Entertaining Angels….
Some Bible references relevant to care for Asylum Seekers and Refugees
(All quotes taken from New International Version)
O.T
Ex 22:21 / “Do not ill-treat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.”Ex 23:9 / “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.”
Lev 19:10 / “Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.”
Lev 19:33,34 / “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not ill-treat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God”
Lev 23:22 / “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.”
Lev 24:22; / “You are to have the same law for the alien and for the native-born. I am the Lord your God.” (also Ex 12:49; Num 9:14b, 15:15, 16, 29)
Dt 10:18,19 / “He (God) defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.”
Dt 14:28,29 / “At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (…..) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”
Dt 24:17
v.19 / “Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of a widow as a pledge.”
“When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”
Ruth / Boaz cares for the alien Moabitess Ruth, who becomes the great grandmother of King David, and so in the direct royal line of Jesus (Mt.1:5,6,16)
Job 31:32 / “….but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveller.”
Ps 9:9 / “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble”
Ps 10:17,18 / “You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.”
Ps 82:3,4 / “Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless, maintain the rights of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
Ps 146:9 / “The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the way of the wicked.”
Pr 31:8,9 / “Speak up for those who can not speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Is 1:17b / “Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
Is 58:6,7
vv 9,10 / “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become as the noonday.”
Jer 7:6,7 / “…if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless and the widow,……..then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave to your forefathers for ever and ever.”
Ezek 22:7,
v.29 / (Judgement on Jerusalem)
“…..in you they have oppressed the alien and ill-treated the fatherless and the widow.”
“The people of the land……….oppress the poor and the needy and ill-treat the alien, denying them justice.”
Ezek 47: 22,23 / “You are to allot (this land) as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens that have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Zech 7:9,10 / “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each another.”
Mal 3:5b / (The Lord will judge those who) “….. defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty.”
N.T
Mt 2: 13-15 / The Holy Family become asylum seekers in Egypt, driven out of their own land by the oppression of the occupying power
Mt 5: 3 - 12 / (The Beatitudes): “Blessed are … those who mourn, …those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, … the merciful, … the peacemakers, …. those who are persecuted because of righteousness, … etc”. (+ corresponding promises)
Mt 25:35,36
v 40 / “”For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you looked after me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”
Lk 10:25 - 37 / Parable of Good Samaritan.
Lk 14:12-14
+ 15-23 / Blessings follow as we offer hospitality to the marginalised.
The parable of the Great Banquet
Lk 17:18 / Only the Samaritan (the alien) returns to give thanks for healing from leprosy
Heb 13:2,3 / “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow-prisoners, and those ill-treated as if you yourselves were suffering.”
Jas 1:27 / “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
Jas 2:15,16 / “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food (KJV: ‘destitute’). If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well-fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
Other……… / Matthew, Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman, lepers, the blind, the disabled, the woman with the issue of blood, the demon-possessed: all society’s outcasts who Jesus singled out for his ministry
Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Daniel...... Jesus: all refugees.
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