Somewhere We Missed the Point (Thoughts on Immigration)
Today, while sitting in the local coffee shop, I overhead a conversation that I have overheard a thousand times over. “How can we justify the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament?” As if there are two different variants of God, yet it is absolutely understandable. There is brutality, execution, death, sacrifice, deception, enslavement, and so much more. It seems inconceivable to rectify all this that soaks through the stories and laws present in the Old Testament with John’s words, “God is Love.”
Yet even in the brutality and darkness found in the Old Testament, the gospel and goodness of God is even more present. For one, it has to be, or the critics of Christianity and Judiasm are justified.
In order to understand the goodness of God and the gospel’s presence in the Old Testament Canon, we need to establish a foundation of who God.
God is …. OMNISCIENT.
Omniscience goes far beyond our usual response, “God is all knowing.” What omniscience means for believers is that first and foremost, God knows the beginning through the end, and beyond. God knows what every individual is going to do, think, speak, act, everything. He knows the weather, the sniffles, the wars, the tortures, the loss; He knows it all. This is why God gets all the blame. If He knows then He could and should stop it if He is love. Yet, because God knows everything, doesn’t that mean that he knows true love is found in free will and learning? We say we want controlled lives to avoid the pain, but that is only when it suits us. We want free will and learning, choice, when control becomes overbearing. God would not be love if we never learned why what God wants is so good, and what God doesn’t want is so bad. God knows that true love comes through choice, through free will. That true love can only be obtained through a cost, that is that you are going to get hurt. Every torture, pain, suffering, war, injustice, enslavement, evil imaginable, Christ faced on the cross. He suffered with us, knowing what was going to happen.
This is why biblical prophecy is important, it demonstrates that God is in fact God, He knows the timeline, and reveals his knowledge to us to help avoid the pain, suffering, evil that comes with the fall.
God is …. OMNIPOTENT
Omnipotence once again goes far beyond, “God is all powerful.” At it’s core, it means that God is in control. This is hard to understand when most of our lives feel as though they have been given up to the proverbial fates, out of our control. This is also angering when our lives go a course counter to what we want, work, strive, and fight for daily. My personal anger is great recently through knowing this about God, that He is in control, has demonstrated that control, and yet failure and more. Seeing the societal movement in the western world, specifically in the United States, I see Christians left and right failing to recognize that God is in control. With the re-election of Donald Trump, I see one side praising Trump and another side lamenting, fearful and judgemental. The depth of all our faith is apparent. When Peter can write, “honor the emperor,” in 1 Peter 2:17, we need to pay attention. Nero was a horrible human being. He illuminated his gardens and Rome at night with crucified Christians, covered in tar, lit on fire. Yet this does not mean we are to support and empower the emperor, politicians, pastors, presidents, principals, or anyone above what God has instructed. What about Obadiah? A popular phrase today is, “the spirit of Jezebel,” among Christian leaders and believers today. Obadiah was a faithful follower of God, hid thousands of prophets from execution and yet he was criticized continually by Elijah. Obadiah served Jezebel and Ahab, had every opportunity to dispatch them. Yet, he served them, while risking more by faithfully serving God. Elijah and Israel had much to thank of Obadiah. Today, Obadiah would have been cancelled or judged by evangelical and orthodox America. However, the door swings both ways. God is in control. That means that whatever I want, however I feel, whatever I believe to be true, does not make it right, logical, correct, and godly. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss.” Matthew 7:13 is a clear warning to everyone.
God is …. OMNIPRESENT
Omnipresence represents God being everywhere. Not in everything, that is simply pantheism. Omnipresence is the most intimate attribute of God. He is present within us, dwelling and ministering, and He is present among us, working on behalf to save the fallen world and to empower his own to help in that work of saving the fallen world. God desires intimacy with each of us. The greatest work of Satan is to distort intimacy, to defuse and disrupt the desire for intimacy, and to rob individuals all together of the intimacy of God. This is why we have the poetic book of the Song of Solomon. This is why I personally believe the Sabbath is still valid, and was implemented outside the Law, and was required within the precepts of the law.
Why the brutality of the conquest of Canaan? A conquest that demonstrates perhaps the single greatest challenge to, “God is love.”
Rahab is the ultimate answer. A prostitute, influential pagan woman, outside the fold of God’s people and obedience to the law, actively demonstrates that the conquest did not have to be brutal. Rahab and later the Gibeonites demonstrate that God was merciful and upheld his promises of mercy.
We sit in the post-modern era and forget that the power of God was on display for the known world at that time to see. Israel was brought to Egypt, the largest super power at that time, for protection. Then Israel’s eventual suffering and liberation sent a resounding message throughout the known world. If God can do to Egypt, whom He asked and warned before bringing judgement, then what could God do to the rest of the smaller city states and peoples?
