Lessons to Live BySample

Do Not Forget What God Has Done For You

At first glance, Exodus 22 seems like a bunch of outdated and irrelevant rules. Not many people in my nation, Australia – to my knowledge – are stealing oxen or giving pieces of silver to neighbours for safekeeping. There are also some commands in the mix that might seem offensive, and some that perhaps should be shielded from the eyes of a child. But right in the middle, we read one command that isn’t isolated to this chapter – in fact it is repeated in Exodus 23:9, as well as in Deuteronomy. 

God commands His Israelites, following their freedom from slavery in Egypt, to treat foreigners well. Other translations use the word sojourner: someone who lives in a country away from their native home. Often sojourners are coupled together with other vulnerable groups: widows, orphans, and the poor. The original audience of this text were freed slaves: they weren’t to forget their own displacement. 

Foreign residents don’t have a real sense of home in the land in which they live. We see this today with displaced people around the world, and there are plenty of sojourners in our own midst. As I write this, there’s a humanitarian crisis at hand with residents of Afghanistan fleeing their home country as the Taliban takes control. It’s devastating to see, and yet God’s command is clear – we are to care for, and pray for, the sojourner. 

After all, we were once foreigners, dead in sin. And by the grace of Jesus, we were rescued and welcomed in. May we never forget all that He has done for us.

Written by SAM ROBINSON

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