The Stranger In Your Gates
FOURTH QUARTER 2021
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #5
OCTOBER 30, 2021
“THE STRANGER IN YOUR GATES”
This week’s lesson is an excellent opportunity to focus on several key Christian issues, including the character of God, the original purpose of God and the continuing destiny intended for man, the Gospel, our evangelistic call, and our specific responsibility to the poor and needy.
Memory Text: “Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19, NKJV).
God uses the experience of the Israelites in Egypt, and their redemption from Egypt, as key motives for their obedience to God, and their treatment of others with whom they would encounter, and hopefully witness to.
God created the Universe based on His character of Love. All of its aspects and laws are reflective of the principle of love, and how that principle is revealed in every aspect of Creation, and then, after sin, redemption. The Two Commandments to Love in the New Testament are not “new” in that they are found in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Jesus does add a “New” Commandment when He calls us to “Love others, AS I have loved you.” Jesus becomes the standard and example for understanding the application of Love in every aspect of life. Jesus’ AGAPE love is unconditional, sacrificial, other-centered, and constant. When we become “new creatures” through the New Birth experience, we are called to the experience in 2 Corinthians 5.
2 Corinthians 5:15 And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. 16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.
We live for Christ, and we then see Christ, and man from a different perspective, the perspective that Christ died for all, and thus all men are potential recipients of His love, grace, and Gospel. 1Timothy 4:10. “For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, Who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.” This verse is the essence of Christ’s redemption or legal justification of the entire human race, resulting in a gift offered to all, and effective for all in the sense that we have life and probationary time to place faith in Christ and His gift. Deuteronomy brings out the theme of supreme love for God, to love Him with all our minds, hearts, soul. This love, of course, is also a gift, given to us through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5.
God wanted the hearts of the Israelites, that is, their minds, their affections, their love. The stiff-necked image used in the Bible simply pointed to how stubborn they were in their unwillingness to obey the Lord. And, basically, here, and elsewhere, the Lord was telling them to stop with their divided loyalties and serve Him with all their heart and soul. Deuteronomy 5:29 and 6:5-6 point out that the Covenant desire of God was always a heart relationship, and thus the “New” Covenant experience was always God’s intention. Psalm 40:8 “I delight to do Thy will, oh my God, Thy Law is within my heart.” God restates the Covenant in Deuteronomy, as the broken tablets in Exodus 34 is emblematic of a broken relationship. This section of Deuteronomy shows God’s persistence, that He is always taking the initiative in our salvation, regardless of our response, and God will continue to appeal to the hearts of human beings as long as we are in probationary time. Thus, we are to work for and with God in pursuing people for them to finally surrender to the infinite love of God. God had outward signs of the Covenant, but He wanted, and wants, an internal experience, of the Law, or Character of Love, written on the human heart. Hebrews 8:10.
God created, and thus can claim ownership of all. He loves His creation, and He meets their needs, even raining on the “just and the unjust”, caring for even the creatures of the field, water, and air, and certainly for the poor and needy, particularly the poor in spirit, who need a Savior. It is our Covenant and moral obligation to reach out to, care for, minister to those for whom Christ died. We should be exceedingly careful how we treat the purchased of Christ’s blood. The essence of Christian character development is the Golden Rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I would add “Do unto others as God has done for you.” When we do it unto the least of all, we do it unto God. God is no respecter of persons, but all are His by creation and redemption, and He wants their hearts forever.
God wanted them to remember when they were on the margins of society, outcasts, even slaves, and thus at the mercy of those who were stronger than them and who could abuse them and, indeed, often did. And though Israel was a chosen nation, called of God, a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6), and though there were some differences between them and the strangers among them — especially in regard to religious services — when it came to “human rights,” the stranger, the widow, the orphan needed to be treated with the same fairness and justice as the Israelites expected for themselves.
Genesis 19:14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.
Exodus 12:49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
Leviticus 24:22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.
Numbers 15:16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
Numbers 15:29 Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.
There was to be one law for all, both the Israelite, and the stranger that lived amongst them. This of course has implications for the Sabbath amongst Gentiles, but the larger point is that as God is Love, His Law of Love is for all, with no exceptions, eliminating any racial, cultural, ethnic divisions, bias, or bigotry. It means that the Law which applies to God’s people is for all.
Isaiah 49:6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Psalms 146:5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: 6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth forever: 7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners: 8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: 9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
Love involves justice and there are many texts in Deuteronomy and throughout the Bible of the importance of fair, kind, and just treatment of all. In a world today of such political, religious, cultural, and racial divisions it becomes increasingly important that Christians treat people differently than the world does. Deuteronomy 1:16; 16:19; 24:17; 27:19, all have in common the theme of justice for all. In being just to all, we demonstrate what God is like who defends the defenseless, judges equitably, and mercifully.
It’s sadly true how the weak, the poor, the outcasts don’t get the same kind of “justice” in most human courts as do those with money, power, and connections. It doesn’t matter the country, the era, the culture, nor how lofty the principles of justice and equity that are enshrined in constitutions or laws or whatever; the reality remains the same: the poor, the weak, and the outcasts almost never get the justice that others do. We saw in the OJ Simpson case, for example, how some can afford the absolute best legal help, but obviously that is not available to all.
That’s what is so remarkable about what the Lord Himself was saying here. This unfairness, which is everywhere else, should not be done in Israel, among God’s people, the ones who are to represent Him to the world. In a sense, to use a term from the modern era, the Lord wanted there to be “equal justice under the law” in ancient Israel. Even the term “eye for an eye” or the Lex Talonis was given to be a standard of sentencing in a courtroom, so that fairness was observed.
We are called unto holiness, which is to say, we are called to reflect the character of God, Who is a God of love, justice ,and mercy, and when we allow Christ to live out His life in us, we also reflect the same ethic to others.
Even in our business dealings, and normal interactions with people on every level, we are to seek to reflect the character of God, as opposed to how the world operates. Economics, especially, become important because the love of money is the root of all evil.
Though nothing in the Ten Commandments themselves directly relates to showing partiality to the rich over the poor, sternly adhering to the letter of the law while at the same time mistreating the poor or needy makes a mockery of one’s profession of faith and any claim to keep the commandments. Loving your neighbor as yourself is the highest expression of God’s law — and this is present truth now as much as it was in the time of James, and as it was when Moses spoke to Israel on the borders of the Holy Land.
The Great Controversy will be over, when we have learned the truth, that God Is Love.