Closer To Heaven
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This video is produced by the South Pacific Division Discipleship team.
Week 5 _The Stranger in Your Gates_ study this lesson for Oct 30 from SPD Discipleship on Vimeo.
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As believers, we have been called to reflect the character of God. Paul wrote, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). After all, we had originally been made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), an image later defaced by sin. And as we saw, when Moses talked about the power and majesty of God, he also said that God didn’t take a bribe and that He cared about the weak and the outcast. God does this; therefore, we need to do the same, as well.
Read the following texts in Deuteronomy. What is the common theme among them all?
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It’s all but proverbial how the weak, the poor, the outcasts don’t get the same kind of “justice” in most human courts as do those with money, power, and connections. It doesn’t matter the country, the era, the culture, nor how lofty the principles of justice and equity that are enshrined in constitutions or laws or whatever; the reality remains the same: the poor, the weak, and the outcasts almost never get the justice that others do.
That’s what is so remarkable about what the Lord Himself was saying here. This unfairness, which is everywhere else, should not be done in Israel, among God’s people, the ones who are to represent Him to the world. In a sense, to use a term from the modern era, the Lord wanted there to be “equal justice under the law” in ancient Israel.
But this goes even deeper than mere jurisprudence. “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Yes, they knew who the true God was, and they had the correct forms of worship, and they brought the right kinds of offerings. That’s all fine. But in the end, what good was all that if they were mistreating the weak and poor among them? Over and over, in the prophets, the Lord rails against the oppressors of the poor and the needy in Israel. How can you be “holy” and mistreat others at the same time? You can’t, regardless of how strictly you adhere to proper religious rituals.
| Read Amos 2:6; Amos 4:1; Amos 5:11; Isaiah 3.14-15; Isaiah 10.1-2; and Jeremiah 2:34. What are the prophets saying that reflects what the Lord had warned ancient Israel about? What do these words say to us today? |
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Centuries earlier the Lord told Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years” (Genesis 15:13; see also Genesis 17:8, Acts 13:17). This is, of course, what happened, and in the early chapters of Exodus the dramatic story of their redemption (Exodus 15:13) and salvation (Exodus 14:13) from Egypt has been recorded for posterity, a symbol, a type, of the redemption and salvation that we have been given in Christ Jesus. In this verse, the Lord wants them to remember where they had been and what they had been — and that was, strangers in another land.
In other words, remember when you were on the margins of society, outcasts, even slaves, and thus at the mercy of those who were stronger than you and who could abuse you and, indeed, often did. And though Israel was a chosen nation, called of God, a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6), and though there were some differences between them and the strangers among them — especially in regard to religious services — when it came to “human rights,” the stranger, the widow, the orphan needed to be treated with the same fairness and justice as the Israelites expected for themselves.
This admonition to Israel about how they were to treat outcasts was not, by any means, the norm in the ancient world, where outcasts could be treated in some cases no better than animals, if even that well.
In contrast, Israel was to be different, a light unto the nations. And yes, that difference would be found in the God whom they worshiped, how they worshiped Him, and the whole religious system of truth that God had given them. Yet, their kind treatment of the marginalized could have been a powerful witness to the world of the superiority of their God and of their faith, which in one sense was the whole point of their existence, anyway, to be a witness to the world of their God.
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Amid these admonitions Moses declares: “Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it” (Deuteronomy 10:14). What a powerful expression of the sovereignty of the Lord, an idea found in other places in the Bible, as well: “The earth is the LORD’S, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1).
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Yahweh is not only the sovereign of heaven and earth, He is also the “God of gods, and Lord of lords” (Deuteronomy 10:17). This doesn’t mean that there are other gods, lesser gods, such as the supposed gods the pagans around them worshiped. Rather, it is a way of talking about, more than just His being the only God (“Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me” [Deuteronomy 32:39]), it asserts His total supremacy over all other powers, real or imagined, either in heaven or on earth.
The text says, too, that He is “the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.” All of this is part of the bigger message: Yahweh is your God, and you, His people, need to obey Him.
What a powerful contrast is being presented here, as well. Yes, Yahweh is the God of gods and Lord of Lords, the Sovereign ruler and sustainer of the creation ( Colossians 1.16-17), but He also cares about the fatherless, the widow, and the stranger, and He shows that care by ministering to their immediate physical needs. The God who takes note if a sparrow falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29) knows about the plight of those on the margins of society. In other words, the Lord is telling the people that, OK, maybe you are chosen, you are special, and I love you, but I love others, too, including the needy and helpless among you. And just as I love them, you must love them, as well. This is one of your covenant obligations, and an important one, too.
| Read Psalm 146:5-10. What is the message of the Psalm that reflects what God is saying here, and what should this mean to us today, as Christians? |
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Flipping through the new quarterly, there are a number of titles that have the word ‘love’ in them – Love, to Be Loved; To Love God; He First Loved Us; To Love the Lord Your God; to name just a few. Hence, I believe a wonderful hymn to devote to as a theme will be
Hymn 349 – God Is Love. Our first Memory Text says “for God is Love”, 1 John 4:8. As the book of Deuteronomy is the book of the covenant, it would also be good to add
Hymn 347 – Built On the Rock as verse four tells us of God ‘Making with us His covenant”.
Oh the joy of being able to have the Everlasting Covenant which we find in
Hymn 469 – Leaning On The Everlasting Arms of our Lord Jesus.
To help all the strangers, people we do not know, we find advice in
Hymn 584 – There’s a Spirit in the Air. We will be able to sing
Hymn 400 – I Come With Joy in which we read that “strangers now are friends.”
On Wednesday we are reminded of the weak and the poor for whom we are minister –
Hymn 373 – Seeking the Lost reflects this. We are to
Take Time to Be Holy – Hymn 500 to “Help those who are weak” (verse 1).
To encourage us to “grow in kindness to the weakest and most marginalized” (Thursday),
Hymn 414 – Fruitful Trees the Spirit’s Sowing will give us some ideas.
We are bound for The Promised Land! Hallelujah!! Come, Lord Jesus come – very soon.
Blessings for a wonderful week ahead.
To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/
Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing, but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.
2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
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