From the nation that
wiped out whole families, tribes and nations of those who lived here originally...
split families in slavery, believing people to be property, all for profit...
interred (Japanese-American) families in camps during WWII...
while fighting those who wiped out and split up families of people, because
THEY were EVIL...
cut food stamps and other aid to families... ongoing... including now...
continue to pay a sub-survival wage to working parents in families...
do all they can to keep families from getting the healthcare they need...
NOW splits up families again because of the deportation of parents and other family members...
while courting immigrants who are the brightest and best away from their homelands...
and while still exploiting those same immigrants for cheap labor across the country,
as we have for generations...
Yet, many of the same ones who advocate this, support it and vote for it...
claim to be the "Family Values" folks... really?
"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest (keep everything you have been blessed with for yourself). You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them (provide) for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:9,10
"When the alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as a CITIZEN among you; you shall LOVE the alien AS YOURSELF, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:33,34 (PORTIONS of this Levitical Code are OFTEN quoted in order to judge others, but this one, strangely is skipped)
"You shall not withhold the wages of the poor and needy laborers, whether others of your land or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns. You shall pay them their wages daily, before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt." Deut. 24:14-15
"You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow's property in pledge. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt (once an alien in a foreign land) and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this." 24:17, 18
Regarding tithes... "When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, giving it to the Priests, the aliens the orphans and the widows (most vulnerable), so that they may eat their fill within your towns, then you shall say to the Lord your God: "...I have obeyed the Lord my God, doing just as you have commanded me." Deuteronomy 26:12-14
... and MANY more references in the Law of Moses...
"For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly with one another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods ( like Mammon - wealth, Mars - power, Bacchus - self indulgence) to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever." Jeremiah 7:5-6
"Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word... But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation." Jer. 22:3-5
There are MANY on the "right" who claim that we are a cursed nation because of this or that.. they NEVER equate our economic, political or climate woes to how POORLY we treat the resident aliens or the most vulnerable among us. We treat them SHAMEFULLY... and God is not pleased.
"Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land... "make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the refuse of the food." The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: surely I will NEVER FORGET any of their deeds." Amos 8:4-7
Jesus (fulfiller of Law and Prophets, Judge of the living and dead, and once an alien in Egypt - a refugee in a foreign land) puts it this way...
"'You that are ACCURSED, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they (the goats) also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and DID NOT TAKE CARE OF YOU?' Then Jesus will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did NOT DO IT FOR ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE, YOU DID NOT DO IT FOR ME.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous (ones who DID care for the most vulnerable, including the resident alien) into eternal life."
Matthew 25:31-46
So, wanna be right with God? Take care of the most vulnerable, including the Resident Alien. Treat everyone with equal Justice. If you speak against, vote against, have attitudes against, refuse to help them to keep some more for yourself... you CANNOT be right with God, that is, if you believe JESUS.
Pretty simple, really.
Pastor Jamie
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