“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 22:21
February 6, 2025
Most of us in America share at least one thing in common. We are descendants of immigrants. Try to imagine what it was like for our ancestors to have left another country to start a new life, bringing their customs and culture into a new world. Yet immigration is ever with us. From all over the world they come wanting what America has to offer. However, the current political atmosphere is charged with the conflict of legal and illegal immigrant status. Ancient Israel, God’s witness nation, attracted those who wished to be fellow participants in the blessings promised to Abraham. The word “sojourner” (“stranger” in some translations) is understood to mean “a person who entered Israel and followed legal procedures to obtain recognized standing as a resident alien” (James Hoffmeier, The Immigration Crisis: Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible). At the very outset of our understanding of the “theology of immigration” we should be aware not only of our obligations to immigrants, but of our status as pilgrims, “aliens” whose true citizenship is in heaven (1 Pet. 1:1). We are temporary residents wherever we live. We should be humbled and thankful for our citizenship in America, and above all what it means to be immigrants looking for our dwelling in the new heavens and the new earth.
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Reflections:
How should my “alien” status as a Christian impact my outlook on what it means to be an immigrant?
Why is legal status as an immigrant important to living in a new country?