Thread: "Foreigners Devour Your Land" (Isaiah 1:7)
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"Foreigners Devour Your Land" (Isaiah 1:7)
Posted : 1 Dec, 2011 03:34 PM
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
"Foreigners Devour Your Land"
By Rick Pearcey � November 29, 2011, 10:14 AM
As skin is to body, so are borders to nations.
Borders are good things. They make for good neighbors, whether we are talking about the community of nations or the community outside your front door.
Consider this verifiable information from the Creator (Isaiah 1:7 ESV), spoken to ancient Judah and Jerusalem, but perhaps applicable as well to America and Washington in our own day:
Your country lies desolate;
Your cities are burned with fire;
In your very presence
Foreigners devour your land;
It is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
This passage is not an attack on foreigners. It is a challenge to a nation that has so lost its way that it no longer can maintain its identity under God. This is self-hatred on a national level.
Yes, borders are good. Boundaries are good.
And just as one would not leave one's front, back, and side doors unlocked and open for any person to walk in off the street, it is a matter of common sense, safety, and love for friend and family that one does not leave the front, back, and side doors of one's nation unlocked and open for any person to walk in from off the international street.
Some say "love" is without limits. Yes, if you mean accepting a person unconditionally and then helping that person move forward into greater depth and communion with God and man.
But no, if you mean borders are bad, irrelevant, and unnecessary. If you have no border or boundary, you do not exist.
This is true of nations and individuals. To think and act otherwise is to open the door to great inhumanity. That is the opposite of love.
James, is this passage in Isaiah really speaking about protecting our boarders against immigrants? Or is Isaiah speaking the punishment God will allow to happen to Judah, or anyone who continue to disobey His word, because their sins of disobedience?...
This is what Spurgeon writes about Isiah 1:7...
Now, to translate all this into plain English, I have known men who have been chastened for their sins, and by their sins; God has chastised them, and they have been severely chastised; but no obedience, no repentance, has followed upon the chastisement. Men have been brought, by their sin, from wealth to poverty, from competence to actual want. Have we not seen them by drunkenness brought to rags, and by vice brought to rottenness? Have we not seen men brought to the very gates of hell by their iniquities, yet still they have clung to those iniquities? They have begun to drink the cup of their own damnation, and even when they realized what they were doing, they have still clutched the burning chalice in their hands, and have willingly drained it to the last dregs. Oh, it is horrible, it is terrible, to see at what a cost men will ruin their own souls! They go to perdition as if they were at a steeplechase; no hedge is too high, and no brook too wide for them, and they ride to destruction at a desperate pace. If we who are God�s people were half as earnest in serving him as the ungodly are in their efforts to be lost, what great service we should render to him! God reminded these people of all that he had done to them by way of chastening; yet no good had come of it. (Exposition on Isaiah 1)
And what do we do with these passage God commands of us when it comes to how we as Christians are to treat strangers/foreigners/immigrants. in our land. No, we should not leave our boards open for anyone to walk in, but we should also not keep those out who are seeking a better life in Amercia.
Hear ye the words of the Lord:
WHAT GOD SAY ABOUT THE STRANGER/FOREIGNER/IMMIGRANT:
And she (Moses' wife Zipporah) bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. Exodus 2:22
One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you. Exodus 12:49
Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 22:21
Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 23:9
And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God. Lev. 19:10
And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. Lev. 19:33
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. Lev. 19:34
And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God. Lev. 23:22
Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God. Lev. 24:22
And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Lev. 25:35
One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD. Num. 15:15
One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you. Num. 15:16
He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Deut. 10:18
Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Deut. 10:19
And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest. Deut. 14:29
And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Deut. 16:14
Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land. Deut. 23:7
Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge. Deut. 24:17
When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. Deut. 24:19
When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. Deut. 24:20
When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. Deut. 24:21
And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. Deut. 26:11
When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them. Deut. 26:12-13
Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen. Deut. 27:19
If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Jer. 7:6-7
The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. Ezek. 22:29
And it shall come to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the LORD God. Ezek. 47:23
And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. Zechariah 7:10
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:5
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. Matt. 25:42-45
STRANGERS/FOREIGNERS/IMMIGRANTS:
And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. Exodus 6:4
Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 22:21
Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 23:9
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. Lev. 19:34
Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Deut. 10:19
For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. 1 Chron. 29:15
The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. Psalm 146:9
And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. Isaiah 61:5
And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. Ezekiel 47:22
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2
Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers. 3 John 1:5