We also forget that the word Hebrew comes from Habiru, meaning a group of people or slaves. It was not just Israelites, descendants of Abraham, that left with Moses. Many people, including Egyptians, left. Rahab demonstrates that the people of the land were well aware and saw what God had done for the Israelites and was doing for them. The people of Jericho would have witnessed the Jordan drying up for Israel to cross over. God provided demonstration of his power and ample time for repentance. Through Rahab, God demonstrates his love for individuals and desire for mercy is based upon faith.
God gave the land of Canaan forty-years to repent and change. Using Israel’s own punishment, sustaining and leading in a visible and tangible way. The peoples and powers had ample time to see the cloud during the day and pillar of fire at night. They were given time to repent before the conquest of God.
God is much harsher on his people than he is on those who are outside his people. He has high yet easily achievable expectations, believe. Paul reflects this in 1 Corinthians 5:12, “It is not my business to judge those who are not part of the group of believers. God will judge them, but you must judge those who are part of your group.” God used pagans and foreigners to punish his people. Nebuchadnezzar along with the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, Egyptians, Romans, and others. He showed grace to Naman while punishing the northern tribe of Israel.
Fairness does not at all exist. If life were fair, then none of us would be here, not a one. God states this fact in Ezekiel 18:25-29,
“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? 26 When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. 27 Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. 28 Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?”
We could dive into the fact that in the Old and New Testament we are told that no one is righteous, and even the most righteous person…is not righteous. If God were fair, we would not exist. Thank God for grace and unfairness.
Today there is a failing among us Christians. The failing to avoid being political and to embrace being a salve on a broken world. We have become partisan. It seems like we have forgotten that sojourners are always present and tucked away in the Law. I look around the last few days and I see Christian influencers, podcasters, preachers, and other professed believers condemning the government or on the other side of things, praising the government over the significant deportations taking place. “They broke the law,” and, “it is not fair to the other legal migrants.” Then another side preaches a message that we should turn a blind eye and allow unmitigated imigration or somewhere in that realm.
Here is the heart of it all. Is Christian a noun or an adjective? You may think they are the same, yet they are not. Close but no cigar. A noun is a thing. Once we are baptized into the body of Christ, confessing our faith in Jesus, do we add an attribute, Christian, or do we come up a new thing entirely, simply a Christian.
The world’s problems would be heavily subdued if Christians simply died to previous labels, races, ethnicities, and simply became Christian’s. If you object and say it is simply an ideal, I would say, “you must not have read your Bible very well.”
In a world filled with pronouns, adjectives, and labels, Christian seems to simply describe us and not unequivocally who we are. We will say, “I am an American Christian. I am a Republican Christian. You cannot be a Democrat and Christian. I am a Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Non-Denominational Christian. “
What happened to, “ I am a Christian. For there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor male nor female?”
Am I advocating bad stewardship for taxpayer dollars? Ignoring national security? Criminals and insurgents? No.
What I am saying is that Christians have failed. We have armed ourselves with our cameras and smart phones, placed ourselves in the arena of social media, sitting in our daily lives, critiquing, blaming, supporting, arguing, dividing, and ruining the name of Christ. We have failed to be a salve to those who are broken, have broken the law, who are seeking something better.
Today I realized, where are churches providing support for illegals as they are deported. Where have they given real assistance beyond food and aid? Have they helped them obtain citizenship? Or have we simply done the easy, the common, the comfortable thing that makes us feel good. When were Christians supporting those who were detained? This resonates with me, as I have been convicted personally at how bad I have failed a command of Christ.
We are tasked by Christ to visit those imprisoned. Does this mean we break the law? No, but when the law is being broken, we as Christians should above all know the severity of a law that has harsh, severe, and unforgiving consequences. We should be awakened to the desire for more, something better, searching for a new life. We above the rest of the world should be acutely aware of the need and call to be Christ. Christ rescued us. Christ dwells within us. Christianity does not mean breaking the law as some ensenuate. Christianity does not mean coldly relegating the enforcement of the law and relinquishing the responsibility of peoples lives to someone else, somewhere else, outside our sphere of influence. I’ve seen two videos demonstrating the point. One video focuses on Christians who protest abortion and yet do not support adoption or programs focused on single mothers, sexual education, food pantries, etc. The other centers on Christians supporting an open border, condemning those who voice any opinion to the contrary, yet unwilling to provide real, tangible assitance to illegal immigrants.
For we all deserve death and yet were given life. Completely unfair and yet beautiful. That is love. That is God, all knowing, all powerful, all present, for us, because of us, in us, and with us. Christians need to wake up and realize that the Old Testament’s greatest warning is for God’s people. Is it going unnoticed now as it was then?
