Who are the Foreigners? And Why Does it Matter?
God’s heart for the foreigner is on full display in the Old Testament. His face shines upon the foreigner. He calls for provision and, even, equality. Indeed, the foreigner was to be equal to the Israelites socially, legally, and nearly ceremonially (male foreigners were allowed in the Court of Women in the Tabernacle but not, however, in the Court of Men). The Lord went so far as to say that the Israelites were to love foreigners as they loved themselves, as it is read in Leviticus 19:33-34: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
But what exactly does God’s heart for the foreigner mean for the church today?
When we read the word “foreigner” in Leviticus or the Psalms, we often assume that it meant all people outside of Israel. Additionally, because God called Israel to such extraordinary care for the foreigner, it is also assumed God now calls the church to support any program geared toward this demographic. Yet the church must be careful to not place an imperative where God is doing something entirely different, such as foreshadowing. As is the case for much of the Book of Leviticus, this command has both a literal reality and a spiritual reality.
The foreigner the Lord loved and protected was the foreigner that had renounced the god(s) of his people and through faith had committed his allegiance to YHWH — a foreshadowing of the Church.
Let me offer these points to support this interpretation.
1. We must hold in tension that some foreigners were subject to annihilation or enslavement. The Lord commanded that the Israelites annihilate the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Amalekites, and Jebusites. Men, women, and children, and, in some cases, animals, were all killed. We read this in Deuteronomy 20 and 1 Samuel 15. The land of Canaan was home to more people groups, however, and to those groups of pagans not mentioned in the list, the Lord had issued a different procedure: Israel was first to offer the city a chance at peace with the condition that the foreigners submit themselves and become subservient to Israel. If the city rejected the offer, it was besieged, and the men were killed, but the women, children, and animals were spared. While the call to love the outsider might seem inconsistent with these militant commands, it is because God’s heart for the foreigner hints at the coming Gentile Church.
2. Let’s contrast the treatment of those groups with the treatment of Ruth, a pagan widow, and Rahab, a pagan prostitute. These women were foreigners, and yet they rejected their cultures, renounced their previous lives, and fully embraced Yahweh, his people, and his laws. The fear of God compelled them to submit their lives to Him and live among his people. The Lord so accepted them both that He made them a part of the lineage of Christ.
Ruth, specifically, was once lost and apart from God, but nothing in her past or her ethnic identity separated her from the love of God. With this view in mind, the book of Ruth is understood to be a microcosm of the whole Bible. Lost, needy, and destitute, Ruth turns to the Lord and proclaims him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He then cares for her and providentially arranges for her to be married to Boaz. Consider this: The Lord joined Jew and Gentile to bring about the bodily presence of the Messiah. Is that not the message of Christians everywhere today? “Repent, turn to the Lord, all people, Jews and Gentiles. He is returning bodily, and we can all live with him forever.” The message of Ruth is that the Lord truly desires all people to be a part of his sacred family.
3. Having considered the destruction of the pagan foreigners and the adoption of the foreign women who turned from their idolatry and worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, other scriptures begin to make sense. In Isaiah 56, verses six and seven, it is written:
“As for the foreigners who attach themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants . . . I will bring them to my sacred mount and let them rejoice in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings shall be welcome on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
In Psalm 146:8-9, the Psalmist writes:
“The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” In reading just this one text, the question must be asked: is the foreigner righteous or wicked?
Perhaps most interesting of all is this: the Lord desired all people to worship Him in his holy earthly temple. Consider the words of King Solomon during the dedication of the Temple in 1 Kings 8:41:
“Also concerning the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your name’s sake (for they will hear of Your great name and Your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, to fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.
How comforting that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament: the Lord is pleased with faith, with a contrite heart that calls out to Him by faith and affirms, “There is no God but you.” There is no bloodline, no gender, no socioeconomic position, and no deed too forgone to keep anyone from the love of Christ. All have a place at His table. This is what Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Ephesus:
In reading [this letter], then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
As Christians, we read these verses and stories about foreigners and understand that they are foreshadows of the coming Church in the New Covenant. The godly foreigner highlights that God’s plan of redemption has always included all people and not just the Israelites. Certainly, God revealed Himself and His decrees to Israel and became flesh through the lineage of Israel. But by faith, there has always been a pathway to God, even in the Old Testament, for all people. This is the meaning of God’s divine care for the foreigner.
But just as the godly foreigner foreshadows the coming gentile Believers, so too does the destruction of the pagan foreigners foreshadow the coming destruction for those who are found apart from God.
God’s work of redemption and judgment toward the foreigners calls for a posture of reverence and gratitude to the Lord. For as it has been since the beginning, it is by grace we have been saved through faith.
Finally….
Paul writes to the Church in Galatia, “Be sure to do good to all people, especially those in the household of God,” which I think is a great perspective for how Christians are to navigate the many necessary causes available to us today.
Do good to everyone.
Especially the Church.