Countrymen, Sojourners, and Foreigners

 

God designed the idea of borders, independent nations, and boundaries. Both the Old and New Testaments abound with such evidence, including the repeated proverb to “not move an ancient landmark,” a call to maintain respect for boundaries.  The apostle Paul declared God determined the boundaries of nations and their times to rise and fall (Acts 17:26).

The drive for a one-world-nation is nothing new. In Genesis 11 people lusted for power and self-acclaim, an early form of humanism. God scattered the people from the Tower of Babel in their quest for dominance. A mark of the future Antichrist, as prophesied in Revelation, will be the establishment of a one-world order.

The Bible uses three words important in the discussion of immigration. The Hebrew word “ach,” translated “countryman,” is what we call a citizen. A legal immigrant, known in the Scriptures as a “sojourner,” comes from the Hebrew words “ger/toshab.” The Hebrew “nokri/zar,” translated “foreigner,” is what we call an illegal alien.

God made it clear to take care of the sojourners, or legal immigrants, in your midst: “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him” (Ex. 22:21 ESV) and “Love the sojourner . . . for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:19 ESV).

Discrimination of a person or family here legally should not occur, regardless of race, sex, or country of origin. We should strive, as Jesus taught, to love our neighbors, even when they look different from us. Ultimately, the Church will be a huge collection of worldwide cultures, spanning all the ages.

Illegals, or foreigners, did not receive the same benefits or privileges as countrymen or sojourners.

James Hoffmeier writes in “The Immigration Crisis,” a “sojourner (sometimes translated as stranger) was a person who entered Israel and followed legal procedures to obtain recognized standing as a resident alien.” However, illegal “immigrants should not expect those same privileges from the state whose laws they disregard by virtue of their undocumented status.”

Ralph Drollinger, who meets weekly with United States Congressmen and Presidential Cabinet members for Bible study, explains that “these distinctions should never be obliterated. No reformed immigration policy should attempt to eradicate these distinctions: to do so is to posture oneself as more knowledgeable and insightful than God.”

Biblical wisdom values order, because God is a God of order. We’ve seen the last 100 years that the Left, as opposed to classic conservatism and liberalism, does not value order. They thrive on disorder.

As I write, in just two weeks, illegals crossing the southern border are down 93%. The first week included 5000 arrests.

Trump’s Border czar Tom Homan’s job is to enact Trump’s executive orders: protect the American people from the invasion at the southern border,  “immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens, particularly those aliens who threaten the safety or security of the American people.” This includes “cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans.”

Recent arrests include fentanyl-dealing Tren de Aragua gang members arrested in Goose Creek, South Carolina. That’s good news.

 

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