cerradas en lugar de en una choza en Mumbai o en tiendas de campa\u00f1a en las fronteras de Myanmar o Bangladesh.\r\n

La Biblia nos llama a cambiar nuestra actitud. Debemos amar al inmigrante. Richard Stearns dice que debemos reparar lo que \u00e9l llama \"el agujero en nuestro evangelio\". Escribi\u00f3:<\/p>\r\n

Cristo no tiene cuerpo en la tierra sino el tuyo,<\/em> no manos sino tuyas, no pies sino tuyo.<\/em> Tuyos son los ojos a trav\u00e9s de los cuales la compasi\u00f3n de Cristo por el mundo es mirar hacia afuera;<\/em> Tuyos son los pies con los que \u00c9l va a hacer el bien;<\/em> Y las suyas son las manos (y aqu\u00ed cambio un poco la cita)<\/em> que representan a Dios para los extranjeros y extranjeros que son personas valiosas en el reino de Dios.<\/em><\/p>","author_name":"Dr. Mark Trump","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/06\/Trump-article.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb62Bx-13l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}